Adrian Burnett
He was born in New Zealand, and graduated from the Australian Ballet School in 1987 and joined the Australian Ballet in 1988. Promoted to soloist in 1992 he left Australia the following year to dance with the Basel Ballet in Switzerland. Since his return from Europe he has worked across a broad spectrum of mediums in Australia, N.Z. Japan, the U.S and Europe and completed a graduate diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management at Deakin University.
In 1999 Adrian received the Lissa Black choreographic Award and, with added assistance from the Australia Council’s emerging artists’ scheme, spent time in the United States and Europe studying choreography. He was promoted to senior artist in 2003 and during that year co-directed, with David McAllister, the Australian Ballet’s 40th anniversary program. His first choreographic piece was created for an Australian Ballet workshop in 1995 and since that time Burnett has been commissioned to create more than twenty original works. In 2002 he created a joint work for West Australian Ballet and The Australian Ballet that won a Green Room award for best new choreography. Burnett was resident choreographer to the Australian Ballet from 2003 to 2006 and has most recently been appointed Executive Producer of a new national education initiative for The Australian Ballet.