| Biography | ||||||||
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| Born in Sydney, Justine Summers studied with Avril Binzer in Melbourne and Barbara Todd in Hobart before becoming a student at the Victorian College of the Arts and then at the Australian Ballet School. She joined the Australian Ballet in 1989 and was promoted to soloist in 1992, senior artist in 1994 and principal in 1996. With the Australian Ballet Justine was sought out by the company's resident choreographers. She created roles in works by Stanton Welch, including Of Blessed Memory, Divergence, Red Earth, Corroboree and Madame Butterfly, and by Stephen Baynes, including Beyond Bach, Shadow in the Facet and At the edge of night. Justine also danced leading roles in one act and full length works by many other choreographers. She was particularly feted for her portrayal of Manon in Kenneth Macmillan's Manon. Other works in which she made an impact included George Balanchine's Apollo, Jiri Kylian's Stepping Stones, Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker and Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room. She also created a role in The Storyteller, a work commissioned by the Australian Ballet from Twyla Tharp in 1997. Justine left the Australian Ballet in 2000. Since then she has taught, coached and adjudicated for various organisations around Australia. Justine returned to the Australian Ballet this year to dance Unspoken Dialogues with Steven Heathcote in the triple bill Southern Lights. |
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