Filling Li Cunxin’s shoes at Queensland Ballet seems to have been harder than anticipated as the company announces the shock departure of new artistic director Leanne Benjamin.
After much fanfare and high hopes, Benjamin is finishing up with the company on August 2 in a move that will send shock waves through the local arts community. She was the company’s sixth artistic director.
Assistant artistic director Greg Horsman will act in the role with the focus on finalising the 2025 season. Horsman is a company stalwart, a safe pair of hands and a talented choreographer.
Benjamin, an internationally renowned dancer who is originally from Rockhampton, returned to Queensland after an absence of 43 years to replace Li Cunxin who bowed out due to ill health. Her return was widely celebrated and for six months she has been getting to know the dancers, wider team, government stakeholders, collaborators, donors and corporate partners who make up the Queensland Ballet family.
She has also been engaging her networks across the world stage, curating the first articulation of her artistic vision – Queensland Ballet’s 2025 artistic season. But according to a company statement, despite the best intentions from both parties, the current economic environment has posed challenges, making it difficult to realise Benjamin’s vision.
So, it may have come down to money in the end. It has been mutually agreed that she will finish up this week. It’s a shock because Benjamin seemed the perfect fit.
Meanwhile, executive director Dilshani Weerasinghe is trying to calm the farm by reassuring donors, partners, audiences, community and academy families that Queensland Ballet will still have a full complement of productions, engagement programs and training opportunities next year.
“Queensland Ballet’s circumstances are such that Leanne has not been able to infuse our 2025 offerings with her own artistic aspirations as much as she was hoping,” Weerasinghe says. “This has been understandably dispiriting for Leanne and, although she might not be sitting with us as our artistic director in 2025, we will most certainly feel her legacy in Queensland Ballet’s investment in Australian and female voices, among other elements that she has inspired.
“Although Queensland Ballet’s management team has workshopped several scenarios for the 2025 season, it is evident that the company needs to lean heavily into its existing repertory in the near future, while also in-housing more activity into our newly revitalised home, the Thomas Dixon Centre.”
Benjamin says that she departs with “great sadness”.
“Ultimately, as we have worked together to design a vibrant season for 2025, it has become very clear that my artistic aspirations for our company, including the opportunity to engage diverse choreographic voices, both international and Australian, and venture outside of the traditional theatre environment with immersive opportunities, is not immediately possible within the funding constraints faced by the company,” Benjamin says.
“Queensland and Queensland Ballet will always have a very special place in my heart, and I look forward to our continued relationship. I have had a wonderful time getting to know the amazing dancers, staff, stakeholders, audiences and supporters of Queensland Ballet over the past six months, and I feel privileged to have led this wonderful company. I wish the Queensland Ballet family and all our arts colleagues in Queensland the very best as they continue to channel excellence, despite the odds. I will miss them but will see them soon.”
Queensland Ballet chair Brett Clark thanked Benjamin for her contribution.
“Although Leanne has only been with us for a short time, we are deeply grateful for her invaluable contribution including her artistic leadership, creativity, positivity and the ideas she has brought to the company over the past six months, and we hope to welcome her back to enjoy some of the 2025 season with which she is so familiar,” Clark says.
“We thank Greg Horsman for accepting the role of acting artistic director as the Queensland Ballet team comes together to finalise season 2025, due to be launched in October. Greg has been with us since 2013 and was promoted to assistant artistic director in 2023, recognising his immense contribution and alignment.
“We know our artists and artistic team will be in great hands, he has a long-standing affinity with our behind-the-scenes and business team and our audiences will continue to enjoy the world-stage ballets to which they are accustomed. This year, audiences showed strong appetite for Greg’s Coppélia and his Sleeping Beauty still holds our box office record.
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“This company has stood as an iconic Queensland cultural institution for 64 years and we will continue to move forward with confidence,” Clark says.
But there’s no doubt that confidence has been dented by Benjamin’s shock departure.
queenslandballet.com.au
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