Adrian Burnett, Director Dance


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Adrian Burnett has considerable knowledge and understanding of contemporary dance and ballet having worked as an artist, choreographer, producer, teacher and director nationally and internationally for many years. His knowledge and relationships with the sector have grown through more recent management roles at the Australia Council across a number of art forms over the past five years, including in dance, literature and community arts.

Adrian graduated from the Australian Ballet School and joined the Australian Ballet in 1988 where he worked in various capacities including as Senior Artist, Resident Choreographer, Executive Producer and Guest Ballet Master until 2010.

As a freelance choreographer, Adrian has been commissioned by the Dutch National Ballet (for Holland International Festival), Houston Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, The Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Adrian has had a long association with the Genée International Ballet competition, commissioned to create new works in 2002 (Sydney), 2009 (Singapore), 2012 (Wellington) and most recently as guest coach for the competition held at the Sydney Opera House in December 2016.

In 2013, Adrian assisted the Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet to produce and re-stage seminal works by Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp for the company’s season at the Edinburgh International Arts Festival. In 2009, Adrian was Guest Dance Director for Sydney Dance Company assisting on Rafael Bonachela’s We Unfold and remounted his work 360 for an Australian tour. Adrian has also worked extensively as a guest teacher with international companies including Royal Swedish Ballet and Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance (UK).

Adrian has produced large-scale events and productions for a range of high profile corporate clients including special events for G’day USA (the leading showcase for Australia in the USA), Faberge, Qatar Airlines and Volkswagen.

In 2011, Adrian completed a Master of Arts and Entertainment Management at Deakin University.