Artistic Director

Between January 2013 and December 2023, Aurelien was the Artistic Director of West Australian Ballet.

Under his leadership the company went from strength to strength and became one of the most regarded and successful ballet companies in the industry.

WAB’s repertoire included works from national and international recognised choreographers, including Dawson, Galili, Clug, Nixon, Horsman, Pastor, Murphy, Balanchine, Stewart, Forsythe, Weir, Christe, Bondara, Lopez Ochoa, Torres, Kuindersma.

The company experienced a significant increase in box office revenue, private donations, sponsorship and public programs and the number of dancers increased from 29 in 2013, to 47 dancers in 2021.  

In 2019, Aurelien added a new contemporary season to the yearly programming which allowed WAB to have five main seasons each year - two contemporary evenings and three classical. A young choreographers evening (Genesis) was also presented each year as well as national and international touring.      

After an absence of touring of 25 years WAB toured to Jakarta (2016 & 2019), Shanghai (2018) and Manila in 2019. A three-week tour to China was cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020.

Six co-productions were built with: Queensland Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

WAB created seven new full length story ballets including Coppélia, The Nutcracker, La Bayadère, Dracula, The Goldberg Variations, Swan Lake and Echoes of van Gogh.

Eight existing full length productions entered WAB’s repertoire including Snow White, Radio & Juliet, Beauty and the Beast, The Great Gatsby, Peter Pan, The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, La Fille mal Gardée and Alice (in Wonderland).

Seventeen emerging choreographers (including Australian and international artists as well as company dancers) have been given the opportunity to create for WAB and nineteen existing short works entered the repertoire.

Two major collaborations were created with the NT Dance Company (Darwin) and Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia (Perth).

Collaborated with First Nation artists in two major benchmark productions - Milnya River of Stars (G. Lang) and Swan Lake (K. Pastor).

The Dancer’s Wellbeing Dept was developed and by the end of Aurelien’s directorship, WAB was working with three physiotherapists, three masseurs, a conditioning teacher, yoga/Gyrotonic and Pilates teachers, dieticians, a dance rehab instructor, and two sport psychologists.

Under Aurélien’s leadership, WAB was a proud Ambassador for diversity employing dancers from eleven different countries.