Lucinda Dunn announced for VDF2017

The team at the Victorian Dance Festival (VDF) recently announced that Lucinda Dunn will be holding a Ballet Master Class at the 2017 event, set for March 17-19, 2017 at the iconic Melbourne Town Hall.

Lucinda Dunn received her early training in Sydney with Janece Graham and Tanya Pearson before going on to win a Prix de Lausanne scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet School, London. While in London she also performed with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and in 1991, she joined The Australian Ballet.

Dunn was promoted to Principal Artist at The Australian Ballet in 2002. She has been awarded several scholarships to study overseas and has been partnered by many international guests of The Australian Ballet.

A diverse and musical dancer with strong technique, Dunn exceled in pure classical work and enjoyed portraying characters in story ballets. 
In addition to the lead roles in all of the major classical ballets (such as Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and Coppélia), a particular career highlight for her was dancing the world premiere of Stanton Welch’s The Sleeping Beauty in 2005. More recently, she enjoyed dancing Firebird and Nutcracker – The Story of Clara by Graeme Murphy.

Other career highlights include her performances on The Australian Ballet’s many tours, including visits to London, Tokyo, Italy, Shanghai and New York. She relished roles in contemporary works by Christopher Wheeldon, Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Nicolo Fonte and Stephen Baynes.

Dunn has won numerous awards, including the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance in 2008, a Helpmann Award nomination for Dance Performer of the Year in 2004 and 2007, a Mo Award nomination for Dance Performer of the Year in 2001, 2005 and 2006, a Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer in 2005 and a Helpmann Award nomination for Best Female Dancer in 2010 and 2011. In 2015, Lucinda won an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer for her performance in The Australian Ballet’s Manon.

Renowned as Australia’s longest-serving ballerina, Dunn announced her retirement in 2014 and received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to the performing arts through ballet.
 She was appointed as the artistic director of the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy and the Sydney City Youth Ballet. Earlier this year, she attended the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland as one of the members of the jury.

Learn more about the 2017 Victorian Dance Festival at www.victoriandancefestival.com.