Yup. You can see Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade this week via the Australian Ballet’s LIVE!

The Australian Ballet is thrilled to announce that their global live stream series continues with Alexei Ratmansky’s Harlequinade, available for audiences all over the world to enjoy on Friday, June 24. Originally created more than a century ago but lost to history, Harlequinade is a rollicking comedic ballet by Marius Petipa, the father of classical ballet and original creator of The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, before his retirement.

Rediscovered by one of the world’s most in-demand choreographers, Alexei Ratmansky, Harlequinade is a co-production
between American Ballet Theatre (where Ratmansky is artist in residence) and The Australian Ballet. Ratmansky has
reconstructed the ballet by decoding the original notation of the steps and the resulting ballet is a living connection to the unsullied technique of Petipa.

Harlequinade tells the story of the young lovers Harlequin and Columbine, and their determination to be together despite the efforts of Columbine’s greedy father, who demands that she marry into wealth.Bursting with color, brilliant dancing, madcap characters and hilarious hijinks all the while tumbling from slapstick to joyous andfrom the absurd to the sublime with the greatest of ease, Ratmansky’s staging of Harlequinade is the perfect ballet for families,
balletomanes and all lovers of dance.

David Hallberg, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, says: “Harlequinade is a ballet people of all ages can enjoy – it’s
comical, colorful and full of vibrant adventure. This production encapsulates the transformative powers of ballet and the theatre.” The action is buoyed by a bright, melodic score composed by Petipa’s collaborator Riccardo Drigo. Inspired by the original 1900 designs by Orest Allegri and Ivan Vsevolozhsky, preserved in a St Petersburg museum, Robert Perdziola has created more than 250 exquisite costumes, including 172 hats. Audiences will recognize characters like Pierrot with his pom-poms and oversized sleeves, and the dazzling diamond pattern of the Harlequin suit. Perdziola’s picture-book sets perfectly evoke the village square and a grand, beaux-arts ballroom.

Tickets are now on sale at https://australianballet.com.au/the-ballets/live-on-ballet-tv. The live-stream will be available for viewing for 48 hours from the start of the show, and will include bonus commentary from Artistic Director David Hallberg and guests, as well as live interviews and behind-the-scenes footage exclusive to the livestream.