Leanne Benjamin is renowned for her achievements on the international ballet stage. Now retired from performance, the acclaimed ballerina has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and will be presented with her award at a ceremony in Sydney on 6 April.
Benjamin left her home in regional Queensland more than three decades ago to join the Royal Ballet School, at the tender age of 16. Within a year she had won the Adeline Genee Gold Medal and the Prix de Lausanne, two of the world’s most competitive ballet prizes.
On graduating in 1983, Benjamin joined the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, where she became a principal dancer. In 1988 she moved to London Festival Ballet, and then to Deutche Oper Ballet in Berlin in 1990. It was during her time in Berlin that she worked with choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, who convinced her to join the Royal Ballet in 1992. Shortly afterward MacMillan died backstage at the Royal Opera House, the night before Benjamin was due to premiere in his production of Mayerling.
Benjamin has performed nearly every classical role and has had roles created on her by choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon, Twlya Tharp and Alexei Ratmanksy. She was one of the last dancers to have first hand experience working with Royal Ballet founder Ninette de Valois and founding choreographer Frederick Ashton.
Benjamin was named Female Dancer of the Year at the UK’s Critics’ Circle Awards not once but twice and won the event’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. She retired that same year, at the age of 49, becoming the Royal Ballet’s longest serving principal ballerina.
After her retirement as a dancer, Leanne graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and Design with a degree in architectural design. She mentors and coaches both student and professional dancers, and is a patron of the Tait Memorial Trust that gives an Australian ballet student financial aid towards training at a vocational school in London.
Benjamin was appointed an AM for significant service to the performing arts, as a dancer and role model.
Leanne Benjamin leaps over the landscape near Alice Springs. Photo Jason Bell.
