Margaret
Illmann
Benois de la Danse nominee
She joined the Australian Ballet in 1985 and was promoted to soloist in 1988. In 1989 she left Australia to join the National Ballet of Canada where she was promoted to principal dancer in 1990.
In 1993 she took a hiatus from the National Ballet to star on Broadway in the musical The Red Shoes for which she received a nomination as Best Leading Actress in a musical by the New York Drama Desk Association. She also received a Theater World Award as Best Newcomer to Broadway and the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer on Broadway.
1994 marked a return to the National Ballet and invitations from New York City Ballet and Hamburg Ballet to perform as guest artist. Then in 1996 when Reid Andersen, director of the National Ballet of Canada, was given the directorship of the Stuttgart Ballet, Margaret emigrated to Europe as principal dancer in his company. After a two vear stay in Stuttgart, she is now principal dancer with Deutsche Oper, Berlin. Her repertoire includes: Odette/Odile, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Gi-selle, Manon, Cinderella, Juliet in Romeo and Ju-liette, Kitri in Don Quixote, Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Nikiya und Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Swa-nilda in Coppelia, La Sylphide and other works by John Cranko, John Neumeier, Glen Tetley, McMil-lan, Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Jirf Kylian.
She has appeared as a guest artist with various companies throughout Europe including English National Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Dresden Staats-theater, Bayerisches Staatsballett-Munich, Rome Opera Ballet, Teatro San Carlo of Naples and La Scala of Milan and at galas in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Prag and Nervi.
Gallery