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The Australian Ballet will stage Swan Lake as the centrepiece of its 2023 season, in the first major commission for the company's new artistic director.
David Hallberg's production will also work as a symbolic tribute to the very first show staged by the company, in 1962.
'We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, but show audiences why this is the most famous ballet in the world,' he told AAP.
The Australian Ballet has already performed the famed tale of Prince Siegfried and his love for Odette/Odile almost 700 times, and Hallberg anticipates 2023's Swan Lake will be around for decades to come.
'What's so important is that every major ballet company around the world has a Swan Lake that they can turn to and let audiences enjoy,' he said.
As artistic director of the Australian Ballet he follows in the footsteps of David McAllister, who was in the job 20 years - which anyone might think would be challenge enough.
But Hallberg spent his first months in the new role cancelling and postponing shows due to COVID-19 lockdowns, while trying to motivate professional dancers who found themselves suddenly
