Queensland Ballet artistic director Li Cunxin has spent most of his life defying expectations and breaking boundaries, and his first decade in this role has proven no exception.

The company has grown from 23 to 60 dancers, triumphantly and exclusively staged blockbuster international works, commissioned acclaimed new ballets and continued to break its box office records.

Li Cunxin

Li Cunxin. Photo courtesy of Queensland Ballet

Gross ticket revenue has nearly quadrupled, from $1.6m immediately prior to his appointment to $6.3m last year. Of that 2021 total, ballet master Greg Horsman’s The Sleeping Beauty was responsible for $2.2m, raising its own bar as the company’s most successful production, surpassing previous best-selling Australian premiere imports Derek Deane’s Strictly Gershwin (2016) and Sir Kenneth Macmillan’s Romeo and Juliet (2014 and 2019).

On the flip side, QB has weathered challenges with resilience, improvising brilliantly with alternative performances and fundraising to mitigate COVID-19’s impact. More recently, extensive flooding damage affecting QPAC’s Playhouse forced the cancellation of Giselle at Easter, then threatened the June season of Li’s Choice: Celebrating a Decade of Directorship. It was an enormous relief for Li and the company when QPAC announced in...