Smart moves: Dancing to the rhythm of an iconic modernist
Australian artist Jeffrey Smart was an opera buff who would have loved to have seen his work on stage – and it soon will be, thanks to a collaboration between Queensland Ballet and Philip Bacon Galleries.
How would you dance to a Jeffrey Smart painting? Not sure if the artist himself painted anything with this in mind but it’s an intriguing proposition and one that Academy of Queensland Ballet choreographer Paul Boyd embraced.
We’re about to see the results of this as part of artistic director Ivan Gil-Ortega’s inaugural 2026 season when the Jette Parker Young Artists and the Academy of Queensland Ballet present Soirée, an annual collaboration with the prestigious Philip Bacon Galleries and Camerata Chamber Orchestra at the Thomas Dixon Centre, West End, September 24 to 26.
Of course, artists have often worked with ballet and opera companies. Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse famously collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes and that set the gold standard over the past century.
Soiree has channelled this idea in recent years and has become one of the highlights of the performing arts calendar with some of Philip Bacon’s amazing stable providing inspiration, including William Robinson, Tim Storrier, Michael Zavros and Cressida Campbell.
Now, inspired by the seminal works of Australia’s acclaimed artist Jeffrey Smart, Academy of Queensland Ballet choreographers Paul Boyd and Grant Aris, with emerging student choreographers, will present their creative responses to his iconic paintings, to be performed by the graduates of the Academy of Queensland Ballet and the company’s Young Artists.
Smart, who died in 2013, was renowned for his precisionist, highly detailed realist paintings of urban and industrial landscapes. Instead of traditional Australian natural landscapes, Smart found beauty in the mundane features of modern society.
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Paul Boyd says his choreography was inspired by 10 of Jeffrey Smart’s paintings.
“Philip Bacon lent me four beautiful books on Jeffrey Smart,” Boyd says. “I spent hours looking through the paintings, absorbing the compositions, the colours and, most importantly, the people, particularly this recurring older man. There’s a quiet sadness about him, but also something deeply sympathetic. Often, he’s accompanied by the woman in yellow, and together they seem to arrive at these emotional crossroads.
“So, that has become the emotional starting point for the ballet. Rather than simply recreating Smart’s paintings, we’re imagining the life that exists between them. Working with Camerata is one of the great joys of this project. They are extraordinary musicians. The score is primarily by Josef Suk, who was Antonín Dvořák’s son-in-law. It’s chamber music, and you can certainly hear echoes of Dvořák in it, but it has its own distinctive voice.
“Alongside Josef Suk’s chamber music, I’ve also chosen a Puccini piece. It creates a moment where we glimpse this man’s deep love of art, music and opera.”
Boyd has been working on Soiree since its inception. It was born under the tenure of Queensland Ballet’s previous artistic director Li Cunxin. Philip Bacon says Li approached him with the idea and, consequently, a unique event was born.
‘Smart’s precise geometry, surreal urban landscapes and sense of stillness offer fertile ground for exploration through movement’
“If Jeffrey Smart was still with us, he would love it,” Bacon says. “He was an opera buff, and his unfulfilled wish was to design an opera. In his mind’s eye he knew exactly what he was going to do. He’d be thrilled to see his work being interpreted by someone as clever as Paul Boyd.
“Jeffrey Smart thought it important not only to document our surroundings exactly as they are, but to celebrate them. He found poetry in concrete, billboards and construction sites —the everyday scenes we often ignore.
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“Smart’s precise geometry, often surreal urban landscapes and his sense of stillness offer fertile ground for exploration through movement. I hope that by providing practical opportunities for our young dancers to engage with these masterpieces, we can encourage them to see art in the world around them, to look closer and to express that same curiosity and precision through their own creative voices.”
Bacon says to see Smart’s works writ large, as it were, “at scale”, will be special.
Boyd says working with Philip Bacon and the choreographers, dancers and musicians is a joy.
“What I love most about Soirée is the collaboration,” Boyd says. “To work with Jeffrey Smart’s paintings, with Philip Bacon Galleries, and with Camerata feels incredibly special. It reminds me of Sergei Diaghilev, the great impresario behind the Ballets Russes, who brought together the finest artists, composers, designers and choreographers of his time.”
Boyd’s central work for Soirée is 38 minutes long. There will also be two student pieces as well as a piece by Grant Aris.
Boyd saturated himself in the world of Jeffrey Smart to get the tone right.
The man who was affectionately dubbed Lord Smart of Tuscany would almost certainly approve of this bold experiment and confluence of art, dance and music.
Soirée will be performed at the Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre, West End, September 24-26.
queenslandballet.com.au/performances/2026/soiree
Read more about Paul Boyd’s journey translating Jeffrey Smart’s art from canvas to stage: queenslandballet.com.au/news/from-canvas-to-stage-with-paul-boyd
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