Australian Ballet takes risks to draw young audiences

Guo Chengwu knows some ballet companies don't want Asian faces in their opening-night lead roles. Not, fortunately, from personal experience, but he is aware of such attitudes in some European groups.

For Guo, who is about to dance one of ballet's most demanding leading roles - Solor in La Bayadere - that's not an issue. He has hitched his star to a company that, in its soon-to-be-launched five-year plan, is looking to Asia. The goal is "to be the foremost company in Asia-Pacific", Australian Ballet executive director Libby Christie says. "We have a focus on China, Japan, Korea and the main cultural centres."

Australian Ballet's artistic director, David McAllister, gives everyone equal opportunity, says Guo, whose Japanese girlfriend, Ako Kondo, is a senior artist with the group.

The 25-year-old Guo was born in Jiujiang in Jiangxi province and began dancing at age 11, first in his hometown, then at the Beijing Dance Academy, one of just 30 chosen from 2,000 applicants.

A gold medal winner, he received a scholarship to train overseas after winning a prize at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. He chose the Australian Ballet, joining its Ballet School in 2008. Last year he became a principal. Audiences in Hong Kong may recognise him as the young Li Cunxin from the 2009 movie Mao's Last Dancer, based on the memoirs of Li, also Beijing-trained, also an Australian Ballet principal much-loved by audiences, and now artistic director of the Queensland Ballet.

La Bayadere, in which Guo will dance a soloist role in Melbourne and Solor in Sydney, is a highlight of the 52-year-old company's five-ballet 2014 season. It is set in ancient India and tells the story of Nikiya, a temple dancer who falls in love with the warrior Solor. But tragedy strikes, until in a spectacular climax the lovers are united in death.