David McAllister was born in 1963 in
Perth, Western Australia. A graduate of the
Australian Ballet School, he joined The Australian Ballet in 1983. He was promoted to senior artist in 1986 and to principal artist in 1989. His many principal roles with the company included those in
Onegin,
Romeo and Juliet,
La fille mal gardée,
The Sleeping Beauty,
Don Quixote,
The Sentimental Bloke,
Coppélia, and
Manon. In 1985, he won a bronze medal at the fifth
Moscow International Ballet Competition, which saw him invited to return to the USSR as a guest artist, where he made numerous appearances with the
Bolshoi Ballet, the
Kirov Ballet, the
Georgian National Ballet and other companies. In 1989, McAllister was guest artist with the
National Ballet of Canada, dancing
John Cranko's
Romeo and Juliet as well as
Études and
The Four Temperaments. He has also been a guest artist with
Birmingham Royal Ballet and
Singapore Dance Theatre. In London in 1992, he took part in the royal gala performance of
Coppélia in the presence of the
Princess of Wales. McAllister has worked as a guest teacher with
The McDonald College, the
Australian Ballet School, the Dancers Company, the
Royal Academy of Dance, the
Cecchetti Society, and the Australian Institute of Classical Dance. In November 2000, he completed a graduate diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management at
Deakin University. McAllister danced for the final time in
Giselle on 24 March 2001 at the
Sydney Opera House and became artistic director of The Australian Ballet in July 2001. He was elected vice president of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2005. In March 2020, it was announced that
David Hallberg would succeed McAllister as the new artistic director of The Australian Ballet, effective January 2021. ==Personal life==