Charles Maurice Lisner OBE (1928 - 1988) was a French-Australian dancer and the founder and first artistic director of the

Queensland Ballet The Queensland Ballet, founded in 1960 by Charles Lisner OBE, is the premier ballet company of Queensland, Australia and is based in Brisbane. Queensland Ballet is one of only three full-time, professional classical ballet companies in Australi ...

Early life

Charles Lisner was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Lisner emigrated to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

with his parents in 1937. He started dancing late in life, in his early twenties, and traveled to London where he spent time with the

Sadler's Wells Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded i ...

. He later joined the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

Creation of Lisner Ballet Academy and Queensland Ballet

In 1953, Lisner returned to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

after the death of his father, and established the Lisner Ballet Academy with virtually no money. From that academy grew Lisner's privately owned company, the Lisner Ballet, which was established in 1960. In 1962, the name was changed to the

. Lisner stepped down as Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company in 1974. Lisner married Valerie, one of his dancers. He was an uncredited dance

in the film, '' The Red Shoes (1948 film), The Red Shoes'' (1948

Queensland Ballet studio seasons are performed in ''The Charles Lisner Studio Theatre'' of the '' Thomas Hill Dixon, Thomas Dixon Centre.'' He was appointed OBE in the

1976 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1976 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1976 to celebra ...

. Many photographs of the academy were taken by Grahame Garner, as a regular photographer for the Queensland Guardian newspaper. 911 negatives from his collection of the Lisner Academy were lodged with the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

in 2009.

Bibliography

* ''My Journey through Dance'' (1979) (autobiography) * ''The Australian Ballet: Twenty-one years'' (1983)

References

External links

Queensland Ballet
Australian male ballet dancers Ballet teachers Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1928 births 1988 deaths French emigrants to Australia {{australia-bio-stub