Australia Dancing - Coney, Miranda (1966

Coney, Miranda (1966 - )

McMurdo, Don: Miranda Coney in Stanton Welch's 'Three of Us', the Australian Ballet, 1990

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Miranda Coney began her ballet classes in her home city with Diana Waldron. Later she continued her studies with Terri Charlesworth, also in Perth, and while with Charlesworth had several weeks of study in Monte Carlo with Marika Besobrasova. She joined the Australian Ballet in 1984 after three years of study at the Australian Ballet School. She was given her first principal role in 1985 when she danced the first pas de deux in Jerome Robbins' In the Night. Coney was promoted to soloist in 1988, senior artist in 1990 and principal artist in 1991. With the Australian Ballet she performed a vast range of classical and contemporary roles. She danced leading roles in all the major classical ballets in the company's repertoire including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Fille mal gardee, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Widow, Anna Karenina, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Onegin and La Sylphide. She also displayed her versatility as a dancer by giving acclaimed performances in contemporary works over the entire period of her career. Most recently she scored important successes in works such as Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room and Jiri Kylian's Bella Figura. For her role in the Tharp work Coney received an inaugural Helpmann Award in 2001.

Coney was sought after by choreographers working for the Australian Ballet. She created roles in major works by Graeme Murphy (Nutcracker, 1992), Stanton Welch (Madame Butterfly and Corroboree, 1995; Cinderella, 1997), Stephen Page (Rites, 1997) and Stephen Baynes (Requiem, 2001) and in many shorter works by these and other choreographers. Throughout her career with the Australian Ballet she established strong partnerships with several of the Australian Ballet's male principals, notably in recent years with Steven Heathcote and David McAllister.

In 1994 Coney was invited by Jiri Kylian, who had admired her dancing during his visits to Australia to stage his works for the Australia Ballet, to join his Netherlands Dance Theatre but, at the request of the then artistic director of the Australian Ballet, Maina Gielgud, she returned to the Australian Ballet after 10 months with the Kylian company. In addition to the Helpmann Award Coney received the Victorian Young Achiever Award (1991), the same year in which she performed on Rudolf Nureyev's farewell tour, and a Mo Award for Dance Performance of the Year (1992). Coney retired from the Australian Ballet in 2001. She currently lives in New York with her husband, conductor Charles Barker, and their son, Riley.

Research Materials

Ephemera | Oral history | Picture | All

Other resources

Find more about Coney, Miranda in:

Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia
Collection - OzLife
Internet - Google