In his time at The Australian Ballet School, Jackson Fisch discovered his love of performing and storytelling, and his affinity for contemporary dance. Now he’s flying high in a prestigious UK company. 

Our History Makers - Jackson Fisch

By Rose Mulready

Jackson Fisch’s dance career is a Cinderella story, in more ways than one. At the age of 18, on the verge of graduating from The Australian Ballet School (‘ABS’), he was plucked from an audition for schoolboys to perform in a mainstage season of Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes. He’s since gone on to lead roles with New Adventures, Matthew Bourne’s company, culminating in the plum part of The Swan/The Stranger in Bourne’s Swan Lake – the role Billy is dancing in the triumphant finale of Billy Elliott.  

It all started for Jackson at the age of four. He grew up in the Basin, at the foot of Victoria’s Dandenong Mountains. His mother was a maths and science teacher, and a concert organist; his father was a painter and sculptor; they had no desire to raise a sporty family, but they did want their four children to keep healthy, so they took them to ballet, jazz and tap classes. The third child was taken at half-price, and Jackson, the youngest, was free.   

When he was around nine or ten, Jackson’s grandmother took him to Melbourne to see The Australian Ballet dance Don Quixote. At the end, he turned to her and said, ‘That’s what I want to do when I’m older.’ Soon afterwards, at the suggestion of his dance school’s director, he auditioned for The Australian Ballet School and was accepted.  

In his younger years at the School, Jackson performed as a child extra in The Australian Ballet’s performances of Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara and Stanton Welch’s new production of The Sleeping Beauty. Even though it was a long trek home to the Basin after evening shows, he cherished the opportunities he had to see the life of professional dancers up close, ‘to see how it all worked’, and to dance on the cavernous stage of the State Theatre, looking out to its red-and-gold auditorium. “To this day it’s one of my favourite theatres.”  

His training at the School brought him many formative moments. “I think I remember something from all my teachers. Quite often I’ll be in class or performing, and something that one of my teachers said years ago will crop up in my mind. Because I was here for so long, I had a lot of different teachers, and being exposed to all their different opinions and influences was the greatest of gifts. Having that variety gives you a broader idea of how to approach things.  

Jackson with Pauline Ryan and 2025 Level 8 students

“I always think of Simon Dow when I’m performing, because as well as teaching us technique, he focused so much on storytelling and emotion. Then there are little things: I remember to do my calf rises (maybe not as often as I should!) because Mr K [Sergey Konstantinov] said they were important. I got a lot of technical things from Mr [Dale] Baker, especially relating to partnering. He was very focused on the importance of reading and listening to your partner, and the unique differences between people: he didn’t give one-size-fits-all kinds of corrections, they were very tailored to how the different partners fit together. Bringing that care and consideration to a partnership, and being present in the moment with your partner, is what I took from that.”  

Jackson also has fond memories of Christine Howard, who taught character dancing (‘So incredibly engaging – all the while she was teaching, she was performing for you’), the contemporary teacher Margaret Wilson, who gave him insights into emotionally connecting to a role, and Areti Boyaci, who taught flamenco – “I loved that, because it was all about emotion, and the strength in that.”  

Each young ballet dancer is drawn, at least initially, to a different aspect of their craft. Some love the challenges of mastering technique in the studio; some love the high of being on stage; others are attracted by the pure enjoyment of dance. “I was always more interested in the performance side of it,” says Jackson. “Telling stories and playing characters were what drew me to it. You can watch a technician who’s perfect on paper, but if the character isn’t coming through, it just isn’t as interesting to watch, even if it’s flawless. I was never the best turner or whatever, but as soon as I could portray an emotion, that’s when I really got into it.” As a child, he was awed by the performance of Amy Harris as the cold, villainous Carabosse in Stanton Welch’s The Sleeping Beauty. “It was breathtaking.” He keeps her autograph and signed pointe shoes to this day.   

In his last years at the School, Jackson was given memorable opportunities. He danced in Margaret Wilson’s Invisible Icon, which led him to view contemporary dance as “the path I was more naturally suited to.” He toured twice with The Dancers Company accompanied by guest stars from The Australian Ballet (the founding version of what is now known as The Australian Ballet's National Tour). In Simon Dow’s vivacious all-male ensemble piece Rimbombo, he experienced the freedom of forming his own interpretation. “I loved that piece. It’s so much fun, but exhausting – I don’t think I’d ever felt so tired at the end of a performance. Simon was very open to us performing it how we wanted, doing the steps of course, but creating our own characters.” In the full-length Giselle, he played against type, in the role of the jealous gamekeeper Hilarion. “I’m quite an effeminate person, and Hilarion’s a really masculine role, so it was interesting to show people that I could do something different, and have them believe it.”  

In his final year, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures visited Melbourne with a two-month project that would take about a dozen local boys and team them with a professional cast, who would teach them Bourne’s production of Lord of the Flies and perform it with them in mainstage theatres. Bourne had previously run this program in the UK; it was his way of getting young children, particularly young boys, interested in dance and theatre. Jackson auditioned for the program – and didn’t get in. He’d impressed Bourne so much that he was invited to join the original cast of The Red Shoes, which was to premiere in London.  

As a child, Jackson had watched a DVD of Bourne’s Swan Lake, with its fierce corps of all-male swans, “on repeat”. A partner of his had watched Bourne’s version of The Sleeping Beauty on TV and had “described vampires, people walking around with cell phones – it all seemed very new and different.” A contract with such a prestigious company saved him all the usual career worries of those pre-graduation months: “I was able to relax and enjoy.” After finishing his schooling, Jackson flew to London with his mother and grandmother and spent a few weeks in an Airbnb with them, adjusting to the city and learning The Red Shoes, then went straight out on the road.  

New Adventures is a busy company with a hectic touring schedule. As a teenage newcomer, Jackson was “completely green. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know much about the company, I didn’t know about the way they toured … everyone kept talking about ‘digs’, and I didn’t know what that meant. I found out that I had to book my own ‘digs’, and my own travel. I was on the train going to my first tour venue, and I was on my phone booking somewhere to stay. It was a trial by fire – I was the first new dancer they’d had in a long time. Now there are groups of new people coming in, and they have weeks of meetings to tell them how it all works!” 

The company’s ensemble of 20 to 30 performers is contract-based and fairly fluid, although regulars will stay on for multiple shows. Jackson found himself working with dancers from many different disciplines: musical theatre, ballet, contemporary. “Their number-one note to me was, ‘Just relax, calm down, don’t be so hard on yourself.’ I was so intent on proving myself, and I was working so hard, just killing myself. I learned how to get the same result with less stress and more mindfulness.”  

In only his second contract, he covered the Angel in Cinderella. “He’s Bourne’s version of the fairy godmother – a man in a silver suit and white wig. It’s a great role, so much fun, and a perfect introduction into how to be a principal, and how to lead a show. You’re only onstage for about 15 minutes, so there’s less pressure, but it’s still a leading role. It gave me an opportunity to find my feet without being thrown straight into dancing a main character. I’m really grateful for that opportunity.” He would go on to dance Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and Ivan in The Red Shoes (the principal of the story’s fictional ballet company, played by Robert Helpmann in the film). There was a long exile from the company during COVID; Jackson had to return to Australia in 2020, as his visa was dependent on him performing, and he was unable to get back for some time. When he finally returned to England, he was cast as both the dark fairy Carabosse and his son, Caradoc, in The Sleeping Beauty – a triumphant return to lead roles.   

Jackson didn’t waste his COVID down-time in Australia. He signed up for the Sydney Dance Company’s pre-professional training year, “a bucket list thing for me. What we did at The Australian Ballet School was great, but I wanted to learn more, I wanted to learn about contemporary dance in different ways.” After the training, he danced with Sydney Dance Company for a year, performing in the acclaimed ab [intra]. It was another lesson in mindfulness. “When you’re more relaxed and present in the moment, you can move better, you can express yourself better.”  

Having danced at theatres around the world and on Broadway, under a director he describes as “a master in storytelling”, Jackson credits The Australian Ballet School with preparing him for his busy career. “ABS taught me how to take care of my body. That’s a really big thing that I’ve taken away from there, and that I’ll always carry with me. I’ve been spreading the word about calf rises (actually, people ask me about it quite a bit, because I trained in Australia where the research was pioneered). ABS also taught me how to treat myself as an athlete, to give my body the appropriate nutrition, and to take care of my mind. Psychologically, it’s not an easy job, you have to be quite tough. And it also just taught me how to behave like a professional, to be on time, to get on with people. Technique is one thing, but at the end of the day, if you’re a good person to work with, that will get you work.”  

Despite his international success, Jackson would still love to return to Australia one day – as a choreographer. “That’s the pipe dream! I have notes for four or five full-length ballets, all just ready to go, both classical and contemporary. I still have a lot of admiration for The Australian Ballet, and it still feels like home.”