# Benedicte Bemet

Benedicte Bemet is an Australian ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer for The Australian Ballet.

## Early life and education

Bemet was born in Mackay, Queensland, in about 1994, the daughter of Steven and Andrée Bemet, who are both school teachers. She has one brother. She grew up on the Gold Coast, Queensland, where she learned ballet at the Ransley Ballet Centre, and then lived in Hong Kong with her family. There, she trained at the Jean M. Wong School of Ballet. She then returned to Queensland to live with her grandparents in order to apply to the Australian Ballet School, which she entered in 2008, aged 14.

## Career

Bemet began dancing with the Australian Ballet in 2012. She was promoted from coryphée to soloist in 2016, after having been chosen in 2015 by the then artistic director of the Australian Ballet David McAllister to take on the role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. A dance reviewer commented that, "in her 40 years of "ballet-watching", [she] ha[d] not witnessed a debut like it ... it was extraordinary."
In 2017, Bemet suffered a severe tendon injury which caused her to take a year off from ballet, during which she explored psychology and read books about resilience and wellness. By September 2018, she was dancing as a soloist again, in the role of Flavia in Spartacus. A reviewer commented, "Benedicte Bemet paints a fragile yet fiercely passionate persona as Flavia, and her commitment to emotive storytelling through dance is stunning to watch." She was promoted to principal dancer in December 2019. In 2023, The Australian Ballet, with Bemet, performed at Covent Garden for the first time in 35 years. A reviewer wrote of her performance there in George Balanchine's Jewels:
   "Bemet’s musicality was notable, allowing her to shade between her movements and to let the choreography breathe; she made the overlong central pas de deux into a vision of classical purity, while the third and fourth sections saw her unleash impressive but never over-showy virtuosity. This was a notable assumption of a very difficult role; while Caley is a familiar dancer one was delighted to see again, Bemet is an unfamiliar artist one longs to see again."

## Selected roles

Bemet's repertoire with The Australian Ballet includes:
| Year | Ballet | Choreographer(s) | Role |
| 2024 | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Christopher Wheeldon | Alice |
| 2023 | Swan Lake | Anne Woolliams | Odette/Odile |
| 2023 | Jewels | George Balanchine | Diamonds - Lead Couple |
| 2023 | Don Quixote | Rudolf Nureyev (after Marius Petipa) | Kitri |
| 2023 | The Dream | Frederick Ashton | Titania |
| 2022 | Romeo and Juliet | John Cranko | Juliet |
| 2022 | Harlequinade | Marius Petipa and Alexei Ratmansky | Columbine |
| 2022 | Kunstkamer | Sol León, Paul Lightfoot, Crystal Pite and Marco Goecke | Performer |
| 2022 | Anna Karenina | Yuri Possokhov | Kitty |
| 2020 | Capriccio | François-Eloi Lavignac | Solo dancer |
| 2019 | Giselle | Maina Gielgud | Giselle |
| 2018 | Spartacus | Aram Khachaturian and Lucas Jervies | Flavia |
| 2016 | Coppélia | George Ogilvie and Peggy van Praagh | Swanilda |
| 2016 | In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated | William Forsythe | Performer |
| 2016 | Grand pas classique | Viktor Gvosky | Performer |
| 2016 | DGV©: Danse à grande vitesse | Christopher Wheeldon | "Second Region" Pas de deux |
| 2016 | Symphony in C | George Balanchine | Third Movement Principal |
| 2015 | The Sleeping Beauty | David McAllister | Aurora |
| 2015 | The Sleeping Beauty | David McAllister | Princess Florine |
| 2015 | Giselle | Maina Gielgud | Peasant Pas de deux |
| 2014 | The Nutcracker | Peter Wright | Clara |
| 2014 | Suite en Blanc | Serge Lifar | Sérénade Variation |

## Awards

* Telstra Ballet Dancer Award, 2015
* Green Room Award nomination for Clara in The Nutcracker, 2014
* Telstra People’s Choice Award, 2013

## Personal life

Bemet loves baking and cooking anything involving chocolate and has an aversion for tight fitting clothes. In order to relieve stress before shows, Bemet likes to sew pointe shoes.