The AB will stage nine ballets including a new Spartacus choreographed by Lucas Jervies and a tribute to Graeme Murphy.

The Australian Ballet has launched its season for 2018, which it has themed as “The Power of the Imagination”, featuring nine ballets, all of them created for the Company, including two world premieres.

The centrepiece – or “the tentpole” as Artistic Director David McAllister described it today at a launch in Sydney – is a new production of Spartacus choregraphed by Lucas Jervies to Aram Khachaturian’s dramatic score. Theatre director Imara Savage is working with Jervies on the production as dramaturg.

The ballet tells the story of a gladiator who led a slaves’ rebellion against the Roman empire. Jervies says of his version: “The production is about a dehumanised slave becoming a human being. Embedded within that story is a love story.”

Kevin Jackson will dance in Spartacus. Photograph © Georges Antoni

Jervies, who is a former dancer of the AB, a choreographer and a NIDA-trained director, has long been interested in creating a new version of Spartacus and mentioned the idea while...