There’s no denying that Benedicte Bemet is a particularly bright star of The Australian Ballet. At only 25, the senior artist has already danced some of ballet’s most iconic roles, winning audiences and critics with her youthful physicality and skilled storytelling.

The NutcrackerBenedicte Bemet as Clara in The Nutcracker. Photo © Jeff Busby

A conversation with the ballerina turns out to be equally charming. Bemet is disarmingly grounded – candid about her fears, and graciously confident about her future.

Bemet grew up on the Gold Coast, raised in a family that was equal parts creative and athletic – her mother an art teacher, her father an ironman triathlete. It’s little wonder their daughter’s enthusiasm for dance as a child become more than just a hobby.

At age 14, she moved to Melbourne to train at the elite Australian Ballet School and, upon graduating, was invited to join the company in 2012 with just four of her classmates.

“In your first year in the company, you might only do ‘walk-on’ roles, you might not be very busy, you’re in a class with 70 people,” says Bemet. “There’s a lot of independence. No one is really keeping an...