Ryley Gillen
Artistic Director | Chief Conductor
Ryley Gillen has been The Ballet Team's Artistic Director and Chief Conductor since 2016, driving a widespread appreciation of ballet in Regional NSW through creative programming, the sharing of community led stories and increasing the visibility of emerging dancers.
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A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium in 2015, Ryley is also an Academic Lecturer in Classical Trumpet at the Australian Institute of Music (AIM) and previously served as AD and Chief Conductor of Sutherland Symphony Orchestra (2020-2025) and Business Manager of the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra (2019-2024).
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Ryley's ballet repertoire includes The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppélia, Spartacus and La Strada. Ryley has also conducted orchestral works by prominent composers Bernstein, Copland, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky, who's works feature throughout classical ballet.
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In 2018 Ryley conducted the inaugural performance of William Yaxley's ballet Peter Pan. In 2024 Ryley premiered his own two act ballet The Sorcerer's Apprentice with The Ballet Team, receiving the Combined Area Theatre Award Nomination "Best Original Work" for his original score for chamber orchestra.
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Ryley is an Associate Artist with the Australian Music Centre, having composed the ballets Smee (2025) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2024), musical Rabbits on a Red Planet (2023), an extensive list of orchestral works for the Wollongong Conservatorium Orchestra, Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra, Sutherland Shire Symphony and the soundtracks to many of Australian visual artist Todd Fuller's animations.​
In addition, since 2018 Ryley has held the position of principal trumpet with the NSW Department of Justice Corrective Services Band. In 2024 he held the trumpet chair for In The Heights the Musical at the Sydney Opera House, was a featured artist of SOH's Draw the House program and toured China performing with Broadway performers including Christine Dwyer and Nic Rouleau.
For his involvement in the creative arts in NSW regional areas, Ryley was recognised as a finalist in the 2018 NSW Creative Achievement Awards: Young Creative. In 2019 Ryley was appointed to the Classical Music Advisory Board for Create NSW and in 2022 the Service Needs Strategic Fund Panel. Ryley has previously worked as an educator and conductor at the Wollongong Conservatorium and Hume Conservatorium and assistant musical conductor for the Sydney Conservatorium and tutor for the NSW Regional Youth Orchestra.
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Meryl Dalton
Resident Choreographer
Meryl’s dance career spans almost 60 years, 44 of which have been as a dance teacher and choreographer. Retiring from teaching in 2013, Meryl has remained as an in demand guest teacher, choreographer and adjudicator.
Dedicating her time to NSW regional communities, Meryl has been actively involved in theatrical and dance productions in the Shoalhaven, Shellharbour and Wollongong regions. These have included musicals with Albatross Musical Theatre Company (AMTC) as either choreograher or performer: Guys & Dolls, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Swing Fusion, Great Australian Rock Musical and Mary Poppins, and various other productions with Roo Theatre, Nowra Players and Tall & Short Productions.
For The Ballet Team Meryl appeared as Mother Ginger in The Nutcracker (2016) and as Smee in Peter Pan (2018) before taking on the choreographer roles for At The Ballet (2022), Swan Lake... but with Cows (2023) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2024). In 2025 Meryl provides original choreographs to The Ballet Team's Neverland inspired ballet Smee.
