WA Ballet’s Samantha Green sparkles as Argyle Pink Diamonds’ Rare Gem for 2025 in Ballet at the Quarry debut

Diamonds really are proving to be a girl’s best friend for West Australian Ballet young artist Samantha Green. Not only has the 22-year-old Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate joined Australia’s oldest ballet company in time for its Perth Festival season of The Wild Between Stars: Ballet At The Quarry, she has also been announced as the inaugural Argyle Pink Diamonds’ Rare Gem for 2025. The Rare Gem partnership provides Green with a 12-month scholarship within WA Ballet’s Young Artist program, supporting her development and giving her valuable stage experience and dedicated mentorship within the company, as she embarks on her professional ballet career. “I know this is the first time that they’ve sponsored anyone from the ballet company, so I’m feeling very grateful and special to be chosen,” Green said. “I’ve always loved pink, but even more so now.” WA Ballet guest artistic director David McAllister broke the good news to Green on her first official day at the Maylands-based company, after three secondment seasons with the company in 2024 during her final year studying at WAAPA. “I did La Bayadere, Romeo and Juliet and The Sleeping Beauty,” she said. “It’s so exciting to officially be a part of the company, and everyone’s so welcoming. I’m just so grateful and thankful that I’m still living at home and able to start my career here.” Born in Scotland, Green moved to Perth with her family as a three-year-old, beginning ballet classes relatively late at age 10. “A couple of years after we moved to Australia, my mum took me to watch WA Ballet’s The Nutcracker, and I fell in love with it then, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I actually started taking classes,” the Quinns Rocks resident said. Green went on to attend John College Curtin of the Arts and Charlesworth Ballet Institute, now known as Youth Ballet WA, before her WAAPA training. She is currently understudying in two of the works in The Wild Between Stars: Ballet At The Quarry’s triple-bill program — Loughlan Prior’s The Wild Between Stars and Lucas Jervies’ Concerto Anniversary — at City Beach’s Quarry Amphitheatre until March 1. “All the WA Ballet performance seasons this year are really exciting, so I’m looking forward to all of them,” Green said. “There’s so much support, and lots of sparkle.”