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{{Short description|French-Australian ballet dancer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

'''Charles Maurice Lisner''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (1928 - 1988) was a French-Australian dancer and the founder and first artistic director of the [[Queensland Ballet]].

== Early life ==
Charles Lisner was born in [[Paris]] in 1928 and emigrated to [[Australia]] with his parents in 1937.  He started dancing late in life, first becoming a pupil of Borovansky, and later joined his company. In 1947, Lisner traveled to London where he spent time with the [[Sadler's Wells Ballet]] and dance with The Royal Ballet.

== Creation of Lisner Ballet Academy and Queensland Ballet ==
In 1953, Lisner returned to [[Queensland]] after the death of his father, and established the Lisner Ballet Academy with virtually no money. From that academy grew Lisner's privately owned company, the Lisner Ballet, which was established in 1960. The company was the first professional state company in Australia to tour regional centres throughout the country.<ref name="hist">{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.queenslandballet.com.au/your-company/history/ |access-date=2 August 2013 |publisher=Queensland Ballet}}</ref>

In 1962, the company was renamed [[Queensland Ballet]]. Lisner stepped down as Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company in 1974.

Lisner married Valerie, one of his dancers. He was an uncredited dancer [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1101913/] in the film, ''[[The Red Shoes (1948 film)|The Red Shoes]]'' (1948) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040725/]

He was appointed OBE in the [[1976 New Year Honours]].

Many photographs of the academy were taken by [[Grahame Garner]], as a regular photographer for the Queensland Guardian newspaper. 911 negatives from his collection of the Lisner Academy were lodged with the [[National Library of Australia]] in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-151075235|title=Grahame Garner collection of photographic negatives of the Lisner Ballet and Queensland Ballet, 1960-1968 [picture]|website=nla.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2020-01-07}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''My Journey through Dance'' (1979) <code>{{ISBN|0-7022-1429-9}}</code> (autobiography)
* ''The Australian Ballet: Twenty-one years'' (1983) <code>{{ISBN|0-7022-1844-8}}</code>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.queenslandballet.com.au/ Queensland Ballet]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lisner, Charles}}
[[Category:Australian male ballet dancers]]
[[Category:Ballet teachers]]
[[Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:French emigrants to Australia]]


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