Harrison Croft
From Ballet Classes to Australia’s Biggest Stages
For Harrison (Harry) Croft, PSD was not only his happy place growing up but set him up perfectly for his career as a lighting designer and technician.
When did you start ballet?
In 2008 when I was a happy little five year old, I started doing Auskick but I really hated it and so asked my parents if I could try ballet instead. My granny, who I’m close with, always loved ballet. She did Russian dancing and calisthenics and goes to all the Australian Ballet performances
My sister, Hannah, was already dancing with Miss Sandra. I started doing ballet and, after seeing me stand in the doorway and watch a combined jazz and tap class, Miss Carla told me to join in! I love tap and jazz, but ballet was always my favourite. There’s something really special about ballet.
I love tap and jazz, but ballet was always my favourite.
You’re now 23 years old. Do you still dance?
I stopped dancing at PSD in 2020, when we were in lockdowns. The online classes just weren’t working for me. I tried to come back in 2021 but it was just too hard with work as I couldn’t attend class reliably.
More recently, a friend encouraged me to join them in doing a casual adult ballet class at another studio, and I have been back to PSD to do an Open Class on a Saturday. It was so lovely to be back and see everyone but I really felt it the next day!
Getting back into dance has been amazing. I hate going to the gym, it’s so boring, so I love doing something where you’re working hard physically but also focusing and enjoying what you’re doing. It’s comforting to know that I can go back to PSD anytime and see people I’ve known since I was five years old.
Harrison with younger students and teacher Sophie Gould
Harrison on stage at the PSD annual performance in 2009
As well as dance, you’ve done musical theatre?
My whole family were involved in musical theatre. My dad, mum, sister and I were all performers, Dad was President of the Rosebud Astral (now called Rosebud Theatre Group), we’ve all been on the management committee and we’ve all directed shows.
I was onstage as the Lion in The Wizard of Oz for PSD’s first musical theatre show that happened in 2016. Then, in 2019 when I was in Year 11, I directed my first show with Rosebud Astral. It was Alice in Wonderland and there were quite a few PSD kids involved!
I auditioned for a couple of commercial musicals. I was basically the last person cut in each audition. It’s a bit sad but there’s a resilience that comes from that.
As a child, I auditioned for a couple of commercial musicals – the 2012 production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the 2014 production of Les Misérables and the 2014 production of Strictly Ballroom, all in Melbourne.
I got far through those audition processes. I was basically the last person cut in each audition. It’s a bit sad but there’s a resilience that comes from that.
It reminds me of ballet exams. There’s a certain mindset you learn that comes from walking out of an exam being proud of what you did without knowing what the examiner thought or what the result will be. Intermediate was easily the hardest exam I have done. It’s about having trust in yourself and resilience.
Harrison receiving an ward at dance
– in the Rosebud Memorial Hall,
the orginal venue for Peninsula School of Dance
Harrison performing in the PSD Annual Production.
Tell us how you became involved in theatre lighting?
When Rosebud Astral were doing a show in 2016, when I was around 13, I was busy with PSD so I wasn’t able to perform, but I still wanted to be involved, so I volunteered to do tech. I learned from my dad, who had been dragged in to do tech stuff earlier, but I also started teaching myself as much as I could. I got hyper-focussed on it.
Dad and I worked together for a few shows, then I took on more responsibility and he stepped back. I then started doing tech for PSD shows, like the Petite Dancer concerts and the choreography competitions. Those shows were valuable to me because I had to take more initiative and be more independent.
Harrison and fellow PSD dance mate Marshall teching on a PSD show at Rosebud Secondary College.
Harrison with PSD mates getting ready to perform in Jason Coleman’s Humanimals -2017
After I finished high school, I was accepted into a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production at Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). It was a heavily design and artistic-based degree, which I’m not opposed to but I was more focussed on the technical aspects and working casually in a couple of venues as a lighting tech.
So, when I was offered a role as Head of Lighting for a show that toured over 100 theatres across six months, that was a push to focus more on my career than university, so I didn’t actually graduate.
“When you’re bumping in during the afternoon and have a show that night, there’s no time to stop and debate anything. You just have to make a decision because the show’s got to happen..”
I toured with an Irish dancing show that included live music. There were shows five to six days a week across all of Australia — at Crown in Melbourne, the State Theatre in Sydney, Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide and His Majesty in Perth, to name a few. We went to Tassie, Darwin and across regional Queensland, then to New Zealand for six-and-a-half weeks.
Working in a venue that you know is very different to driving to a new venue each day and trying to figure out how things are going to work based on a piece of paper called a tech spec, which tells you about the venue but is often wrong!
When you’re bumping in during the afternoon and have a show on that night, there’s no time to stop and debate anything. You just have to make a decision because the show’s got to happen. That tour taught me a lot about problem solving, working with people, and missing the comfort of your bed.
What have you been working on more recently?
At the moment, I’m employed casually in a lot of places and I freelance for audio-visual companies and businesses. It was one of those roles that resulted in me lighting the 2023 PSD annual performance.
In 2025, I worked on DanceX, a festival of curated works from dance companies including the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Australian Ballet Company and Australian Ballet School, West Australian Ballet and Bangarra Theatre to name a few.
My role was officially called LX Programmer (LX is the industry abbreviation for ‘lighting’). I wasn’t the operator during the performances, but I was responsible for pre-production and programming during tech rehearsals.
Apart from one work that was brand new, the works presented in DanceX were established, so we had paperwork from when they were originally staged. So, there was a lot of pre-production work, figuring out how things would work on our standard lighting rig at the Playhouse Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne. Then, for two weeks, I sat at the lighting console with a different lighting designer from each dance company every four hours.
As a kid, I’d always been to Australian Ballet shows with my granny, who had tickets to dress rehearsals. So, to walk in as a peer was amazing.
Harry’s first love was always ballet.
Harrison’s view of the theatre from behind the lighting desk
“To walk in as a peer was amazing.”
In 2026, I’ve accepted a contract to program their mainstage works, so I’ll be busy this year working in some of Australia’s top venues – The Regent in Melbourne, Opera House in Sydney, QPAC in Brisbane and, fingers crossed, the State Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne once it reopens from major renovation works!
Harrison and dance mates at a PSD photo day.
Harrison with Miss Sandra and classmate Byron getting ready for a ballet exam.
Harrison with his Primary Ballet class mates – 2009
Harrison perforing in the ballet Brigadoon.
Harrison with Dad – Brendon – sharing a love of the theatre and performing arts and performing in local theatre productions.
Does your dance knowledge and skills help you with you lighting career?
Hugely! There’s a lot of skills like rhythm and musicality that make a big difference when operating lighting for a show or doing any production role in the theatre world. If you’re working on a dance show and you’re the operator who hits the button for the next lighting cue, you need to be able to listen to and understand the music.
Even just knowing what’s going on is important. When you’re in a bio-box or behind a console and someone’s talking to the dancers on stage, if you don’t have any context, you have no idea what’s going on. I have a broader understanding of the process and what people on stage are actually doing that you can’t learn any other way.
“There are a whole heap of soft skills that dancing should be credited for.”
Then, there are a whole heap of soft skills that dancing should be credited for, like discipline and punctuality. These are things you don’t think about when you’re a five year old going to your first ballet class but, even now, I hate being late. When I was at PSD, I hated walking in late, partly because I was embarrassed but also because I didn’t want to miss anything!
I also learned so much about myself and leadership through being an Assistant Teacher with Miss Sandra. We’d have chats before and after class that were linked to what we were doing in class but were also focussed on me, my dancing and the way I presented myself as a teacher.
Harrison getting ready for a Cecchetti ballet exam at Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance
Harrison performing as the Grinch in a Tap number.
I also learned how to be busy! Between 2011 and 2019, I was doing dance four to five days a week and had two or three days of musical theatre rehearsals plus going to school. These days, I lose my mind if I have more than two days off in a row!
Do you have time for any other interests?
Not much! I was diagnosed with ADHD at the start of 2025. I had an awareness that I had some typical ADHD traits for the majority of my life. In the theatre industry, there are a whole lot of people with ADHD — we gravitate towards this sort of work and each other.
Medication is helping but I still have times of hyper-focus, where I’ll sit down to work on a project and all of a sudden it’s midnight. This is connected with how I got my start in lighting tech, as I was mainly self-taught. I’d do a show with an amateur company and, if I didn’t know how to do something, I’d come home and figure it out. I wasn’t just interested in how to do something, I’d want to know how it all works
My career is one where I work really hard for terribly long hours, but I still love it! Outside of work, I mainly sleep but I’m also working on rebuilding a 1991 Suzuki Sierra. Dad and I work on it together when we have time.
What would you like to say to Miss Sandra and Miss Mel on this occasion of the 65th anniversary of the school?
PSD is more than a place where you go to take dance classes. It was always a happy place for me when I was growing up and there’s a culture of stability and positive vibes.
I copped a lot at school for being a boy who danced but it never really got to me because I loved it so much that I didn’t care.
“PSD is more than a plave where you can take dance classes.”
Unlike competition schools, PSD doesn’t push everyone to perform to a certain level. That drove me to want to be better. Not because anyone was telling me I needed to be better, but because I wanted to.
To everyone who’s ever taught me at PSD, thank you. I don’t know where I’d be or what I’d be doing if I didn’t decide to quit Auskick as a five year old and convince my parents to take me to ballet.
Harrison with classmates – 2019
Thank you, Harry, for shining a perfectly-designed light on how your love of ballet and musical theatre led to your career in theatre lighting.
Story by Vivienne Pearson. Vivienne is a freelance writer who writes feature stories for newspapers and magazines, as well as engaging content for business and causes.
Harrison with classmate ready to perform a Fred Astire number at George Jenkins Theatre