After 20 years off the boards, ballet dancing vicar is coming out of retirement

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Toby Behan admits he’s “100 percent not stage fit” but the 52-year-old Anglican vicar will return to the stage as the King in The Sleeping Beauty.

Morning ReportIngrid Hipkiss and John Campbell

22 October 2026

4 min read

Morning ReportIngrid Hipkiss and John Campbell

22 October 2026

4 min read

Caption:Toby Behan in Soldatenmis.Photo credit:Toby Behan

North Canterbury vicar Toby Behan, who performed lead roles for the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB), retired from dancing in 2002. For the past seven years he’s led the Anglican parish of Rangiora.

But the 52-year-old is set to make a return as the King in the RNZB's Christchurch run of The Sleeping Beauty next month.

A “very gracious” invitation from the artistic director of the ballet company, Ty King-Wall, drew him back to the stage.

Former ballet dancer turned vicar returns to the stage

‘I think it's actually a lovely idea,” Behan told RNZ’s Morning Report.

“I've been on the board for a number of years at the ballet company, no longer, but we were talking about ways to sort of reconnect with dancers from the past.”

However, he’s a long way from stage fit.

“I mean, I keep in a moderate degree of fitness and things, but this sort of role won't be dancing like I used to do.

“It'll be character work and being on stage and that sort of thing. But in terms of stage fit, no, it's been over 20 years since I've been on.”

Not many of his parishioners know about his return to the boards, he says.

“I haven't been terribly open about it, actually. I've had some lovely reactions within the last couple of days because I hadn't sort of informed anyone that this was going on.

“I didn't really think it was terribly interesting. I don't mean that in the wrong way at all, but I didn't want to broadcast it.”

After retiring from ballet in 2002 he was drawn to the ministry, he says.

“I've been a Christian since I was a teenager. And my dad was a minister. And that was a big part, I think, in choosing to come to ministry full time myself.”

His mother, on the other hand, was inadvertently instrumental in launching his career as a ballet dancer, he says.

“When I was about five-years-old, living in Nelson, she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said ‘I didn't know’, because I think most five-year-olds don't.

“But Mum, bless her, took the conversation further and said, ‘well, come on, Toby, do you want to be a fireman or do you want to be a policeman or do you want to be a ballet dancer?’ And I thought she was giving me the options.”

The first two didn’t appeal so he chose option three.

“So I just thought logically that ballet dancing was the job that I would choose. And it went from there.”

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