Artistic team of the 2024 Summer Intensive

We are thrilled to announce the artistic team for the 2024 Summer Intensive!

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Christopher Wheeldon

All spotlights

Curriculum Vitae

Choreographer & Artistic associate, The Royal Ballet
Prize Winner, Prix de Lausanne 1991 (Gold Medal)
Jury Member, Prix de Lausanne 2023

I competed in 1991 so for me this is my first time back in over 30 years. I am honored to be a member of the Jury on this auspicious occasion of the 50th anniversary.  The Prix de Lausanne is a competition that we hold in high esteem at The Royal Ballet and Ballet School. It remains a fantastic opportunity for the ballet community to assess the up-and-coming talent from all over the world and it gives young dancers the chance to step out on to a world stage for the first time. At the timie, it gave me a boost of confidence I needed at a time where a professional career was fast approaching.
I recommend all candidates to look less at the Prix de Lausanne as a place to compete and more as a meeting of young dancers from all over the world. Learn from watching their artistic skills and talk to them about their experiences.
Christopher Wheeldon trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he joined New York City Ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer in July 2001. Since then, Mr. Wheeldon has created and staged productions for many of the world’s major ballet companies, San Francisco Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet and Hamburg Ballet among others.

In 2007, Mr. Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and was appointed an Associate Artist for Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Mr. Wheeldon now serves as Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet. Mr. Wheeldon has created many works for the company, including the full-length Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both of which were co-productions with The National Ballet of Canada. Like Water for Chocolate is his latest full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet which had its premiere in June 2022.

In 2012, his ballet Cinderella premiered at Het Nationale Ballet and is making its way to audiences worldwide. For the Metropolitan Opera, he choreographed ‘Dance of the Hours’ for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda (2006) and Richard Eyre’s production of Carmen (2012) as well as ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and the musical Sweet Smell of Success on Broadway (2002).

Mr. Wheeldon created a special excerpt for the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, and in April 2016, he was the Artistic Director for the Fashion Forward exhibition in Paris at Le Musée des Arts et Décoratifs.

In 2014, Mr. Wheeldon directed and choreographed the Broadway musical version of An American in Paris, which had productions in Paris, New York, and London and has tour extensively through America, China, Japan and Australia. The Joffrey Ballet presented the world premiere in 2016 of The Nutcracker reimagined by Mr. Wheeldon and in 2017 he directed and choreographed Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon starring Kelli O’Hara and Patrick Wilson at New York City Center. 2019 saw the premiere of Corybantic Games at The Royal Ballet and a re-staged version of Cinderella for the English National Ballet at Royal Albert Hall.
Most recently, MJ The Musical opened on Broadway winning four Tony Awards, including Best Choreography.

Among Mr. Wheeldon’s other awards are:

  • A Tony Award for Best Choreography for An American in Paris
  • An Outer Critics Award for Best Choreography and Direction for An American in Paris
  • The Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center
  • The American Choreography Award
  • The Dance Magazine Award
  • South Bank Show Award
  • Multiple London Critics’ Circle Awards
  • The Léonide Massine Prize for new choreography
  • The Benois de la Danse for his productions of Cinderella and The Winter’s Tale
  • Olivier Award for his ballets Aeternum for The Royal Ballet and Polyphonia for Morphoses

In 2016, Mr. Wheeldon was named an O.B.E. and was made an Honorary Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.