English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and danced with the Company 1991–3. For The Royal Ballet he has choreographed Tryst, DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, Electric Counterpoint, ‘Trespass’ (Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, in collaboration with Alastair Marriott), Aeternum (Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production) and Strapless, and the three-act ballets Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale, and Corybantic Games, which won The Design Museum’s Fashion category award in the Design of the Year Awards 2018 and a Walpole Creative Collaboration award 2018 for work between The Royal Ballet and designer, Erdem. Works of his performed by The Royal Ballet and originally created for other companies include After the Rain and Within the Golden Hour.
Wheeldon was born in Yeovil and trained at The Royal Ballet School. In 1991 he won gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne with a solo of his own creation and that year entered The Royal Ballet, where Kenneth MacMillan encouraged him in his choreographic work. In 1993 Wheeldon joined New York City Ballet, promoted to soloist in 1998. He created his first work for NYCB, Slavonic Dances, in 1997 and became the company’s first Resident Choreographer in 2001. Works for NYCB include Polyphonia (London Critics’ Circle Award and Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production) and The Nightingale and the Rose.
It was announced that Christopher Wheeldon was the winner of both the Best Classical Choreography award and a Benois de la Danse in the Choreographers’ category in 2015. The award, which is regarded as the ‘Oscar of dance’, was given to Wheeldon for his ballet The Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet. The Winter’s Tale is set to music by Joby Talbot, who also received a Benois de la Dance in the Composers’ category for his score.
Wheeldon regularly choreographs for leading international companies, including Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. In 2007 he founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and became the first British choreographer to create a new work for the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2012 he collaborated with Marriott on the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games. His awards include the Tony Award for Best Choreography (An American in Paris). He is President of the Benesh Institute, and was made an OBE in 2016, and that year was artistic director for Les Arts Décoratifs’ Fashion Forward exhibition.