Artistic Director, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company

Christopher Wheeldon (Image © Holger Badekow)

Christopher Wheeldon, the artistic director and co-founder of Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, is one of today’s top ballet choreographers. He has created works for such leading ballet companies as New York City Ballet (where he was Resident Choreographer from 2001 to 2008), The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Boston Ballet, as well as The Metropolitan Opera. Among his awards are the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the London Critics’ Circle Award, the American Choreography Award, the Olivier Award, and the Dance Magazine Award.

Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company in 2007 with the goal of introducing a new spirit of innovation to classical ballet by fostering collaboration among choreographers, dancers, visual artists, designers, composers, and others who can bring new life and perspective to ballet. Morphoses was launched at the Vail International Dance Festival in August, then performed at Sadler’s Wells in London in September and New York City Center in October; Morphoses is the Guest Resident Company at both institutions. The company will perform at these three venues again in 2008, as well as at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Over the next few years, Morphoses will expand its performing season and build a repertory of exciting works and a roster of exceptional dancers.

In his own choreography, Wheeldon has clearly pushed ballet into new territory, and in doing so, has been widely praised by critics and audiences alike. In the past few years, he has established an international reputation, and several of his ballets have been acclaimed as masterpieces.

Wheeldon was born in Yeovil, Somerset, England, and began his ballet training when he was eight years old. At age 11, he began studying at The Royal Ballet School, and in 1991 he joined The Royal Ballet. Also in 1991, he won the prestigious Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 1993, Wheeldon was invited to become a member of New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to soloist in 1998. He began choreographing for NYCB with Slavonic Dances for the 1997 Diamond Project; his Scènes de Ballet, a collaboration with artist Ian Falconer, was created for the School of American Ballet’s 1999 Workshop Performances and for NYCB’s 50th anniversary season.

After creating Mercurial Manoeuvers for NYCB’s spring 2000 Diamond Project, Wheeldon retired from dancing to concentrate on his choreographic work. In the 2000/2001 season, he served as NYCB’s first-ever artist in residence, creating two ballets: Polyphonia, set to piano music by Györgi Ligeti, and Variations Sérieuses, set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. In July 2001 Wheeldon was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer. Since that time, Wheeldon has choreographed at least one ballet a year for New York City Ballet, including Morphoses and Carousel (A Dance) (2002), Carnival of the Animals and Liturgy (2003), After the Rain and An American in Paris (2005), Klavier (2006), and The Nightingale and the Rose (2007).

Wheeldon has also been in demand with other top-tier ballet companies and has created such notable works as Continuum for San Francisco Ballet, Tryst and DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse) for The Royal Ballet, a full-length Swan Lake for Pennsylvania Ballet in 2004, and Misericorsfor the Bolshoi Ballet in 2007. For Morphoses’ inaugural season, Wheeldon choreographed two new works: Fools’ Paradise and Prokofiev Pas de Deux. Outside of the ballet world, Wheeldon choreographed Dance of the Hours for The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda in 2006, as well as ballet sequences for the 2000 feature film Center Stage and a stage version of Sweet Smell of Success, which opened on Broadway in 2002.

Throughout his career, Wheeldon has been interested in collaboration as a way to push ballet in new directions. Among the composers who have written scores for him are James MacMillan, Bright Sheng, and Michael Nyman. He has worked with artists such as Ian Falconer, James Buckhouse, and Jean Marc Puissant, with designers Adrianne Lobel and Narciso Rodriguez, with the author and actor John Lithgow, and with director Nicholas Hytner.

Wheeldon won the London Critics’ Circle Award for best new ballet for Polyphonia, and a performance of the piece by NYCB dancers received the Olivier Award. DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse) was nominated for a 2006 Olivier Award, and the inaugural season of Morphoses at Sadler's Wells has been nominated for the South Bank Show awards. In 2005, Wheeldon received the prestigious Dance Magazine Award.