Choreographer & Artistic Director, Houston Ballet

Stanton Welch (Image © Pam Francis)

In July 2003, Australian Stanton Welch assumed leadership of Houston Ballet, America’s fifth largest classical ballet company.  Mr. Welch is one of the most sought after choreographers of his generation, having created works for such prestigious international companies as Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. 

Mr. Welch was born in Melbourne to Marilyn Jones, O.B.E., and Garth Welch, A.M., two of Australia’s most gifted dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1986 he began his training at the late age of seventeen, quickly winning a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet School. In 1989 he was engaged as a dancer with The Australian Ballet, where he rose to the rank of leading soloist, performing such principal roles as Des Grieux in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, Lensky in John Cranko’s Eugene Onegin, Camille in Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow, and Alan Strang in Equus. He has also worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Jirí Kylían, Nacho Duato, and Maurice Béjart.

Mr. Welch’s choreographic career developed during his time with The Australian Ballet. In 1990 he received his first choreographic commission from the company, marking the beginning of a series of commissioned works over the next fourteen years and developing his diverse choreographic style. For The Australian Ballet he has created The Three of Us (1990); Of Blessed Memory (1991), for which he was voted best new choreographer in 1992 by readers of the British magazine Dance & Dancers; Divergence (1994), which has been performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and City Center in New York; full-length productions of Madame Butterfly(1995) and Cinderella (1997); Red Earth (1996); X (1999); and Velocity(2003).  He has created a new Sleeping Beauty for The Australian Ballet which premiered in September 2005.  Madame Butterfly has become a signature work for Mr. Welch internationally, and is in the repertoires of Houston Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Atlanta Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Boston Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, and The Royal New Zealand Ballet. In 1995, Mr. Welch was named resident choreographer of The Australian Ballet. That same year, he was commissioned to create Corroboree for The Australian Ballet to perform at “UNited We Dance,” a dance festival in San Francisco celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter and featuring major companies from across the world premiering new works.

Mr. Welch has been extremely active internationally, receiving numerous commissions from the world’s leading companies. For Houston Ballet, he has choreographed eight works, including Indigo (1999), Brigade (2006), and a spectacular staging of Swan Lake (2006). For San Francisco Ballet: Maninyas (1996), Taiko (1999), Tutu (2003), and Falling (2005). For American Ballet Theatre: Clear (2001); two songs from Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison(2002); and a new version of Carmina Burana as part of the evening-length work Hereafter (2003).  For BalletMet: Evolution (2004) and Don Quixote (2003), both full-length works. For Atlanta Ballet: A Dance in the Garden of Mirth (2000). For Royal Danish Ballet: Ønsket (1998) and Ander (1999).  For Birmingham Royal Ballet: Powder (1998). For Ms. Nina Ananiashvili’s Moscow Dance Theatre: Green (2000) and OPUS X (2001), both created for group.

Mr. Welch has also staged works for Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, The Royal Ballet School, Singapore Dance Theatre, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY.

Biography courtesy of Houston Ballet