Christopher Wheeldon Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet

Christopher Wheeldon, Resident Choreographer at New York City Ballet, is considered one of the top ballet choreographers in the world today. In addition to the many works he has created for NYCB, he has choreographed ballets for such companies as The Royal Ballet in London, San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Boston Ballet. He has received the Mae L. Wien Award for choreography from the School of American Ballet, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the London Crtics' Circle Award, the American Choreography Award, and the Olivier Award.

Mr. Wheeldon was born in Yeovil, Somerset, England, and began his ballet training when he was eight years old. From ages 11 to 18, he trained at The Royal Ballet School, and in 1991 he joined The Royal Ballet and also won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 1993, Mr. Wheeldon was invited to become a member of New York City Ballet, where he was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1998. He began choreographing for NYCB with Slavonic Dances for the 1997 Diamond Project, and in 1999, Mr. Wheeldon choreographed Scènes de Ballet for the School of American Ballet's Workshop Performances and for NYCB's 50^th anniversary season. After creating Mercurial Manoeuvers for the spring 2000 Diamond Project, he retired from dancing to concentrate on his choreographic work.

During NYCB's 2000-2001 season, Mr. Wheeldon served as the Company'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 Mr. Wheeldon was named NYCB's first Resident Choreographer. Since that time, Mr. Wheeldon has choreographed several ballets for the Company: Morphoses (June 2002, as part of the tenth anniversary of the Diamond Project), Carousel (A Dance) (November 2002), Carnival of the Animals and Liturgy (May 2003), Shambards (May 2004), and After the Rain (January 2005). The world premiere of Klavier took place in early 2006, and Evenfall debuted as part of the 2006 Diamond Project.

Among his notable works for other ballet companies are Continuum for San Francisco Ballet and Tryst for The Royal Ballet in 2002, a full-length Swan Lake for Pennsylvania Ballet for 2004. Mr. Wheeldon choreographed ballet sequences for the 2000 feature film Center Stage, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and he and Mr. Hytner also collaborated on a stage version of Sweet Smell of Success, which opened on Broadway in 2002.