Northern Ballet Theatre Archives » Voices of British Ballet

companies » Northern Ballet Theatre

see entry Northern Dance Theatre, later Northern Ballet Theatre and Northern Ballet

Timeline Event » 1969 – Northern Dance Theatre (later Northen Ballet Theatre) formed

Canadian-born Laverne Meyer studied at the Rambert School and The Royal Ballet School, joining Western Theatre Ballet in 1957, where he danced principal roles before eventually becoming assistant...

Timeline Event » 1981 – Phoenix Dance Company established

Phoenix Dance Company was established in Leeds in 1981 by David Hamilton, its founding director, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James. These young Black men were all inspired by the teaching they had...

Timeline Event » 1986 – Ballet Cymru established under Darius James

Founded in 1986 by artistic director Darius James and administrative director Yvonne Williams, Ballet Cymru aimed to provide and produce high quality classical ballet in Wales, initially making a...

Timeline Event » 1987 – Christopher Gable joins Northern Ballet Theatre as dancer and then artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre

As artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre, Christopher Gable focused as much on the ‘theatre’ as the ‘ballet’ in the company’s title. In a relatively small UK theatre circuit,...

Timeline Event » 1991 – Premiere of Massimo Moricone’s of Romeo and Juliet by Northern Ballet Theatre

The premiere of Massimo Moricone’s production of Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet Theatre took place at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 1991, with direction by Christopher Gable, music by Serge...

Timeline Event » 1997 – New premises for dance companies

The millennium years and the 2010s can be seen as a time when investment within British dance went not to artistic output, but to infrastructure in the form of new facilities for dance companies....

Timeline Event » 2001 – David Nixon becomes artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre

David Nixon became artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre in 2001, where he remained until 2022. During his leadership, he created a considerable number of works for the company, including The...