Alexander Roy (1937 – ). German dancer, choreographer and director

Alexander Roy was born in Magdeburg, East Germany. He studied at the Dance Academy in Halle, under Gertrud Steinweg, a pupil of Mary Wigman. Steinweg was then appointed director of the dance company in Leipzig and took Roy with her. He was taken on by the Berlin State Ballet and was offered the opportunity to study at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, but he stayed in Berlin, moving to the Komische Oper in 1955, where he became a principal dancer. 

Roy then moved to West Germany to become a principal dancer in Krefeld and Bremen, and later joined the American Festival Ballet where he met his future wife, Christina Gallea. Contracts with companies in Italy and France and Nederlands Dans Theater followed. He then travelled to London to work with the London Dance Theatre, choreographing as well as dancing, and he studied with Audrey de Vos, Anna Northcote and Stanislas Idzikowski. While working in Paris in 1965 on television films, he founded the International Ballet Caravan with Chistina Gallea, a small touring company that in 1974 became the Alexander Roy London Ballet Theatre. Roy danced and choreographed for both companies. Alexander Roy continued to run the company until both he and Gallea decided to retire in 2000.