Michael Corder (1955–). British dancer, choreographer and director

Michael Corder trained at The Royal Ballet School and danced for 22 years with The Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells (now Birmingham Royal) Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and The Australian Ballet. Corder began choreographing as a young man, at first with The Royal Ballet Choreographic Group, and early in his career combined performing with dance making. He has created more than 60 works, and early successes included Rhyme Nor Reason, Day Into Night, The Wand of Youth and Gloriana for Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, L’Invitation au voyage, Party Game and Number Three for The Royal Ballet, and Ancient Airs and Dances for Northern Ballet Theatre.

Later, concentrating on choreographing full-time, Corder worked extensively in the UK and abroad. For The Royal Ballet he choreographed Masquerade, Dance Variations and the “Water” section of Homage to the Queen; for English National Ballet he created a new version of Cinderella, as well as Melody on the Move and The Snow Queen; Romeo and Juliet for Norwegian National Ballet; Danses concertantes for Hong Kong Ballet; Orpheus for the Royal Ballet of Flanders; Le Baiser de la fée for Birmingham Royal Ballet; and House of Dreams for Ballet Black. He was artistic director of English National Ballet School from 2009 to 2011. Michael Corder’s production of Cinderella has also been danced by National Ballet of Portugal, Boston Ballet and National Ballet of Bratislava, and his The Snow Queen by the Czech National Ballet, Vienna Staatsoper Ballet and the National Ballet of Lithuania.