Stephen Jefferies (1951–). German-born British dancer and director

Stephen Jefferies trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet Touring Company in 1969. He was a principal dancer with National Ballet of Canada from 1976 to 1977, and principal with The Royal Ballet and Sadler’s Wells (now Birmingham) Royal Ballet from 1976 until his retirement from the company in 1995. An extremely versatile artist, his repertoire ranged from the traditional danseur noble roles in the classics, and the ballets of Frederick Ashton, such as La Fille mal gardée, to dramatic roles by Kenneth MacMillan – Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Lescaut in Manon and Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling in particular. He created roles in David Bintley’s Adieu, Consort Lessons, The Sons of Horus, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, The Planets and Cyrano; Glen Tetley’s Dances of Albion; Kenneth MacMillan’s Isadora and Different Drummer; Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au voyage; and Wayne Eagling’s Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus. Jefferies was also invited to dance in Brazil, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy, partnering ballerinas such as Margot Fonteyn, Natalia Makarova, Marcia Haydée, Yoko Morishita, Gelsey Kirkland, Lynn Seymour, Carla Fracci and Alessandra Ferri. He became artistic director of the Hong Kong Ballet in 1996, adding 17 full-length and six one-act ballets to the company’s repertoire, and then, from 2006, was director of the Suzhou Ballet Theatre. Returning to the UK, Stephen Jefferies became a governor of The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet School in 2017.