Profile

Gary Harris was appointed Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet in September 2001. He has worked the world over as a dancer, teacher, repetiteur and designer. Born in London, he trained at the Arts Educational and the Royal Ballet Schools. He joined the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) in 1978 and was one of the company’s leading dancers until he left in 1985. Gary has worked with the Royal Ballet as teacher, notator and repetiteur, with choreographers such as Ashton, Forsythe and MacMillan. He assisted MacMillan in staging Manon for the Paris Opera Ballet and restaged Song of the Earth for the same company. He was Associate Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Ballet and choreographed a cast of 1,200 performers for the handover of Macau back to China in 1999. For the RNZB, he has restaged Swan Lake, Paquita Variations, Coppelia and Giselle. The company premiered his production of The Nutcracker in 2005. Notable design commissions include The Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda for the National Ballet of China, Christopher Hampson’s Double Concerto for English National Ballet and Saltarello and Esquisses for the RNZB. As well as designing Paquita for RED, last this year Gary will stage and design a new commission of Don Quixote for the RNZB.