Robert North

Robert North was born in 1945 in North Carolina.

In 1963 he began studying plastic art at the Central School of Art in London, but in 1964 he switched to dancing and began training with Kathleen Crofton and Errol Addison. In 1965 he left his art studies and began studying ballet at the Royal Ballet School. In the following year he began studying at the London Contemporary Dance School. Later on he studied with Bob Cohen, Merce Cunningham, Matt Mattox, Hans Brenna and Stanley Williams. In 1966 he cofounded the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT). A year later, he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York and danced with it until 1969, whereupon he returned to London and resumed dancing with LCDT for a short while.
In 1967 he choreographed his first dance as part of the London Ballet Festival workshop, and since then he choreographed dozens of works, the most famous of which was Trojan Game (1974) for LCDT. Over the years, this dance was included in the repertoire of many companies worldwide, including Batsheva in 1983. In 1975, North was appointed LCDT’s resident choreographer. He also worked as a guest choreographer at Rambert Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet, and choreographed for commercial performances at the West End, for the opera, theater, cinema and television. In 1981, he became co-artistic director at LCDT for one year, before moving to become the Rambert Ballet’s artistic director (1981-1986).
During his years in Rambert North also served as a guest choreographer in various companies around the world, including Batsheva. The company staged his following choreographies: Troy Games (1983), Death and the Maiden (1984), Three Latin-American Sketches and Hoedown (from Homage to Copland) (1985), and Whip to a Jelly, Entre Dos Aguas, and Rituals (1986). In 1986-90 he worked as a freelance choreographer for companies worldwide. Later on, he became the artistic director of the Teatro Reggio di Torino (1990-91), Göteberg Ballet in Sweden (1991-96), Verona Ballet (1997-99) and the Scottish Ballet in Glasgow (1999-2002).
Since 2001, he has served as Chair of the National Arts Committee in Spain. Since 2006, he has been artistic director of the Krefeld Mönchengladbach company in Germany. Between 2008 and 2010 he taught at the Heinz Bosl Ballet Academy in Bayern and became its director.
North won many awards, including Best Ballet of the Year Award in San Francisco (1983); Golden Prague Award (1983); Helsinki International Choreography Competition (1990); and the Premio Positano Prize (1995). North was nominated Honorary Professor by the Hungarian Dance Academy (2001).