Russell Maliphant

Russell Maliphant was born in 1961 in Ottawa.

He moved with his family to Cheltenham, England, at a young age and began studying ballet. In 1977, he began training at the Royal Ballet School and upon graduating in 1980 was admitted to the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. In 1988, he left the company and began dancing independently with various choreographers such as Michael Clark, Laurie Booth, Rosemary Butcher and Lloyd Newson, director of DV8, with which he danced Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men in 1988.
In 1991, he began choreographing and created the solo Evolving Paradigm. In 1992, he was invited to create the quartet Relative Shift for the Ricochet Dance Company, and subsequently became the company’s resident choreographer. In 1991-94, he studied anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and Rolfing, a treatment approach which was highly influential on his style.

In 1993, he was invited to Israel to teach Batsheva Ensemble dancers 14 minutes out of his Relative Shift, originally a 40-minute piece.
In 1996, Maliphant established the Russell Maliphant Company in London, which went on to tour Britain and many other countries, including France, Italy, Japan, and the US. His choreographies for the company include Broken Fall (2003), Push (2005), and the Afterlight trilogy (2010). He also created for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Nuremberg Ballet, and the British Channel 4.
Maliphant is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Time Out Live award for outstanding collaboration (2002), South Bank Show dance award (2003, 2006), and an Olivier award (2006). In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from Plymouth University.