Introduction
David Julian Bintley, CBE, (born 17 September 1957) is a former English ballet dancer, the current artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.
Early life
Bintley was born in Honley near Huddersfield, England. Bintley trained professionally in classical ballet at the Royal Ballet School in London. While training at the school, some of his choreography was seen by Sir Frederick Ashton, founder choreographer and artistic director of The Royal Ballet.
Career
In 1976, Bintley was offered a contract to dance with the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, which is known today as the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He received his first commission as a choreographer in 1978, creating the ballet The Outsider for that company. Later in 1985, he was appointed resident choreographer of The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. He has subsequently created numerous works for the Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet and as an international guest choreographer. In 1995, he succeeded Sir Peter Wright as artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Awards
On 16 June 2001, as part of that year's Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to Dance".
Major works
- Still Life at the Penguin Cafe (1988)
- Hobson's Choice (1989)
- Edward II (1995)
- Carmina Burana (1995)
- Far from the Madding Crowd (1997)
- Beauty and the Beast (2003)
- Cyrano (2007)
- E=mc² (2009)
- Cinderella (2010)
- Aladdin (2012)
- Faster (2012)
- Prince of the Pagodas (2014)
- The King Dances (2015)
- The Tempest (2016)