RICHARD WHERLOCK

“Our art is… holding on and letting go, precision and disorganization. Dizzyingly fast, achingly slow, and everything in between. Back up, forth and down. Immeasurable… I just love it.”

Born in Bristol (GB). After studying at London’s prestigious Ballet Rambert School, he joined their company as a dancer. Wherlock was Ballet Director at Hagen Theatre in Germany from 1991 to 1996, then spending three seasons as director of the Lucerne Ballet before moving to Komische Oper Berlin as artistic director and choreographer of BerlinBallett. He has been director and head choreographer of Ballett Basel since the 2001/2002 season, and artistic director of the renowned festival «basel tanzt» from 2004to 2009.
He worked as choreographer with, among others, the following companies: New English Contemporary Ballet, Tanzforum Köln, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Finnish Dance Theatre Helsinki, Ballett Staatstheater Braunschweig, Romanian National Ballet, The Icelandic Ballet, Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de l’Opéra de Nice, aalto ballett theater essen, Europa Danse (UNESCO), Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballett der Vereinigten Bühnen Graz, Introdans in Arnheim/Holland, Ballett des Badischen Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, Phoenix Dance Theatre Leeds and Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martín/Argentina. Wherlock also created a full-length ballet for Les Étoiles de l’Opéra National de Paris. At the International Music Festival in Lucerne he developed choreographies for operas by Monteverdi and Debussy.
His film and TV work includes the choreography for Claude Lelouch’s cinema production «Hasards ou Coïncidences», presented in 1998 at the Venice Biennale and at the Montréal and Chicago festivals. In 2000, Wherlock received the Prix Italia for the award-winning dance film «Passengers», produced by the Swiss broadcasting company DRS, RM Associates and 3SAT. His most recent film success «One bullet left» – also produced by Swiss broadcasting company DRS – was awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux in 2003. In 1999 he was nominated for the international dance award «Benois de la Danse».
He was co-founder of SiWiC, a Swiss international advanced training course in choreography from 1997 to 2011, and Richard Wherlock’s choreographies are regularly danced by participants in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne. Wherlock’s particular interest lies in supporting talented up-and-coming dancers and choreographers. He serves on the juries of numerous international dance and choreographic competitions. The city of Basel has dedicated a plaque to Wherlock on the Spalenberg «walk of fame», where he appears alongside other Basel personalities such as Roger Federer or Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.