Dou­glas Lee

Born in England Douglas Lee started his ballet training at the Arts Educational School London and then received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School where he graduated in 1996, winning the Alicia Markova Award. Douglas Lee then joined The Stuttgart Ballet, his promotion to Principal Dancer followed in 2002.As a principle dancer Douglas Lee danced many prominent roles for choreographers such as John Cranko, Jiří Kylián, John Neumeier, Hans Van Manen, Glen Tetley, George Balanchine and William Forsythe. Douglas made his choreographic debut in February 1999 for the Stuttgart based Noverre Society's "Young Choreographers", upon which he was commissioned to create a new work for the Stuttgart Ballet. He also participated twice at the New York Choreographic Institute to work with dancers of The New York City Ballet.

With “Aubade” and “Lachrymal” Douglas presented his first works for the Stuttgart Opera House, new creations for the Stuttgart Ballet also included “Viewing Room”, “Dummy Run” and “Leviathan”. His tenth work for the Stuttgart Ballet “Nightlight” premiered in March 2010. Following his choreographic success in Stuttgart he became a freelance choreographer working internationally.

His creation “Fanfare LX” for the Stuttgart Ballet was taken into the repertoire of the Staatsballett Berlin. He created “Fractured Wake” and returned to create “5 for Silver” for the Norwegian National Ballet, “Rubicon Play” for the Royal Ballet of Flanders and “Lifecasting” set to the music of Steve Reich for the New York City Ballet which was shortlisted in Time Out NY as one of the outstanding dance works of 2009 and taken into the Stuttgart Ballet repertoire.

He then created “Miniatures” and “Aria” for the Stuttgart Ballet, “Septet” for Tulsa Ballet, “Souvenir” for Perm Opera Ballet which received 3 Golden Mask Award nominations, “Iris” and “A-Life” for Ballet Zurich, “Chimera” for Ballet Augsburg , “Legion” for Netherlands Dance Theatre 2, “PianoPiece” for Ballet Dortmund ,”The Fade” for Ballet Mainz, “Doll Songs” for Ballet Nuremberg, “Ophelia” for Ballet du Rhin and “Playground” for Atlanta Ballet. His creation Snow Was Falling for Perm Opera Ballet Theatre received the Golden Mask Award for best choreographer 2016. Recent creations include Arcadia for the Stuttgart Ballet, Fortress for the Greek National Ballet and Lady with a Fan for Ballet Zurich.

After "Doll Songs" from 2014, Douglas Lee is now premiering his second world premiere for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett: "Petrushka", together with Goyo Montero's new creation of "Sacre", will be premiered at the double evening "Stravinsky".

Photo © Anton Zavjyalov