David Nixon

Who is David Nixon?

David Nixon OBE is a dance choreographer.

Born in Chatham, Ontario, Nixon trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and danced with the National Ballet of Canada. He joined the Deutsche Oper Ballet, in Berlin, in 1985 as a principal dancer where he won the Critics Award for Best Male Performance in 1987. Nixon’s Liaisons was produced at the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin in 1990.

In 1994, Nixon became Artist Director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., where he created a version of Bram Stoker's Dracula and an adaptation of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast". During his six years with BalletMet, he added sixteen world premieres and fifteen company premieres to their repertoire.

David Nixon became Artistic Director of Northern Ballet, Leeds, UK in 2001. He premiered multiple works there including new versions of Madame Butterfly, Swan Lake, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Peter Pan and The Three Musketeers. In late February 2011, Cleopatra, choreographed to music by the French composer Claude-Michel Schonberg, was given its world premiere in Leeds. The title role is danced by Martha Leebolt. In late 2011, David Nixon choreographed a new version of Beauty & the Beast.

Nixon is choreographing a new adaptation of The Great Gatsby due to premiere at Grand Theatre, Leeds, in March 2013.