Peter Schaufuss

Schaufuss, Peter (b Copenhagen, 26 Apr. 1949). Danish dancer, choreographer, and director. Son of Frank Schaufuss and Mona Vangsaae; studied at the Royal Danish Ballet School with S. Williams and H. Brenaa and joined the RDB in 1965. Partly because of his family connections with the company, he chose to establish himself as an international performer, dancing with National Ballet of Canada (1967-8 and 1977-83), London Festival Ballet (1970-4), and New York City Ballet (1974-7) as well as making numerous guest appearances. He was an ardent partner with a powerful virtuoso technique which allowed him to encompass the demands of the Bournonville and Petipa repertoires as well as Balanchine and Petit. From 1984 to 1990 he was artistic director of London Festival Ballet, during which time it became English National Ballet. He introduced radical new works into the repertoire (including a ballet by Michael Clark) as well as staging productions of Bournonville's La Sylphide (1979) and Napoli (1989), and a new version of The Nutcracker (1986) which emphasized connections between the Hoffmann tale and Tchaikovsky's personal life. He also oversaw the reconstruction of Ashton's Romeo and Juliet. In 1990 he was appointed director of the Berlin Opera Ballet where he continued to commission experimental work, by Bill T. Jones and Stephen Petronio, among others, and staged new productions of Giselle (1991), Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty (both 1992). In 1994 he was appointed director of the Royal Danish Ballet for which he choreographed a new production of Hamlet (1996). In 1997 he founded the Peter Schaufuss Ballet, based in the theatre of Holstebro, Denmark, for which he radically re-choreographed the three Tchaikovsky classics and also created The King (mus. Wagner and Elvis Presley, 1999).