Robert Tewsley

Biography

Robert Tewsley was born in Leicester, England, and studied at the Royal Ballet School, London. In 1990, he joined the National Ballet of Canada where he rose quickly through the ranks to be promoted to Principal Dancer in 1994. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1996, The Royal Ballet in 2002 and New York City Ballet in 2002 as Principal Dancer. From 2004 until 2015 he was a Principal Guest Artist, dancing all over the world with companies such as New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Ballet de l’Opera de Rome, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Vienna Staatsballett, Ballet de Santiago de Chile, Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, The New National Ballet Tokyo, The Australian Ballet, The Stuttgart Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballet Munich, The Hamburg Ballet, Théâtre du Capitol de Toulouse, Ballet de l’Opera de Nice, Robert Tewsley’s repertoire included the male lead roles in Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Raymonda, La Sylphide, Cinderella, Le Corsaire, Onegin, Mayerling, Manon, Lady of the Camelias, The Merry Widow, Cyrano, Edward II, Musagète, La Chauve-Souris, Carmen, Song of the Earth, to name just a few, and danced the lead roles in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Fokine, Frederick Ashton, Glen Tetley, William Forsythe, Roland Petit, Hans van Manen, Jiří Kylián, Paul Taylor and Antony Tudor. He created solo and principal roles in ballets by John Neumeier, Mauro Bigonzetti, Glen Tetley, David Bintley, Peter Martins, Wayne MacGregor, Boris Eifman, James Kudelka, Kevin O’Day, Christian Spuck, Douglas Lee and Jean Grand-Maître. In 2002 Robert Tewsley was elected Dancer of the Year by the European Dance Magazine Dance Europe. He also appeared on television in the ARTE production Penelope, a pas de deux created for him and Marcia Haydée by Christian Spuck. Other television appearances include The Actress, with Karen Kain, created by James Kudelka, Super Ballet Lesson series in Japan, where he performed the Balcony pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. In December 2011, a photo book with bilingual (English/German) biography was published about him: Robert Tewsley: Dancing Beyond Borders, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, written by Iris Julia Bührle. Since his retirement from the stage Robert Tewsley now works for the MacMillan estate staging ballets by Kenneth MacMillan around the world for such companies as American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Pennsylvanian Ballet, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Royal Swedish Ballet, Slovakian National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Ballet du Teatro Colón Buenos Aires. Robert has a BA honours degree in European Studies, an executive diploma in Arts Administration (The University of Zurich), diplomas in both French and German.