CHRISTOPHER HAMPSON
Award-winning international choreographer

Christopher Hampson was born in Manchester, and trained at the Royal Ballet School. After graduating in 1992 he joined English National Ballet and by 1996 was a Soloist. Christopher’s choreographic work started at the Royal Ballet School and continued at English National Ballet where he created a number of ballets before leaving in 1999 to concentrate full time on choreography. Christmas 2000 saw the premiere of his first full-length work, A Christmas Carol, at London’s Royal Festival Hall, followed by Saltarello, for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Double Concerto, for English National Ballet, had its premiere at the Opera House, Manchester, in November 2001 and it won the Barclays Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography.

2002 saw the premiere of his new production of The Nutcracker, designed by political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe for the ENB. In 2003 Christopher created Trapèze for English National Ballet and Romeo and Juliet for Royal New Zealand Ballet, which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award (Best New Production 2005). In 2004 he created a new production of Giselle for the National Ballet in Prague. He created a new work, Sinfonietta Giocosa, for the Atlanta Ballet in the U.S.A. which toured to New York in 2005. Sinfonietta Giocosa has just been restaged for English National Ballet's London season at Sadlers' Wells. His latest full-length ballet, Cinderella, created for the Royal New Zealand Ballet has just completed a tour of New Zealand and China.