Helen Pickett

Helen Pickett (San Diego, United States) has been described as ‘one of the few prominent female choreographers in ballet today’. She has created over sixty works for both stage and film and is best known for her full-length narrative ballets based on iconic plays and literary works. 

Pickett danced with Ballett Frankfurt under the direction of William Forsythe from 1987 to 1998. During her final season with the company, she began performing with the avant-garde New York-based theatre collective The Wooster Group, where she remained for five years. She also worked with acclaimed art film directors, Eve Sussman, Toni Dove and Laurie Simmons. From 2005 to 2017, she performed the spoken role of Agnes in Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar, first with Ballet Flanders and later with Semperoper Ballett in Dresden. 

While still performing, Pickett also established herself as a choreographer. Since 2005, she has created works for leading companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Ballet West, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Kansas City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Washington Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Vail Dance Festival, Charlotte Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Ballet Flanders, Semperoper Ballett, Wiener Staatsballett, Scottish Ballet, West Australian Ballet, and others. From 2012 to 2017, she served as resident choreographer at Atlanta Ballet. 

In 2014, Pickett’s first full-length ballet, Camino Real (Atlanta Ballet), was named Best Dance Production, while Pickett herself received the Best Choreographer award – a distinction she earned again in 2015 for The Exiled. 

Recent acclaimed works include The Crucible (2019, Scottish Ballet), which won both a UK Theatre Critics Award and a Herald Angel Award, Emma Bovary (2023, The National Ballet of Canada) and Crime and Punishment (2024, American Ballet Theater). For all three productions, she collaborated with director James Bonas. 

Pickett has created her own workshop intensive, ‘Choreographic Essentials’, and taught ‘Forsythe Improvisation Technologies’ at universities across the United States. She earned her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 2011. Pickett was Distinguished Visiting Artist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts from 2016 to 2020, where she received an honorary Doctorate, and served as co-director of the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Summer Dance School Program in 2021. Pickett is represented by Tobias Round. 

Last update: 27-03-2025