Wayne Eagling

Wayne Eagling (Montreal, 1950) received his ballet training in California and at The Royal Ballet School in London. In 1969, he joined The Royal Ballet, where he became a prominent principal dancer.

In 1991, he ended his dancing career and succeeded Rudi van Dantzig as artistic director of Dutch National Ballet. At both The Royal Ballet and Dutch National Ballet, Eagling created several ballets, including two full-length productions made in collaboration with Toer van Schayk: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and The Magic Flute. Eagling also choreographed for companies such as the Hong Kong Ballet and Balletto del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, as well as for notable events like the concert The Wall (performed during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989), the music video I Want To Break Free by pop group Queen, and the opening of the major Vermeer exhibition at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.

In 2003, Eagling stepped down as artistic director of Dutch National Ballet. From 2005 to 2012, he held the same position at English National Ballet, where he created works such as Resolution, Men Y Men, and Nutcracker (based on his production with Toer van Schayk).

Since 2012, Eagling has worked as a freelance choreographer. In 2014, he created a new Sleeping Beauty for the New National Theatre in Japan (with costumes by Toer van Schayk) and, in 2015, collaborated with artistic director Tamás Solymosi on a new version of The Nutcracker, specially created for the dancers of the Hungarian National Ballet.