Born in Hove, England, and educated at the Royal Ballet School. Philip Lansdale first engagement was with English National Ballet (then London Festival Ballet), were he worked with many prominent choreographers, including Massine, Hynd, Stevenson and Moreland, as well as dancing the main classical repertoire. There followed further engagements as a solo dancer with Northern Ballet Theatre, Manchester,
were he had works written for him by Thorpe, Prokovsky, Clegg, to mention but a few, as well as dancing works by Jooss, Cranko. He also guested at this time with the Batscheva Dance Company (Israel). He then went on to join the Bonn Ballet (Germany), were he was also engaged as ballet master, later he became a member of the Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Ballet Hannover (Germany), were after a solo career with the company, he became ballet master and assistant to the director.
In 1987 he was appointed Ballet director of the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Germany, were he created several full length pieces, including Cinderella, A Midsummer-night’s Dream and Swan Lake, as well as commissioning works from Jonathan Thorpe and William Anthony.
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From 1992 until his engagement in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1998, he was Ballet director of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Normandie in Rouen, France, were he created such works as Les Noces, Casse-Noisette, Inner-Compulsion, La Dame aux camelias, Romeo and Juliet, La belle et la bête, Boléro. Wishing to broaden the ensemble’s horizons, and to reinvigorate the company’s repertoire, he commissioned pieces by Karine Saporta, Anne Venture and Richard Wherlock. Beside his artistic and choreographic work, he has always worked intensively as a teacher, with the Saarländischen Staatstheater Saarbrücken ballet school, he gave master classes at the Conservatoire National de la Danse in Rouen (France), as well as at the Summer School Calgary (Canada), he later taught at the Theater Bielefeld’s ballet school. Since 2006 Lansdale has worked as a ballet teacher and in youth theatre projects with the Verein "Tabula", in Bielefeld, Germany. Belonging to his recent creations is a new version of Corwalch, his sixteenth full length dance piece for his Bielefeld ensemble. Earlier works for this dance company includeThe Tempest, La Sylphide, Peer Gynt, Anna Karenina, Dona Rosita bleibt ledig, Hamlet, Swan Lake, Don Juan, Electra, Coppélia, as well as L’enfant et sortilèges / Le sacre du printemps, Messiah, Der Tag ist nun vergangen..., and Bach-Dialoge. Lansdale reworking and interpretation of the big classics in a modern choreographic form has brought him much renown. He has also created short, abstract works, but he is best known for his the full length dramatic pieces. As a guest choreographer, he created a piece for the Japanese company, Hikasa Ballet, as well as works for the Avignon, Nancy and Rennes ensembles, in France. Through his choreographic work in Musical-, Operetta-, and Opera productions, Lansdale has worked with many leading stage directors, including Nico Rabenald, Cabaret and West Side Story, Wolfgang Lachnitt, My Fair Lady, Frau Luna, Lustige Witwe and Königin Luise Neustrelitz (World premiere, of this Summer festival), Gerhard Platiel, Hair and Evita, Guy Montavon, Zar und Zimmermann, John Cox, Hamlet, and several opera productions with Marc Adam. |