Brandon Lawrence
Born: Bradford
Trained: With Penny Murray, Andie Nydza and the Royal Ballet School
Joined: 2011; Soloist, 2016; First Soloist, 2018; Principal, 2019
Awards: National Dance Awards nominee for Best Male Classical Performance (2018, 2019, 2022) and Best Male Dancer, Classical (2019), RAD Phyllis Bedells Award (2008).
Created roles: Principal role in George Williamson’s Embrace, Pan in Ruth Brill’s Arcadia, La Grâce in David Bintley’s The King Dances, Alexander Whitley’s Kin, Red Couple in Juanjo Arqués’s Ignite, and roles in Didy Veldman’s Sense of Time, Jessica Lang’s Lyric Pieces and Wink, Jack Lister's A Brief Nostalgia, Miguel Altunaga’s City of a Thousand Trades and Juliano Nunes's Interlinked.
Guest performances:International Ballet Festival of Miami, 2018; Move It 2019 (Headline on main stage); Guest artist with Cape Town City Ballet (Maina Gielgud's Giselle (Albrecht); Frederick Ashton's Les Patineur (White couple) and Veronica Paeper’s Romeo and Juliet (Romeo).
Favourite costume: Without doubt, the Southern Cape Zebra from David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café.
Engagement and Participation work: I have helped with the department’s Ballet? What’s That? events aimed at those completely new to the world of ballet.
REPERTORY INCLUDES
Carlos Acosta: Don Quixote (Basilio, Espada)
Frederick Ashton: The Dream (Lysander), Les Rendezvous (lead couple), La Fille mal gardée (Colas)
David Bintley: Cinderella (Prince), The Prince of the Pagodas (King of the South), Beauty and the Beast (Beast), Far from the Madding Crowd (Tumbler), Carmina burana (Third Seminarian), The King Dances (La Grâce), Faster, Aladdin ('Emerald', 'Gold'), 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café (Southern Cape Zebra, 'Now Nothing'), Flowers of the Forest, E=mc², Tombeaux, The Shakespeare Suite (Othello) and David Bintley and Galina Samsova's production of Giselle (Albrecht).
Edward Clug: Radio and Juliet
John Cranko: Pineapple Poll (Crew) and Card Game (Five of Hearts), The Taming of the Shrew (Lucentio)
Jessica Lang: Lyric Pieces, Wink
José Limón:The Moor's Pavane (Othello)
Kenneth MacMillan: Pavane, La Fin du jour and Elite Syncopations ('Friday Night', 'Bethena Concert Waltz'), Romeo and Juliet (Romeo), Concerto (Second movement)
Vincente Nebrada: Our Waltzes (Brown Couple)
Juliano Nunes: Interlinked
Valery Panov:Liebestod
Twyla Tharp: In the Upper Room
Will Tuckett: Lazuli Sky
Ninette de Valois: Checkmate (Black Castle)
Didy Veldman: Sense of Time
Alexander Whitley: Kin.
Peter Wright's productions of The Nutcracker (Prince) Coppélia ('Call to Arms') and The Sleeping Beauty (Prince Florimund), and Peter Wright and Galina Samsova's production of Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried).
Header image: Clothing and styling generously supplied by UK dancewear specialists Dans-ez
