Deirdre Chapman

Deirdre Chapman was born in Minneapolis and trained at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Arts Minnesota and San Francisco Ballet School. She was a member of San Francisco Ballet from 1992 to 1998 and was promoted to Soloist in 1997 before joining Rambert Dance Company in 1998. She joined The Royal Ballet in September 2002 as a First Artist, was promoted to Soloist in November 2002 and then to First Soloist in September 2003.

Since joining the Company her repertory includes the Pas de trois and the role of the Big Swan in Anthony Dowell’s Swan Lake, Mark Morris’s Gong, Mats Ek’s Carmen, Mitzi Caspar in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, the Fourth Sister in My Brother, My Sisters, a courtesan in Manon and Olga in Anastasia. Her roles in Frederick Ashton’s ballets include Scènes de ballet, the Winter Fairy and Autumn Fairy in Cinderella, the Yellow Couple in La Valse, the side Neapolitan couple in Ashton’s Ondine, Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta, Columbine in Glen Tetley’s Pierrot Lunaire, the Fairy of the Enchanted Garden, Diamond Fairy and Fairy of the Golden Vine, in the Monica Mason and Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, the Sapphire Fairy, Fairy of Vitality and Diamond Fairy in Natalia Makarova’s The Sleeping Beauty, Gamzatti in her production of La Bayadére, the Pianist in Flemming Flindt’s The Lesson, Polyhymnia in George Balanchine’s Apollo, Phlegmatic in his The Four Temperaments, Agon, Symphony in C, Moyna and Myrthe in Peter Wright’s production of Giselle, the fourth variation in Nureyev’s Raymonda Act III, Vaslav Nijinsky’s L’Après midi d’un faune, the Hostess in Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches, Madge in Johan Kobborg’s production of August Bournonville’s La Sylphide, the Red Queen in Ninette de Valois Checkmate and 3rd Region Couple in Christopher Wheeldon’s Danse à grande vitesse (2006).

She has created roles in David Bintley’s Les Saisons (2003), Matjash Mrozewski’s A World of Art (Linbury 2004), Christopher Bruce’s Three Songs – Two Voices and Antony Dowson’s Memento.

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