MEDHI WALERSKI
choreographer and recently announced as Ballet BC’s new Artistic Director 

Medhi Walerski danced at the Paris Opera Ballet before joining the Nederlands Dans Theater in 2001. For more than a decade at NDT, Medhi was an integral part of the company, contributing to the creative, innovative style that brought NDT world renown. He participated in the creation of numerous new works and danced in the company’s existing repertoire. He was awarded the most important Dutch dance prize, VSCD Zwaan 2013, for his role in School of Thought (Léon & Lightfoot).

It was with Mammatus, a work created for the Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 in 2008 that Walerski made his official debut as a choreographer. Mammatus was part of NDT2’s touring repertoire and was performed in Germany and the UK. That same year he created Underneath for NDT 1. During his sabbatical year in 2009, Walerski delved full-time into choreography, creating for the Bern Ballet and Göteburg Ballet.

Upon returning to NDT 1, his profile as a dancer stayed vital to the image of the company. He continued to create for NDT as well as other companies such as Ballet BC. He created the highly successful Petite Céremonie, which was toured throughout Canada and the US and has remained a highlight of Ballet BC’s repertoire. In 2011, NDT remounted Underneath and Walerski created Blink of an Eye.

A year later, for the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Walerski created Chamber, a co-production commissioned by NDT, Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina, Den Norske Opera & Ballett, the Los Angeles Music Center. Chamber was broadcast to over 600 movie theatres worldwide and has toured to China and the US to critical acclaim.

Since then, Walerski has returned to Ballet BC with whom he has developed a close relationship. In 2014, he created Prelude, and a year later, his first full-length work NATUS, in celebration of Ballet BC’s 30th anniversary. That same year he created Aureum for NDT 2, followed by Garden in 2016 for NDT 1. Garden was made into a documentary and broadcast on Mezzo TV. His latest creation for NDT 1, SOON, premiered in September 2017 and was part of the Nederlandse Dansdagen Gala. Walerski also created his first full-length narrative work, Romeo + Juliet, which premiered with Ballet BC in February 2018.