Reid Anderson

Reid Anderson, from September 1996 to July 2018 Intendant of the Stuttgart Ballet, has had a long and successful career as a dancer, ballet master and artistic director.

Anderson was born in 1949 in New Westminster, British Columbia/Canada, and began his dance training at the Dolores Kirkwood Academy in Burnaby, B.C. At the age of 17, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, England. One year later, in February 1969, he joined the Stuttgart Ballet upon the invitation of John Cranko. During his 17-year career as a dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet, Anderson, who was promoted to Soloist in 1974 and to Principal Dancer in 1978, danced in a wide range of classical and contemporary ballets and worked with many of the leading choreographers of the 20th century, such as Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, John Neumeier, Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe, all of whom created roles for him.

From August 1987 to June 1989, Reid Anderson was Artistic Director of Ballet British Columbia in Vancouver and in July 1989 he was appointed Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. In 1996, he returned to the Stuttgart Ballet as Artistic Director and was appointed »Intendant« at the end of that season. During the course of his 22-year tenure as Intendant, Reid Anderson followed a repertoire policy which placed equal weight on preserving and cultivating the Cranko legacy and promoting the works of established contemporary choreographers as well as on discovering and nurturing new talents. Between 1996 and 2018, Anderson commissioned over 130 world premieres, including eight new full-length ballets from choreographers such as Mauro Bigonzetti, David Bintley, Bridget Breiner, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Edward Clug, Jorma Elo, Itzik Galili, Marco Goecke, Douglas Lee, Wayne McGregor, Kevin O’Day, Uwe Scholz, Cayetano Soto, Christian Spuck, and Demis Volpi. Under Anderson’s leadership, the Stuttgart Ballet was invited to perform at – among others – the Bolshoi Theater, the Palais Garnier in Paris, the Colisseum in London and the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center.

Reid Anderson is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes such as the John Cranko Prize (1996), the German Dance Prize (2006), the Federal Cross of Merit from the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg (2009) as well as the Golden Stauffer Medal (2018). In December 2013, the Stuttgart Ballet was awarded the European Culture Award for Dance.

To this day, Reid Anderson stages and rehearses John Cranko's masterpieces for renowned ballet companies all over the world. For the Vienna State Ballet he was responsible for the staging of »Onegin« in 2020 and again in the 2021/22 season.