Lloyd Riggins

Lloyd Riggins was born in New York and studied at the School of Southern Ballet Theatre in Orlando, joining the company in 1985. In 1987 he moved to the Royal Danish Ballet, and was promoted in 1989 to principal. Following several successful collaborations with John Neumeier he joined the Hamburg Ballet as a principal dancer in 1995. Since 2009 he has also worked as a ballet master, and is in international demand in this role. In addition to this, at the beginning of the 2015 season he took up the role of deputy ballet director of the Hamburg Ballet.

As a dancer he has interpreted numerous principal roles in ballets by John Neumeier, and also by August Bournonville, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton and Mats Ek. Among his main creations for John Neumeier are the title role of Hamlet, Gustav von Aschenbach in Death in Venice, A Man in Christmas Oratorio I–VI, Gustav Mahler in Purgatorio, and leading roles in Bernstein Dances and Messiah. Guest engagements have taken him to Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto, Florida, Paris, Copenhagen, Washington and Munich, and to the American Ballet Theatre in New York.

Lloyd Riggins has appeared in numerous film recordings, among them Donya Feuer’s The Working of Utopia, and John Neumeier’s Illusions – Like Swan Lake, St Matthew Passion, Death in Venice, Christmas Oratorio I–VI and Nijinsky.

As a guest ballet master, he has staged John Neumeier’s ballets for the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam (Sylvia), for the San Francisco Ballet and the National Ballet of China (The Little Mermaid) and Houston Ballet (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

As a choreographer he reconstructed the ballet Kermesse in Bruges for the 2005 Bournonville Festival in Copenhagen. In 2014 he staged Bournonville’s Napoli for the Hamburg Ballet, completing the choreography in the spirit of romantic ballet.

In 2004 Lloyd Riggins received the Prix Benois de la Danse for his interpretation of Gustav von Aschenbach; the same year he was awarded the Premio Danza & Danza for his performances in Bernstein Dances and Nijinsky