Wayne Sleep

QUAXO/MISTOFFELEES

Wayne Sleep was born in Plymouth and won a Leverhulme Scholarship to the Royal Ballet School when he was 12. He has been a Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet since 1973 and has danced over 50 roles with them. Among the choreographers who have created special roles for him are Frederick Ashton, Ninette de Valois, Rudolf Nureyev, Kenneth Macmillan and Joe Layton. Besides being a dancer he has appeared in plays – Ariel in The Tempest, Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, the title role in Pinocchio, Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer also cameo roles in films – Virgin Soldiers and The First Great Train Robbery. In the Royal Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream he played the spoken role of Puck and the Soldier in Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale. As a choreographer his work includes The Point (in which he also sang, danced and acted). David and Goliath with Robert North for London Contemporary Dance, the dance sequences for Death on the Nile and Adam’s Rib, a jazz ballet for BBC TV. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows and co-hosted Showtime for ATV. As Genie of the Ring he co-starred with Danny La Rue in the Palladium pantomime Aladdin. He has recently formed his own company which has been critically acclaimed on its first British tour.

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