Paul Lightfoot

Paul Lightfoot was born 1966 in Kingsley, England and got trained at the Royal Ballet School London. He became a member of the Nederlands Dans Theater in 1985. After two years with NDT 2 he got promoted to NDT 1 in 1987. Paul Lightfoot danced with the company until 2008 and was seen in world premieres and repertoire pieces from Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, and Nacho Duato among others. He presented himself not only as an outstanding dancer, but also as a highly talented choreographer during the anual choreographer’s workshops at NDT. Since 1989 Paul Lightfoot works together with Sol León as a duo. 2002 both artists became house choreographers of NDT, since 2003 Paul Lightfoot was the Artistic Adivsor of the company on the side of Jiří Kylián. From 2011 until 2020 he was Artistic Director of the Nederlands Dans Theater.

The repertoire of the choreographic duo includes nearly 60 dance pieces, which next to NDT various prestigous companies perform. In the last years they created furthermore »Short time together« for the Royal Danish Ballet (2015), »Sisters« for NDT 1 (2017), »Kunstkamer« for NDT 1 and 2 (2019) and »Postscript« for NDT 2 (2020).

For their creative work Sol León and Paul Lightfoot received numerous awards among others a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for best dance production for »SH-Boom« and the Lucas Hoving Prize for Paul Lightfoot in 1994, the Prix Benois de la Danse 2005 for »Signing Off« and the Herald Archangel of the Edinburgh International Festival 2006 as well as the VSCD Dance Award »Zwaan« for best dance production 2005/2006 for »Shoot the Moon«.