top of page
kevinoday-biopic.jpg
kevin o'day

​ United States    

The American Kevin O'Day was born in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2002, he was appointed artistic director of the ballet at the National Theater Mannheim, which was called Kevin O'Day Ballet  NTM from the beginning of his tenure. From 2013 to 2016, he also held the positions of ballet artistic director and deputy director of operations at the theater. From 2018, he was the Artist in  Residence of the dance company at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg for three seasons. He has held the same position at the Badisches StaatsballeG Karlsruhe since April 2022. 

​

As a choreographer, O'Day has created more than eighty ballets, including commissioned works for New York City Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Les  Grands Ballet Canadiens, StuGgarter BalleG, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Pacific Northwest  Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet, Gran Ballet ArgenAno, the Royal Danish Ballet,  ProArteDanza, BalletX, Gauthier Dance StuGgart, BalleG im Revier, BalleG Augsburg, BalleG  Nordhausen and Visceral Dance Chicago.

 

O'Day received his dance training at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. After just one year,  he became a member of Joffrey II, only to be accepted into the main company of the Joffrey  Ballet the following year. In 1984, he began his long collaboration with the choreographer Twyla Tharp.

From 1988 to 1991 he danced as a soloist at the American Ballet Theatre, where he performed in a variety of roles from both the classical and contemporary repertoire. In  1991, he joined William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet. From 1992 to 1995, he was a member of  Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. During this time, he frequently performed as a guest artist with the New York City Ballet. O'Day made his debut as a choreographer in 1994  at the invitation of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who commissioned him to choreograph a new work for the White Oak Dance Project. In 1998, he founded his own company in NYC, O'Day Dances,  in collaboration with the composer John King. 

 

He has received numerous awards as a choreographer. In 2000, he received a nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards in the category "Best Choreography" for the video "So Pure" by  Alanis Morissette. "Full Bloom," a piece in collaboration with Robert Glumbek and Luches  Huddleston Jr, was nominated for the Canadian Dora Mavor Moore Award in 2010. In the same year, O'Day was honored with the Koerner Award, which was presented for the first time by the Canadian Banff Centre.

bottom of page