Lynn Wallis

Lynn Wallis (OBE) graduated from The Royal Ballet Senior School in 1965 to join The Royal Ballet Touring Company.  She became ballet mistress at The Royal Ballet School in 1969, a position she held until 1982, when she was made Deputy Principal. During this time she reproduced a great many ballets from the classical repertoire for the school performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and other venues.

In 1984, at the invitation of Erik Bruhn, Wallis joined The National Ballet of Canada as Artistic Coordinator, and in 1986 became Associate Artistic Director, with Valerie Wilder, and Co-Artistic Director from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, she was appointed Deputy Artistic Director of English National Ballet with special responsibility for mid-scale touring, the Education and Community Unit, Choreographic workshop and English National Ballet School.

Wallis joined the Royal Academy of Dance in 1994 as Artistic Director and is responsible for setting and maintaining the standards of dance training worldwide, developing the RAD’s syllabus and planning courses internationally for students.

In 2001, Wallis was nominated and shortlisted for the European Women of Achievement Awards. In 2004, she was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in the category of Reconstruction/Revival/Restaging for her work on Frederick Ashton’s Monotones I and II for San Francisco Ballet.

Wallis is a Fellow of the Imperial Society of Dancing, a Trustee of The Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund, Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund and a Governor of Elmhurst School for Dance.

In June 2015, Wallis was awarded an OBE, Order of the British Empire, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to dance.

In 2004, Wallis staged Monotones I for the ABT Studio Company.  Monotones I and II is Lynn Wallis’ first staging for American Ballet Theatre.