Wendy Walker

Wendy Walker was born in Adelaide, South Australia and joined The Australian Ballet after studying at the company’s school. Miss Walker was promoted to soloist with The Australian Ballet in 1973, and worked directly with Peggy van Praagh, Vera Volkova, Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann, John Butler, Eugene Loring and John Cranko while dancing in their ballets. She also danced featured roles in all of the classical repertoire. After taking a leave of absence to dance with the London Festival Ballet in 1975, she returned to perform with The Australian Ballet, and also acted as assistant ballet mistress under Miss van Praagh and Anne Woolliams.
Miss Walker was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study at The Benesh Institute in London for 1978-79. She then notated the dance sequences in the film Nijinsky for Kenneth MacMillan and participated in the International Course for Professional Composers and Choreographers, directed by Glen Tetley. Miss Walker has lectured at Waterloo University in Canada, and has worked with the Netherlands Dance Theatre and The Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet.
Miss Walker joined American Ballet Theatre as a Choreologist in 1980 and was appointed a Ballet Mistress in 1984. She worked closely with Antony Tudor, Kenneth MacMillan, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, John Taras, Glen Tetley, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp and Ulysses Dove, among others, notating their choreography. Also for ABT, she staged George Balanchine’s Bourree Fantasque and Symphonie Concertante, and MacMillan’s Concerto, Romeo and Juliet and The Sleeping Beauty. Her responsibilities included the maintenance of the MacMillan and Ashton repertoire for the Company.
In 1993, Miss Walker left American Ballet Theatre to join the Vienna Staatsoper, where, as ballet mistress, she co-staged Manon for the company. She also staged MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet for the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. She then returned to the United States to assist in the staging of Manon for ABT’s 1994 Spring season at the Met.