Robert
Denvers

Jury member of Benois de la Danse

Born in Antwerp, Robert Denvers developed his dance career primarily with Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the XX th Century — from 1963 to 1973, and then started to work as a soloist at the National Ballet of Canada.

From 1975 to 1977 he was based in New York, devoting himself to a thorough study of the Balanchine method and style, and returned to the Ballet of the XX th Century in 1977 as a teacher and assistant director.

In 1979, back in New York, he established his own ballet studio, the West Side School of Ballet, where prominent dancers from the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Joffrey Ballet came to take classes, among them Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland and Rudolf Nureyev.

Robert Denvers was also a guest teacher with the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Dallas Ballet, the Netherlands Dance Theatre, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the North Carolina School of the Arts and the English National Ballet. At the time of his appointment as artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, he was guest teacher with the Ballet of the Paris Opera and the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen.

Since undertaking his position on 19 January, 1987, Denvers has been responsible for the daily company classes, and his outstanding pedagogical talent has led to remarkable results. His aim was to provide the public with a wide spectrum of ballet and dance genres. The names of many renowned contemporary choreographers figure in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, together with the great classic and modern ballets. International competitions frequently call on Robert Denvers to serve on their juries (Paris, Osaka, Luxemburg, Houlgate, Lausanne, Shanghai).

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