Ballet Master & Choreologist

Mark Kay took up the profession of choreologist after studying Benesh Movement Notation at The Australian Ballet School. In 1986 he went to London to complete the course at the Benesh Institute and while there notated and worked with choreographer Gillian Lynne on the musical The Phantom of the Opera. He joined The Royal Ballet as a freelance notator in 1987 and worked on Wayne Eagling's Beauty and the Beast and Dowell's Swan Lake. After a 12-month repose in Australia, Mark returned to London in 1988 to work for English National Ballet. During his five years with the company he performed, notated, and worked with many choreographers and directors, including Peter Schaufuss, Ronald Hynd, Kenneth MacMillan, Nicholas Beriozoff, Ben Stevenson and Ivan Nagy. As a freelancer, Mark has staged Peter Schaufuss' Nutcracker for the Graz Oper Ballett in Austria in 1992, Rudolf Nureyev's Don Quixote for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1994 and for The Royal Ballet in 2001, and taught Christopher Wheeldon's Continuum© for Dutch National Ballet (2005) and Zurich Ballet (2006). In 1993 then Artistic Director Maina Gielgud invited Mark to join The Australian Ballet as the company’s choreologist, where he continues to notate and stage ballet, as well as perform character roles such as Sancho Panza in Don Quixote. For The Dancers Company, he has been responsible for teaching, staging, and recently performing the role of The Head Mistress in Graduation Ball.