David Bintley: Body in motion

Swan Lake at the Birmingham Royal Ballet

David Bintley, artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB), has been awarded the CBE for services to the arts.

As a dancer, choreographer and head of a ballet company he has long been recognised as one of the most adventurous and imaginative figures in the world of dance.

David Bintley is recognised as an adventurous choreographer

The 43-year-old graduate of the Royal Ballet School he was taught by the legendary Ninette de Valois, who died earlier this year.

Principal dancer

His first professional dance work was at the Birmingham company.

He was resident choreographer at Sadler's Wells in 1985 and resident choreographer and principal dancer at the Royal Ballet for seven years until 1993.

His awards include the Evening Standard Award for Choros and Consort Lessons in 1983, and the Olivier Award for his title role in Petrushka in 1984.

"I love this company," he said of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

"I am so proud that I now run the company I graduated into."

Recent work

His choreographies include The Nutcracker Sweeties, The Protecting Veil and The Shakespeare Suite.

His most recent work includes Arthur, Part One and Arthur, Part Two about the Camelot legends.

Mr Bintley has spent six years at the BRB, during which time he said the company had "grown up".

"We are no longer in the shadow of anybody else and we have a unique place in the city," he said.

For the last 18 months the company has been away from its home in the Birmingham Hippodrome while it undergoes a £35m rennovation."

"Returning to our home is the single most important thing on the horizon," he said.