Edmund Stripe
Licentiate PDCC-CICB, Enrico Cecchetti Final Diploma
Senior Teacher and Choreographic Associate, Alberta Ballet School
Edmund Stripe was born in London, England and trained at the Royal Ballet School where his distinguished teachers included Walter Trevor, Nancy Kilgour, Piers Beaumont and Richard Glasstone.
A prolific choreographer, Mr. Stripe has established a notable career in both contemporary and classical ballet fields as dancer, ballet master and teacher.
In 1980 he joined Ballet Gulbenkian (Portugal) as a soloist, working with, and performing works by such choreographers as Hans van Manen, Jiří Kylián, Lar Lubovitch, Christopher Bruce, Louis Falco, Peter Sparling and Elisa Monte.
He also created his first professional choreographic work, Construction in Metal No.1 to music by John Cage in 1983.
In 1984, Mr. Stripe moved to London City Ballet as principal dancer, performing all the major works of the company at that time including Giselle, Coppélia, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. He created Continuum (The Race Against Time) for a gala performance attended by Princess Diana in 1985.
From 1987 to 1997 Mr. Stripe was principal dancer with West Australian Ballet, dancing in works by George Balanchine, Graeme Murphy, Barry Moreland, Stephen Baynes, Natalie Weir, Michael Vernon, Gideon Obarzanek and Leigh Warren among others.
During this time, he also created many major works for the company including Strange Territory (1989/1998),
The Walk to the Paradise Garden (1990), Nexus (1993), The Night of the Four Moons (1995), Speed Display (1998),
Colours (1998), Boyce Interludes (1999), Don Quixote Variations (1999) and Pictures at an Exhibition (2000).
He also produced four full-length ballets for children Bats Balls and Ballet, Live on 5, Ashe of the Outback and Malice Through the Looking Glass.
Commissions from Singapore Dance Theatre (now Singapore Ballet) from this time include Symphony No.1, Opus 25 (1993), Five Love Poems (1996) and, later, Piano Concerto No. 2, Opus 102 (2007). He was appointed Ballet Master for West Australian Ballet in 1998.
Mr. Stripe joined Singapore Dance Theatre as Ballet Master in 2000. He assisted in the mounting of works by choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duarto, Stanton Welch, Jan de Schynkel, Boi Sakti, Choo San Goh,
Tierry Malandain and Richard Wherlock, as well as continuing to create and remount his own works.
In 2002, Mr. Stripe was invited to join Alberta Ballet as Ballet Master. Here he assisted with the mounting of works by Jean Grand-Maître, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Rudi van Danzig, Kirk Peterson, Agnes de Mille,
Emily Molnar and others.
Mr. Stripe’s choreographic works for Alberta Ballet include Unquiet Light (2003), Swelter (2005),
Alice in Wonderland (2006) and his critically acclaimed production of The Nutcracker (2008) performed annually by the company across Canada. His work has also been seen in Calgary Opera’s productions of La Traviata and Aida and in collaboration with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in concert performances of Capriccio Espagnol.
From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Stripe taught on the faculty of the New Zealand School of Dance, his students from this time are now dancing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, West Australian Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Australian Dance Theatre, Melbourne City Ballet and Theater Pforzheim.
In 2013, Mr. Stripe returned to Calgary and Alberta Ballet School where he is currently Senior Ballet Teacher and Choreographic Associate. Among the many works he has created for the school are Cluster (2014), The Wait Room (2015), The Low Variations (2016), Closer and Piano Concerto No. 1 (2017), and Dialogues #1 & #2 (2018).
He has further collaborated with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in their educational programs creating
Pulcinella (2019) Appalachian Spring (2020), Firebird (2022) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2023).
Mr. Stripe holds the Licentiate Certificate with Cecchetti Canada, as well as the highly prestigious Enrico Cecchetti Final Diploma attained as a dancer in Australia in 1991.