James Wilke  First Artist, The Royal Ballet

British dancer James Wilkie is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company in 2002, promoted to First Artist in 2007.

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Wilkie was born in Bath. His father was in the armed forces and the family lived in Cyprus, Germany and Northern Ireland before returning to England when Wilkie was seven. Wilkie was inspired to try dance after watching a feature on Blue Peter, and trained with Evelyn Snape in Salisbury before joining The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge. In his second year in the Upper School Wilkie participated in a two-week exchange with Paris Opera Ballet School, won a bronze medal in the Adeline Genée Competition and participated in the Salt Lake City cultural festival as part of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

 

That year he graduated into the Company and his repertory has since included Tom Thumb ( T ales of Beatrix Potter), Step-Sister (Cinderella), V erger/Dormouse (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Harlequin (The Nutcracker), Neapolitan dance (Swan Lake), Goat (Sylvia) and Puck (The Dream).

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Wilkie created roles in Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à grande vitesse and Robert Lloyd Garland’s Spring Rites (‘Inspired by Diaghilev’, Linbury Studio Theatre, 2004).