Kilian O'Callaghan

Kilian O'Callaghan is a choreographer, ballet teacher, and education manager. From Cork, Ireland, he is one of just five men from Ireland to attend Royal Ballet School since it came into being in 1956. In 1982, Kilian Joined The Scottish Ballet, touring Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Europe, Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC USA, to Hong Kong and Perth Western Australia. In 1986, Kilian joined West Australian Ballet as a Soloist Dancer, touring to WA, Darwin and Alice Springs NT. In 1988, Kilian moved to New Zealand to dance as soloist and then Principal Dancer with Royal New Zealand Ballet. With this company, he toured New Zealand and Australia, as well as tours to USA, and Europe. He was well known for his leading roles in repertoire full-length classics such as Prince in Cinderella and in The Nutcracker, James in La Sylphide, Albrecht in Giselle, Franz in Coppelia and Tybalt in Romeo & Juliet. He also danced Hamlet in Hamlet (chor Jonathan Taylor), Mozart in Wolfgang Amadeus (chor Gray Veredon), as well as shorter ballets by Balanchine, Robert North, Cranko, Garth Welch, and Michael Parmenter. In 1990, he played the Dream Lover in Jean: the Ballet of Jean Batten. Kilian now lives in Dublin, working for Irish National Youth Ballet, producing ballets for this company every year since 2009. In 2015, he produced a full-length Nutcracker, which played to sold-out houses that year and in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he choreographed a new full-length production of Cinderella for the company. In December 2019, the company again performs his Nutcracker on 13-15 December in Pavilion Theatre Dun Laoghaire.