Choreographer | Johan Kobborg
Johan Kobborg
Renowned today for both his distinguished career as a dancer and for his artistic accomplishments as a choreographer, Johan Kobborg was born 5 June 1972 into an artistic family and, in fact, trained as a tenor in his youth before discovering his passion for ballet. Kobborg commenced his professional ballet training at sixteen with the Royal Danish Ballet School, joining the corps de ballet of the Royal Danish Ballet a year later. He received a promotion to Principal in 1994 after a performance of the role of James in Bournonville’s La Sylphide, and would go on to dance major roles in the works of Bournonville, Ashton, Balanchine, and more, as well as create roles including the titular lead in Peter Schaufuss’ Hamlet and Flemming Flindt’s Legs on Fire.
The next phase of Kobborg’s career would commence in 1999, when he accepted a contract as Principal Dancer with The Royal Ballet that would span his next fourteen years. In addition to performing a vast repertoire including a significant portion of the oeuvre of Ashton and MacMillan, among many others, Kobborg would also make guest appearances with American Ballet Theatre, The Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Bayerische Staatsballett, Tokyo Ballet, La Scala Ballet, and dozens of other major dance companies around the world. Another career – and personal – highlight has been Kobborg’s partnership with Alina Cojocaru; first dancing together in a 2001 performance of Romeo and Juliet in which Cojocaru filled in to cover an injury, the two would go on to receive enormous international acclaim in their subsequent partnerships onstage. After several years dancing together, they also confirmed a romantic relationship, leading to an engagement in 2011, and two children since.
During his tenure with The Royal Ballet, Kobborg began his choreographic journey, utilizing his intimate familiarity with Bournonville’s style to create a production of La Sylphide for The Royal Ballet in 2005. His adaptation received glowing praise and multiple awards, and has since been staged for the Bolshoi Ballet, Zurich Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Atlanta Ballet, and others. He also found massive success with 2009’s Les Lutins, also for The Royal Ballet and staged for several major companies since. After his departure from The Royal Ballet at the end of the 2012 – 2013 Season, he assumed the role of Artistic Director of the Romanian National Ballet in Bucharest for several years. In recent years, Kobborg served as lead choreographer for the 2018 Nureyev-focused film The White Crow, directed by Ralph Fiennes; he also premiered his production of Romeo & Juliet at the Arena di Verona, Italy, on 26 August 2019 to an audience of over ten thousand. Today, Kobborg continues to choreograph, and stage works for ballet companies all around the world.
