Thomas Edur

Biography

Thomas Edur has graduated from Tallinn Ballet School in 1988 and worked at the Estonian National Opera 1988–90. In 1990–2009 he was the principal dancer with the English National Ballet, at the same time dancing as a guest artist on many renowned stages, including Birmingham Royal Ballet (1996–97), Teatro alla Scala (1994–2002), Staatsoper Berlin (2001–03), Cape Town City Ballet (2001–07), Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (2003–07), Zurich Ballet (2000), Finnish National Ballet (1998–2001), Noriko Kobayashi Ballet (2002–07), Dutch National Ballet (2004), Houston Ballet (1992) to name a few.

Since 2009 he is the Artistic Director of the Estonian National Ballet.
His most important roles include Apollo (Stravinsky’s Apollo), Basilio (Minkus’ Don Quixote), Prince (Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky), Romeo (Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet), Prince (The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky), Lensky (Cranko/Tchaikovsky Onegin), Prince (Prokofiev’s Cinderella), Des Grieux (MacMillan/Massenet’s Manon), Désiré (Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty) and Albert (Adam’s Giselle) etc. He considers his career highlight as a dancer appearing at the concert for Diana in Swan Lake with the English National Ballet at Wembley Stadium for a record number of live viewers of ballet ever (2007).

His big debut as a choreographer was a pas de deux Forever that premiered on a gala evening The Greatest Love Gala (2000), followed by a commission of two one act ballets from Vanemuine Theatre E-duur (2005) and a one act ballet Anima that premiered in the English National Ballet within the ballet evening Synergy (2006). In 2009 Thomas created a one-act ballet Silent Monologues for the London Festival at the St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 2012 came Thomas Edur’s first full-length ballet Modigliani – the Cursed Artist to the original score by Tauno Aints for the Estonian National Ballet. His respectfully re-choreographed versions of great classics started with La Bayadère (2013), The Sleeping Beauty (2014) and Swan Lake (2016).

Thomas Edur has received many awards and prizes: Young ballet artist prize of the Estonian Theatre Society (1989), Bronze medal and Best Couple Prize at the Jackson International Ballet Competition (1990), Evening Standard Outstanding Performance Award for Ballet (1994), Third Class Order of the White Star of Estonia (2001), Best male Dancer Award – Critics’ Circle (2002), Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (2004) and nomination for the Prix Benois de la Danse (2004). He is the patron of the British Ballet Organisation since 2004. In 2010 her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gave an order for Thomas Edur to be appointed as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. This is in recognition of his services to the arts in the UK and UK-Estonia cultural relations. In 2014, he was nominated for the Taglioni European Ballet Award as the Best Director. In 2011 and 2013 Thomas Edur was a member of the jury for the Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition and in 2015 he was a member of the jury for the TV-series Bolshoi Ballet aired across the world on the Russian culture TV channel Rossija – Kultura and was invited back to do another series in 2018. In 2017 Thomas was a member of jury at the prestigious International Moscow Ballet Competition held at the Bolshoi Theatre.
During his directorship, the Estonian National Ballet has made pioneering tours to Hong Kong, Macao, San Francisco, Sevilla, Tampere, Helsinki, Mariinski theatre, Bolshoi theatre and to Teatro La Frenice (2012 and 2015).

Thomas organised first choreographic workshops in the theatre, giving rise to talented young choreographers, who created works for a ballet evening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Estonian Ballet in November 2018. The triple bill included Echo by Eve Mutso, a former principal dancer with the Scottish Ballet, Thread by Tiit Helimets, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet and Keep a Light in the Window by Jevgeni Grib, soloist of the Estonian National Ballet.