Timothy Gordon was born in Wellington, New Zealand and after moving to Australia at an early age began his dance training in Sydney with Joan and Monica Halliday. He later was accepted into The Australian Ballet School and after graduating joined The Australian Ballet Company in 1979-1981, dancing in the works of Fredrick Ashton, John Cranko, Gerald Alpino, Dame Peggy van Pragh and Rudolph Nureyev. He left the company to dance with the Nederlands Dance Theater in the Hague, Holland in 1982, under the director/choreographer, Jiri Kylian, touring with the company throughout Europe and Scandinavia and in 1984 joined William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt as a soloist. He was later appointed a balletmaster with the company and it was during this time that he choreographed several experimental works, as well as coaching and teaching.

Returning to Australia in 1986, Gordon joined the teaching faculty of The Australian Ballet School as a senior classical tutor and choreographer, directed by the founder, Dame Margaret Scott from 1987 - 1991 and created ballets for both the school and The Australian Ballet Company, including Sonata for Seven, which the company showcased at Covent Garden, in its 1988 overseas tour.

In 1992, Gordon commenced a free-lance career as a choreographer, creating dance works for The Singapore Dance Theatre, The Royal New Zealand Ballet and The Australian Ballet Company. He also choreographed Tannhauser for The Victorian State Opera.

Leaving Australia to return to his native New Zealand in 1993, he set up a project group, Company Z, in Auckland and choreographed two full length evenings, No Limits in 1994 and Slow Fever in 1995. It was during this time that he took up teaching engagements with The Stuttgart Ballet in Germany (dir. Marcia Haydee) and The Béjart Ballet-Lausanne (dir. Maurice Béjart) and was engaged by The Australian Opera to choreograph Aida in 1995.

Gordon returned to Europe in 1995, basing himself in Lausanne, Switzerland in order to fulfil teaching engagements with The Béjart Ballet-Lausanne, The Béjart School - Rudra and The Vienna State Opera Ballet in Vienna, Austria. He was a guest teacher at The Royal Danish Ballet and was later invited on a three-month European tour as guest teacher with The Tokyo Ballet and the renowned ballerina, Sylvie Guillem.

Returning to Australia in 1999, he taught and choreographed at The Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia and was a guest teacher for The West Australian Ballet.

In 2000, he was commissioned by Opera Australia to choreograph the dance sections in Capriccio for the opera’s millennium season at he Sydney Opera House. Kroof Kroof
was choreographed for the Direct Current Dance Collective in Canberra at The Choreographic Centre and Gravitations Gravitations
, for the ‘Positive Spin’ Programme at the Victorian College of the Arts. He also participated in the film by Paul Cox, The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky.

Returning to New Zealand in 2001, he danced in the production of Manon for the New Zealand Opera and was guest teacher for The Royal New Zealand Ballet. In 2002, Gordon was appointed Senior Lecturer and Dance Programme Co-ordinator at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, The University of Auckland. He received a research grant for investigation into the effects of the Alexander Technique on Classical Ballet training. Arabesque was created during that year. In 2005 Gordon became the founding director and principal teacher at City Ballet in Auckland, a new tertiary dance programme for classical dance training and performance, where he choreographed Blue Tango Blue Tango
and Fragments. Fragments

Gordon founded the Company Z Dance Trust in 2006. Choreographing various new works including Juliet’s Code, Juliet’s Code
Peter and the Wolf Peter and the Wolf
and Mass. Mass
He is also Artistic Director of AUT University Dance Collective and a member of CID (International Dance Council).


email: companyz@xtra.co.nz