Lauren Cuthbertson

English dancer Lauren Cuthbertson is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. She studied at The Royal Ballet School, starting as a junior associate and moving through from White Lodge to the Upper School before graduating into the Company in 2002. She became a Principal in 2008.  

Cuthbertson was born in Devon. Her awards while at the School included the Lynn Seymour Award and the Young British Dancer of the Year Award. She was recipient of the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Female Performance (Classical) in 2004 and 2021. She has performed as a guest artist with Teatro Colón, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and The Australian Ballet. She was invited by the Mariinsky Ballet to perform Sylvia (2018), Marguerite and Armand (2019) and The Sleeping Beauty (2020). In 2022 she performed in the Platinum Party celebrations for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She is Vice President of the British Ballet Organisation and Patron of London Children’s Ballet and the National Youth Ballet. 

Cuthbertson’s repertory with the Company includes leading roles in the classical ballets including Aurora, Odette/Odile and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Works by Frederick Ashton include the Young Girl in The Two Pigeons, Titania in The Dream, Natalia in A Month in the Country and Marguerite in Marguerite and Armand. She also featured in principal roles in many of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballets including Anastasia, Romeo and Juliet, Manon, Mayerling, Song of the Earth and The Judas Tree. She has also performed leading roles in works by other choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, David Bintley, Liam Scarlett and Alastair Marriott. Created roles for Wayne McGregor include Qualia, Chroma, Infra, Acis and Galatea, Live Fire Exercise, Tetractys and Multiverse. Cuthbertson performed Christopher Wheeldon’s Souvenirs while at The Royal Ballet School and went on to work with him closely, creating the role of Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Hermione in The Winter’s Tale. She also worked with Cathy Marston on first joining the Company and went on to create the leading role inspired by Jacqueline du Pré in The Cellist for which she won her 2021 Critics’ Circle National Dance Award.