Born in Bristol (GB). A/er studying at London’s prestigious Ballet Rambert School, he joined their company as a dancer. Wherlock was Ballet Director at Hagen Theatre in Germany from 1991 to 1996, then spending three seasons as Director of the Luzerner Ballet before moving to Komische Oper Berlin as Artistic Director and Choreographer of Berlin Ballett. He has been Director and Head Choreographer of Ballett Theater Basel since the 2001 / 2002 season, and Artistic Director of the renowned festival «basel tanzt» from 2004 to 2009. Richard Wherlock has been Director and Head Choreographer of Ballett Basel since 2001 / 2002 and has created many choreographies for the company. He has enjoyed particular success with his adaptions of great classics such as «A Swan Lake», «James or La Sylphide», «Traviata – a Ballet», «Carmen», «Giselle», or «Eugene Onegin» and other full-length narrative ballets which he has reinterpreted using contemporary dance techniques. He worked as choreographer with, among others, the following companies: New English Contemporary Ballet, Tanzforum Köln, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Finnish Dance Theatre Helsinki, Ballett Staatstheater Braunschweig, Romanian National Ballet, The Icelandic Ballet, Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de l’Opéra de Nice, aalto ballett theater essen, Europa Danse (UNESCO), Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballett der Vereinigten Bühnen Graz, Introdans in Arnheim / Holland, Ballett des Badischen Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, Phoenix Dance Theatre Leeds and Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Marin / Argentina. Wherlock also created a full-length ballet for Les Étoiles de l’Opéra National de Paris, for the Ballet of the Opéra National de Bordeaux and for the Seoul Ballet Theatre. His film and TV work includes the choreography for Claude Lelouch’s cinema production «Hasards ou Coïncidences», presented in 1998 at the Venice Biennale and at the Montréal and Chicago festivals. In 2000, Wherlock received the Prix Italia for the award-winning dance film «Passengers», produced by the Swiss broadcasting company DRS, RM Associates and 3SAT. A big film success was «One bullet le/» – also produced by Swiss broadcasting company DRS – was awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux in 2003. In 1999 he was nominated for the international dance award «Benois de la Danse». Richard Wherlock’s particular interest lies in supporting talented up-and-coming dancers. He serves on the juries of numerous international dance competitons and is president of the Migros scholarship jury.
He was co-founder of SiWiC, a Swiss international advanced training course in choreography from 1997 to 2011, and Richard Wherlock's choreographies are regularly danced by participants in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne. Wherlock’s particular interest lies in supporting talented up-and-coming dancers and choreographers. He serves on the juries of numerous international dance and choreographic competitions. The city of Basel has dedicated a plaque to Wherlock on the Spalenberg «walk of fame», where he appears alongside other Basel personalities such as Roger Federer or Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.
Olivier Truan studied piano at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Music with Magna Cum Laude. After further studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Academy of Music in Basel, he collaborated on a number of recordings and concerts with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lew Soloff, Rick Margitza and many others.He has been composer and musical director of many theatre plays in Germany and Switzerland, including «Bullets over Broadway», «Ghetto», «Der Revisor», «Die Vögel», and «Hochzeit» at the state theatres of Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Düsseldorf. Olivier Truan co-composed the Jazz musical «Marilyn» for the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in München, and composed the ballet «La Fermosa». He also composed music for the choreographies «Mayday» and «Ballettabend II» at the state theatre of Basel and the music for the play «Das Geisterschiff» featuring Kolsimcha.
He co-wrote the soundtrack to the motion pictures «Gripsholm» by academy award winner Xavier Koller, and «Anna annA» by Jürgen Brauer. As a classical composer he has written many concertos and pieces for small ensembles, which have been performed throughout Europe. He was commissioned by the «Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt» to write 4 concertos for performance by François Leleux, David Frühwirth, Beni Santora, Ariel Zuckermann, and Michael Heitzler.Olivier Truan has also become one of the world's leading sound programmers. His award winning sample CD-ROMs are regarded as standard works in digital piano libraries and are used by artists such as Elton John, Chick Corea, Prince and Stevie Wonder.
Jordan Tuinman started his career at Netherlands Dance Theatre / NDT (NL), making his first light designs for company dancer and choreographer Jorma Elo, and was involved in the creation of many NDT works by Jiri Kylian, Hans van Manen, Lightfoot | Leon and Ohad Naharin.
Jordan was invited to Ballet Basel (CH) by company director and resident choreographer Richard Wherlock, and designed the lights for his extensive oeuvre of one-act and full-length contemporary ballets between 2007 and 2022.
As a freelance set and light designer, Jordan has worked for internationally acclaimed companies such as the Royal Ballet (UK), Bolshoi Ballet (RUS), Dutch National Ballet (NL), Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Finnish National Opera & Ballet, Scottish Ballet (UK), Royal Ballet of Flanders (BEL), Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet (USA), Stanislavski Music Theatre (RUS), Ballet BC (Can), Aspen Santa Fé Ballet (USA), Opera Nova Bydgoszcz (POL), Croatian National Ballet, the Tbilisi State Opera & Ballet Theatre (GEO) and a multitude of theatre companies and commercial- and governmental institutions in The Netherlands.
A complete list of all companies Jordan has worked for and the productions he was involved in, can be found at www.jtinc.nl
In his sparse free time Jordan enjoys flying small airplanes and directing drama at a theatre school in his home town of The Hague, The Netherlands.
Bruce French is a visual artist, a multidisciplinarian working across the creative spectrum, as well as exhibiting art works internationally Bruce has worked creatively designing projects from Dance to Drama, Opera, Music, Fashion, TV and unique immersive events.
In Dance he has worked with Ballet Theatre Basel, Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Rambert, Atlanta Ballet, Czech National Ballet, National Ballet of Bulgaria amongst others.
Commercially he has created many shows for performers such as The Rolling Stones, Florence and the machine, the Killers, Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey, the Brit awards and ground breaking immersive fashion shows for L’Oréal.
Catherine Voeffray finished her training in fashion design in 1989 at Mode Design Schule Zürich, afterwards she began working freelance as costume assistant and costume designer. In 1993 she was hired in this function by Konzert Theater Bern, where she became deputy head of the costume section in 1997 and also created costumes for numerous plays, opera- and dance productions. Since 2001 she has been freelance again. In Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2002 she designed the costumes for Mozart’s «Entführung aus dem Serail» and in 2012 for Richard Strauss’ «Der Rosenkavalier» staged by Eike Gramss. At Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, Giaccomo Puccini’s «Madama Butterfly», conducted by Giuliano Carella. Besides she was called upon to design the costumes for a variety of choreographies by Martin Schläpfer at Staatstheater Mainz and since 2009 at Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Among them «Ein Deutsches Requiem» by Johannes Brahms, that can be seen now in the repertoire of Staatsballett Wien. Catherine Voeffray debuted in 2020 at Staatsoper Wien with her costume design for Martin Schläpfer’s first performance «4» by Gustav Mahler - a production that is also available on DVD. «Sleeping Beauty» followed in 2022. Catherine Voeffray’s regular cooperation with the Choreographer Stijn Celis included inter alia productions at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montréal, at Cullberg Ballett, Göteborgsoperan, the Swedish Royal Opera, the Netherlands Dans Theater, Cedar Lake Company in NYC and at Semperoper Dresden. With Johan Inger she worked at Opéra National de Lyon, Theater Basel and Semperoper Dresden. For the Choreographer and Ballet Director Richard Wherlock she regularly designed the costumes for his story ballets at Theater Basel between 2013 and 2018, whereby «Tevye» proved to be a special highlight. In 2023 her previously started collaboration with Martin Chaix at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, finds its continuation in the Premiere of «Giselle» at Ballet du Rhin Strasbourg.