Wayne Eagling (born 27 November 1950) is a Canadian ballet dancer, now retired. After more than twenty years as a popular member of

The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

in London, he became well known as an international choreographer and company director.

Early life and education

Wayne John Eagling was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, to Anglophone parents, Edward and Thelma Eagling, on 27 November 1950.Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell,
Eagling, Wayne
, in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Dance'' (Oxford University Press, 2000). Partly available online; whole entry is subscription only. He spent much of his childhood and youth in California, where his family had moved. As a boy, he augmented his academic studies by attending classes at the Patricia Ramsey Studio of Dance Arts. There, he developed into a gifted student of classical ballet and, as he matured, was encouraged by his teachers to pursue a career as a professional dancer. In 1965, when he was 15, he was noticed by Michael Somes and Gerd Larsen of the Royal Ballet during the company's tour of the United States and was offered a place at the Royal Ballet School in London. He moved to England in the late 1960s, where he remained a devoted student of classical ballet and related arts. He was invited to join

in 1969, when he was only 18.

Career

Eagling proved to be a valuable addition to the company. A supple and powerful dancer, he was promoted to soloist in 1972 and to principal dancer in 1975. As the product of "an eclectic training with a mix of lots of different methods," he was exceptionally versatile. He performed the leading roles of princes, gallants, and swains in the nineteenth-century classics—partnering with dancers including

Margot Fonteyn Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE ( Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn (), was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with th ...

, Jennifer Penney, and Merle Park—but he was best known for his work in the twentieth-century repertory. A favorite of renowned British choreographer

Kenneth MacMillan Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...

, he created roles in a number of his works, including ''Elite Syncopations'', a suite of ragtime dances, and ''Gloria'', an elegiac work about the futility of war. He danced the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in the New York premiere of MacMillan's ''Mayerling'' in April 1983. He also danced in ballets by

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositio ...

, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Rudolf Nureyev, among others. He was especially admired as Balanchine's Apollo, as Woyzeck in MacMillan's ''Different Drummer'', and as the Chosen One in Glen Tetley's ''The Rite of Spring'', the first male dancer to undertake that dramatic role. While still active as a principal dancer, Eagling began to take part in choreographic workshops sponsored by the Royal Ballet. His first work for the company was ''Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus'', made in 1984. Other works soon followed, mounted for his home company and for companies abroad. In 1991, Eagling took up the post of artistic director of Het Nationale Ballet ( Dutch National Ballet) in Amsterdam. As chief choreographer, he created a spate of new works in the following years. In 1996, he collaborated with Toer van Schayk on a new production of ''The Nutcracker and the Mouse King''. Set in Amsterdam around 1810, with skaters on a frozen canal and Saint Nicholas instead of Herr Drosselmeyer, it was an immediate hit with the Dutch public and was later staged by the Finnish National Ballet and the Polish National Ballet. During Eagling's tenure as artistic director, he not only maintained the classical and neoclassical repertory of the Dutch National Ballet but actively commissioned new works by contemporary choreographers such as Ashley Page and David Dawson. After he left his post in Holland in 2003, he worked on the international scene for two years, occasionally staging works for the legendary Italian ballerina Carla Fracci. In December 2005, Eagling was appointed artistic director of the English National Ballet in London, where he continued to invent new stage works. Notable among them were the witty ''Men Y Men'', set for nine male dancers in 2009, and, in 2010, yet another version of ''The Nutcracker'', a perennial favorite. During his seven years with this company, he was warmly appreciated by audiences and was both respected and beloved by his dancers. In 2012, however, he was forced to resign in a controversial dispute with the governing board over drastic cuts to the company budget.

Roles created

Eagling created numerous roles in the works of Sir Kenneth MacMillan and other choreographers. Among them are the following.

In MacMillan ballets

*1972. ''Triad'', music by Serge Prokofiev. Role: Younger Brother, with Anthony Dowell as the Elder Brother and Antoinette Sibley as their love interest. *1974. '' Elite Syncopations'', music by

Scott Joplin Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Dubbed the "King of Ragtime", he composed more than 40 ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the ...

. *1975. '' The Four Seasons'', music by

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

. Role: "Spring," a ''pas de quatre'' with Lesley Collier, Michael Coleman, and David Ashmole. *1975. ''Rituals'', music by Béla Bartok. Role: Celebrant. *1977. '' Gloriana'', music by

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

. Role: principal dancer. *1980. '' Gloria'', music by

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

. Role: Soldier. *1984. '' Different Drummer'', music by

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

. Role: Woyzeck.

In other works

*1975. ''Four Schumann Pieces'', choreographed by Hans van Manen, music by

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

. *1982. ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'', choreographed by

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

, music by

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

. Role: Ariel. *1983. '' Voices of Spring'', choreography by Sir

, music by

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...

. Role: featured dancer, a ''pas de deux'' with Merle Park. *1983. ''Consort Lessons'', choreographed by David Bintley, music by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

Works choreographed

Among the works choreographed by Eagling for various companies are the following: *1985. ''Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus'', music by

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

; for

, London. *1986. ''Beauty and the Beast'', music by Vangelis; for the Royal Ballet. *1988. ''Byron'', music by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky; for the Ballet del Teatro alla Scala, Milan (La Scala Ballet). *1989. ''Nijinsky'', music by Claude Debussy; for the Ballet del Teatro di San Carlo, Naples (Naples Ballet). *1993. ''The Ruins of Time'', music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; for Het Nationale Ballet ( Dutch National Ballet), Amsterdam. A tribute to

. *1994. ''Symphony in Waves'', music by Aaron Jay Kernis; for the Dutch National Ballet. *1994. ''Alma Mahler'', music by

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

; for La Scala Ballet. A vehicle for Carla Fracci. *1996. ''Holding a Balance'', music by

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...

; for the Dutch National Ballet, *1996. ''Nussknacker und Mousekonig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King)'', choreographed with Toer van Schayk; music by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky; for the Dutch National Ballet. *1997. ''The Last Emperor'', music by Su Cong; for the Hong Kong Ballet. *1999. ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'', choreographed with Toer van Schayk; music by Riccardo Drigo; for the Dutch National Ballet. *2004. Dances in '' Maria Stuarda'', opera by

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...

; for the Ballet del

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Rome Opera House) is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat ''Costanzi Theatre'', it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements. The pres ...

(Rome Opera Ballet). *2000. ''Le Sacre du Printemps (

The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring'' () is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky ...

)'', music by

; for the Dutch National Ballet. *2008. ''Resolution'', music by Gustav Mahler; for the Royal Ballet. *2005. Dances in '' Thaïs'', opera by

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...

; for the Rome Opera Ballet. *2008. ''Resolution'', poems by

Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...

, music by Gustav Mahler; for the Royal Ballet. *2009. ''Men Y Men'', music by

Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

, orchestrated by Gavin Sutherland; for the English National Ballet, London. *2010. ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'', music by Pytor Ilich Tchaikovsky; for the English National Ballet. *2012. ''Beauty and the Beast'', expanded version, music by Vangelis; for the Kremlin Ballet, Moscow. *2014. '' The Sleeping Beauty'', music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; for the National Ballet of Japan, Tokyo.

Legacy

Eagling can be seen dancing on three DVDs that are commercially available. In a Royal Ballet performance of MacMillan's ''Romeo and Juliet'', recorded in 1984 and released by Kultur Video in 2005, he is partnered with

Alessandra Ferri Alessandra Ferri OMRI (born 6 May 1963) is an Italian prima ballerina. She danced with the Royal Ballet (1980–1984), American Ballet Theatre (1985–2007) and La Scala Theatre Ballet (1992–2007) and as an international guest artist, before ...

, an acclaimed interpreter of the role of Juliet. At the end of 1984, the BBC recorded the New Year's Eve gala performance of Johann Strauss's operetta ''Die Fledermaus'' at the Royal Opera House, starring Dame

Kiri Te Kanawa Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December ...

and Hermann Prey. In the party scene, it featured Ashton's exuberant ''pas de deux'' set to the famous waltz "Frülingsstimmen" ("Voices of Spring") and danced with joyous abandon by Eagling and Merle Park. Both these recorded performances show him in the prime of his career. Eagling can also be seen performing the "Four Seasons" ballet from

's opera '' I vespri siciliani'', in a production from the

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was a church). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's ''Europa r ...

, opposite Carla Fracci to choreography by Micha van Hoecke. The production opened La Scala's season in December 1989.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eagling, Wayne 1950 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Canadian male ballet dancers Dancers of The Royal Ballet English National Ballet Entertainers from Montreal 20th-century ballet dancers 21st-century Canadian ballet dancers