Corey Baker | |
---|---|
Born | Christchurch, New Zealand | 6 June 1990
Career | |
Dances | Classical, contemporary |
Website | coreybakerdance |
Corey Baker (born 6 June 1990) is a New Zealand classical and contemporary choreographer, film director and former dancer.[1]
Baker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 6 June 1990.[2] He attended a rural primary school in Canterbury.[3]
At age fourteen, he was aspiring to be a musical theatre actor in high school.[1] His English teacher, who ran a ballet class in the center of town, saw him tap dancing in the corridor because of his interest and said, "Ballet will help with that."[1] Baker left high school at fifteen to join the International Ballet Academy (IBA) in Christchurch; he danced full time for a year.[1] His lead teacher at IBA was Carl Myers.[3]
In 2017, Baker became one of three resident choreographers at the Royal New Zealand Ballet.[4] In 2018, Baker created the first professional dance performance in Antarctica, which was filmed for Channel 4 (UK) and aired on Earth Day 2018.[5]
In 2020, Baker received a "Culture in Quarantine" commission from the BBC and remotely directed and choreographed a 3-minute film titled Swan Lake Bath Ballet, filmed by 27 elite ballet dancers in their homes during COVID-19 lockdowns.[6][7] The film was released in July 2020 and went viral,[8] with over 4 million views by the following month.[9] The film won the 2021 Prix Italia award for web fiction.[10]
In 2021, Baker created two dance films focusing on climate justice: Blown for the BBC[11] and Leaders of a New Regime,[12] which uses Lorde's track of the same title. Dance Race, a commission for the BBC's Dance Passion season,[13] was broadcast on BBC3 in March 2022.[14]
Baker was chief choreographer and movement director for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.[15]
Baker was in a relationship with American actor Jonathan Groff from 2018 to 2020.[16][17][18][2][1][19]