Christopher Stowell

incoming artistic director

Bio

Christopher Stowell, the son of Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, was born in New York City and received his training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the School of American Ballet. In 1985, he joined San Francisco Ballet where he danced for 16 years, appearing in theatres throughout the world including the Paris Opéra, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. As a Principal Dancer, Mr. Stowell performed leading roles in full-length classics and had roles created for him by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson as well as contemporary choreographers including Mark Morris, William Forsythe, David Bintley and James Kudelka. An established interpreter of the George Balanchine repertoire, Mr. Stowell appeared in almost every Balanchine ballet performed by San Francisco Ballet.

In 2003 Stowell was named the Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre, a position he held until 2012. During his tenure Stowell made significant additions to OBT’s repertoire, bringing works to Portland from some of the world’s most celebrated choreographers, including Fredrick Ashton, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, William Forsythe, Paul Taylor, Helgi Tomasson, James Kudelka, Christopher Wheeldon and Lar Lubovitch.

Stowell was the Assistant to the Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet from 2014 to 2015, has served as a juror for international competitions in Lausanne and Beijing as well as a guest repetiteur/teacher with such organizations as Hong Kong Ballet, The Royal Ballet School, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Guangzhou Ballet, New York City Ballet, among others.

In 2017 Stowell was named the first Associate Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, a position he held until 2022. Working alongside Artistic Director Karen Kain he supervised the artistic staff, participated in programming and strategic planning and was a member of the DEI task force and Dancers Affinity Group. During his time at NBOC Stowell staged productions of Paquita, Apollo and Chaconne and co-created Karen Kain’s production of Swan Lake. From July to December 2021 Stowell was the Acting Artistic Director.

Mr. Stowell has taught and coached in San Francisco, New York, Japan, China and across Europe. He has created works for San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, The Los Angeles Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet as well as the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute. His ballets are in the repertoire of Carolina Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Diablo Ballet, Orlando Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre. Stowell is a representative of the Balanchine Trust and has also staged the works of Mark Morris and Christopher Wheeldon.