Ben Stevenson, O.B.E.

Artistic Director

In July 2003, Mr. Stevenson became Artistic Director of Texas Ballet Theater and has since enjoyed seven seasons with the Company.  A native of Portsmouth, England, Mr. Stevenson received his dance training at Arts Educational School in London.  Upon his graduation, he was awarded the prestigious Adeline Genee Gold Medal, the highest award given to a dancer by the Royal Academy of Dancing.  At the age of eighteen, he was invited to join Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet by Dame Ninette de Valois, where he worked with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, and John Cranko.  A few years later, Sir Anton Dolin invited him to dance with London Festival Ballet where, as a Principal Dancer, he performed leading roles in all the classics.

Mr. Stevenson came to New York to assume the role of Artistic Director of Harkness Ballet in 1968.  In 1970, he and Frederick Franklin became co-Artistic Directors of National Ballet of Washington.  In 1976, Mr. Stevenson was appointed Artistic Director of Houston Ballet. For twenty-seven years, Mr. Stevenson nurtured Houston Ballet from a small provincial ensemble to one of the nation’s largest dance companies that has performed to critical acclaim throughout the world. He developed Houston Ballet’s repertory by acquiring the works of the world’s most respected choreographers, commissioning new works, staging the classics, and choreographing original works. 

Mr. Stevenson’s own choreography includes the full-length works Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Don Quixote and original production of Peer Gynt (which opened Norway’s Bergen Festival Gala in 1983), Dracula, The Snow Maiden and Cleopatra. Mr. Stevenson has received numerous awards for his choreography, including three gold medals at the International Ballet Competitions of 1972, 1982, and 1986.  He has staged his ballets for English National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, La Scala in Milan, Munich State Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, London City Ballet, Ballet de Santiago, and for many companies in the United States. Mr. Stevenson has also taught for American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and English National Ballet.

In 1978, Mr. Stevenson traveled to China on behalf of the United States government as part of a cultural exchange program.  At the invitation of the Chinese government, he has returned almost every year to teach at the Beijing Dance Academy, and in 1985, he was instrumental in the creation of the Choreographic Department at the Beijing Dance Academy.  He is the only foreigner to have been made Honorary Faculty Member of the Beijing Dance Academy and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music.  For his contributions to the world of international dance, Mr. Stevenson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honors List in December 1999.  In April 2000, he was presented with the Dance Magazine Award, one of the most prestigious honors on the American dance scene.  In 2005, Mr. Stevenson was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts.