Piers Gielgud

Piers Gielgud was born in London. He initially trained as an actor at Bretton Hall College, before training as a dancer at the Ballet Rambert School, from where he graduated with distinction. After graduation, he joined London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) under Peter Schaufuss, where he danced in Maurice Bejart's Bolero, and Rudolf Nureyev's Romeo and Juliet. He then joined the Lindsay Kemp Company (whose former members include David Bowie) as a principal dancer, after which he enjoyed a wide and varied freelance career dancing in all areas of the industry, for choreographers as diverse as Lea Anderson and Karole Armitage and for film directors, including Derek Jarman, Jon Amiel, Marcus Adams and James Ivory. A World Tour as a dancer, with the techno band Meatbeat Manifesto inspired him to form his own small ballet company Re.Animator in 1992, which toured and performed a unique and diverse series of his highly theatrical full length works, every year until 2000. The company's farewell performance was a memorial tribute to his great-uncle John Gielgud, at the Wimbledon Theatre. During this time he enjoyed successful collaborations with the designers Craig Morrison, Zara Conway, and Jane Wildgoose - the Costume Designer of Clive Barker's Hellraiser. He also successfully collaborated with the composers Jack Dangers (Meatbeat Manifesto) and Donna Mckevitt (Miranda Sex Garden/the Pook Ensemble). His first choreography commission was for the idents of the Bristol Animation Festival in 1988, followed by idents for the televised Variety Club Awards in 1989, French TV commercials for Chambourcy also in 1989, and 'Maryland' for Rambert School graduates in 1991. He was commissioned to choreograph the UEFA sponsors party for Euro 96, and also for the Hotel and Catering Industry Awards Ceremony (The Cateys) in 1998. He choreographed an editorial fashion shoot for the photographer Richard Bush and Another Magazine, working with dancers from English National Ballet, which began his highly successful working relationship with Francisco Bosch. He has done commercials for the BMW and for Remy Martin. He has also done the show for the Fall/Winter 2005 Stella McCartney/Adidas collection and the Jones Bootmaker Spring /Summer 2006 collection. He has choreographed live performances and TV appearances for Pet Shop Boys and George Michael's music video 'John and Elvis are dead'. In addition to all of this, Piers taught A-level Dance and Drama at his old school Christ's Hospital (recently featured in Gene Simmons reality TV show Rockschool) from '88 to '89 and was on the Dance faculty of Southwark College from '93 to '94 teaching BTEC. He also successfully devised and ran Employment Service training programs for unemployed professional dancers from 1992 - 2002. This included curating the annual Play at Home season at the Wimbledon Studio Theatre, where new choreographers were able to showcase their work. Piers began his career as a feature film choreographer with Oliver Stone's Alexander in 2003. He is associate producer and choreographer (as well as one of the subjects) of the documentary film 'Dancing for Oliver', directed by his wife Suzanne Gielgud, which had its London premiere at the Constellation Change Dance Film Festival in March 2006. Piers and Suzanne live in Sussex with their two daughters Violet and Scarlett.