Loughlan Prior - Mentor
Image by Garth Badger.
Described by Dance Aotearoa New Zealand as ‘a creative tour de force’, Loughlan Prior is a multi-award-winning choreographer of stage and screen works in New Zealand and internationally. He is the Artistic Director of Lo|Co Arts, Creative Director of Prior Visual, a project-based film collective and Choreographer in Residence at the Royal New Zealand Ballet. His works have been presented in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United States, Denmark and Canada and he has created numerous live and digital works for a diverse range of Kiwi companies from Te Papa to TV3’s Dancing with the Stars.
A graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, Loughlan joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2010 and rose to the rank of Soloist. As a choreographer, he became the first recipient of the Ballet Foundation of New Zealand’s Harry Haythorne Choreographic Award (2015), was awarded Creative New Zealand’s Tup Lang Choreographic Award (2016) and staged his work at the Assemblée Internationale (2017.) In 2019, Loughlan retired from a full-time performance career, becoming a Principal Character Artist with the RZNB, and premiered the highly acclaimed Hansel & Gretel, his first full length production. In the same year, he created The Appearance of Colour for Queensland Ballet’s Bespoke programme and delivered creative masterclasses to dance communities across New Zealand and Australia.
Loughlan holds choreographic relationships with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Queensland Ballet, BalletX, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballet Collective Aotearoa, Chamber Music New Zealand, Grand Rapids Ballet, New Zealand School of Dance, Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden and the New Zealand Youth Ballet. His dance films have enjoyed screenings at the New Zealand International Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, BalletX Beyond, #60secondsdance Denmark, San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival.