Luke Cooper

Luke Cooper joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet full-time in 2018 as the Todd Scholar, and he was promoted to Artist in 2019. 

Luke was born in Palmerston North and started dancing at a young age. He joined the New Zealand School of Dance Associate programme at the age of twelve, moving to Wellington to join the full-time training programme in 2014. As a student at NZSD, Luke performed in the RNZB’s productions of Adrian Burnett’s Don Quixote (2015), Francesco Ventriglia’s The Wizard of Oz (2016) and, after graduating, in Roland Petit’s Carmen and L’Arlésienne (2017). 

Since joining the RNZB in 2018, Luke has danced in a vibrant repertoire of ballets. He started 2018 with performances in the RNZB’s production of The Piano: the ballet. He also featured in the documentary The Heart Dances – The Journey of The Piano: the ballet, directed by Rebecca Tansley, which followed the creation process for the ballet adaptation of Jane Campion’s critically acclaimed film The Piano. Luke further performed in Jiří Kylián’s Sechs Tänze and the premiere of Penny Saunders’ So to Speak and Danielle Rowe’s Remember, Mama and Val Caniparoli’s The Nutcracker. A highlight from the 2018 season was Tutus on Tour where Luke performed a duet with Sir Jon Trimmer in Loughlan Prior’s The Long and the Short of It.  

In 2019, Luke delved into exploring his cultural heritage as a descendant of the Te Arawa iwi, leading the haka in Moss Patterson’s Hine for the New Choreographic Series.  Luke finished off 2019 with great success performing the ‘camp, melodramatic’ role of the Transformed Witch in Loughlan Prior’s Hansel & Gretel.  

2020 began with Luke revisiting Danielle Rowe’s Remember Mama, dancing the Adult Son for Tutus on Tour. He finished the year dancing an array of roles in The Sleeping Beauty, including Puss in Boots.  

2021 brought Luke performances in Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg’s Giselle, Liam Scarlett’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Andrea Schermoly’s Within Without. In 2022, he performed as The Fab Five’s Karl in Loughlan Prior’s Cinderella, and also had roles in Alice Topp’s Aurum, Sarah Foster-Sproull’s The Autumn Ball and Twyla Tharp’s Waterbaby Bagatelles™. As part of the digital season Ballet Bites he performed in Shaun James Kelly’s Alba, Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Artemis Rising and Andrea Schermoly’s Within Without. 

Highlights from Luke’s 2023 performances include the ‘Nobody Takes Me Seriously’ solo from Mark Baldwin’s FrENZy, the Lightscapes mixed bill programme which included leading the haka in Moss Patterson’s Te Ao Mārama, dancing the ‘Storm’ trio in Alice Topp’s Logos and also in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Requiem for a Rose and finally revisiting the Transformed Witch in Hansel and Gretel. 

Tutus on Tour 2024 saw performances for Luke in Shaun James Kelly’s Prismatic and the Hungarian dance from Russell Kerr’s Swan Lake. Luke is thrilled to be revisiting Kerr’s Swan Lake as a professional, having been a child extra last time it was performed 11 years ago.

Luke is supported by Nikko Asset Management.