Loughlan Prior

Described by Dance Aotearoa New Zealand as ‘A creative tour de force’ Loughlan Prior is an award winning Aussie/Kiwi choreographer and filmmaker based in Wellington.

After graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance he joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2010 and began creating small works for the company, becoming the first recipient of the Ballet Foundation of New Zealand’s Harry Haythorne Choreographic Award in 2015. He received Creative New Zealand’s Tup Lang Choreographic Award in 2016 and traveled to Toronto to stage his work Curious Alchemy at the Assemblée Internationale. 

Prior was appointed to the position of Choreographer in Residence at the RNZB by Artistic Director Patricia Barker in 2018 and has been the Creative Director of Prior Visual, a project based film collective, since 2014. 

His stage work has premiered in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Canada and the United States, and he has presented work for a diverse range of companies and creative partners, including iD Fashion Week, Te Papa National Museum, Vogue Australia, WGT LUX, Tempo Festival, Zambesi, and TV3’s Dancing with the Stars. 

His dance films have enjoyed screenings at the New Zealand International Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Centre, #60secondsdance Denmark, San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival. 

In 2019 Loughlan premiered Hansel & Gretel, his first full length production for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. In 2020 he is set to create a new ballet for Singapore Dance Theatre for the company’s international Passages programme and will launch Lo | Co Arts, a project company founded by Prior and composer Claire Cowan