About
Bruce McCormick is a choreographer, educator, scholar and soloist dancer exploring personal and universal storytelling through contemporary ballet. He creates for stage, film, opera and site-specific performance. His international performing career spanning over two decades includes Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Bavarian State Ballet and the Bern Ballet, where he also served as Ballet Master. Through his work as Assistant Artistic Director of North Netherlands Dance and Guest Rehearsal Director with Ballet BC, he approaches dancemaking with the understanding that humane and rigorous rehearsal spaces are crucial to the delivery of honest and boundary-pushing performances.
McCormick’s work centers the audience experience, inviting viewers to see themselves within the precarious and superhuman nature of ballet performance. His choreography is shaped by his experience performing the geometry and musicality of George Balanchine, systemic investigation of William Forsythe, hybridity of Jiří Kylián, viscerality of Crystal Pite, physicality of Ohad Naharin and theatricality of Susan Marshall. He has been commissioned by Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, Korea National Opera, Stadttheater Bern, ARC Dance, Ballet California and Cornish College of the Arts, with festival appearances at DUMBO Dance Festival (NYC), ITS Festival (Amsterdam), International Festival of Contemporary Dance of Mexico City, Seattle International Dance Festival, Choreographer Collection Los Angeles and Queer Mvmnt Fest (San Diego).
As an educator, McCormick joined the faculty at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in 2018, where he serves as Associate Professor of Practice teaching ballet, partnering and Senior Seminar, while leading the Career Services team. He has taught masterclasses for A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, BalletX, Gibney Company, National Dance Company of Wales, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Whim W’him. His work as a scholar includes presentations for the National Dance Education Organization, CORPS de Ballet International, as well as publication in The International Journal of Arts Theory and History. McCormick earned his BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and his MFA from the University of Washington, where he served as Assistant Professor of Dance.
