Roger Cunningham

Boston Ballet II
Boston Ballet
Béjart Ballet

Photo via Cunningham International Dance Center.

Born ca. 1973, dancer Roger Cunningham is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and studied under Sylvester Campbell at the Baltimore School for the Arts, graduating in 1990. Cunningham left the school at age 16 to join Boston Ballet II, where he performed in Rebecca Kelly’s Maile’s Dream and Bonnie Scheibman’s La Journee, among other productions. Despite being told by the artistic director that he would never be hired by the main company, Cunningham was determined to “prove him wrong.” And that he did, eventually becoming a soloist and dancing leading roles with the company including those in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Le Lac des Cygnes, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet.

In both 1987 and 1988, Cunningham was given the NAACP Special Dance Award and was nominated for the Princess Grace Award in 1991.

Cunningham’s lead roles with Béjart Ballet, which he joined in 1998 and with which he became a soloist, were those in Mutation X, The Silk Road, Le Presbytère, Le Sacre du Printemps, Danse Grecques, and L’Oiseau de Feu.
He also appeared in the 2000 film Maurice Béjart’s Nutcracker, performing as a Spanish dancer.In addition to serving as a guest teacher at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Lyon, Cunningham also established the Cunningham International Dance Center and is currently the director.

Cunningham is cousin to Askia Swift, and the two attended Baltimore School for the Arts concurrently.