English dancer Bennet Gartside is a Principal Character Artist of The Royal Ballet and Video Archive Manager for the Company. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and on graduation in 1995 joined the Company as an Artist, promoted to First Artist in 2000, Soloist in 2002, First Soloist in 2007 and Principal Character Artist in 2017.
Gartside was born in Lancaster and started dancing aged seven, attending lessons with his older sister. He trained at the Sharon Harrison School of Dance before joining The Royal Ballet Lower School. For his graduation performance he danced Two Pigeons with Laura Morera, Mayuko Maeda and Will Kemp. His roles with the Company include Crown Prince Rudolf (Mayerling), Ivan Tsarevich (The Firebird), Leontes (The Winter’s Tale), Mercutio, Tybalt, Friar Laurence and Escalus (Romeo and Juliet), Widow Simone (La Fille mal gardée), Hilarion (Giselle), Prince Gremin (Onegin), Lescaut, Gaoler and Monsieur G.M. (Manon), Drosselmeyer (The Nutcracker), Husband (The Concert) Von Rothbart (Swan Lake), Dr. Coppélius (Coppélia), Zuñiga (Carmen), Husband (Anastasia) and roles in Like Water for Chocolate, Enigma Variations, Ballet Imperial, La Valse, Sinfonietta, Judas Tree, Song of the Earth, Dances at a Gathering, Scènes de ballet, Theme and Variations and Ceremony of Innocence. His role creations include Walter Sickert (Sweet Violets), Father (Hansel and Gretel), Quant (The Age of Anxiety) and Alphonse (Frankenstein) for Liam Scarlett, Antigonus (The Winter’s Tale) for Christopher Wheeldon and in Twyla Tharp’s Mr Worldly Wise, Will Tuckett’s The Crucible, Cathy Marston’s Traces, Alastair Marriott’s Tanglewood and Scarlett’s Of Mozart, Asphodel Meadows and Consolations and Liebestraum.
Gartside is a filmmaker and maintains The Royal Ballet’s video archive. He also works as a ballet teacher.
