Yolande Yorke-Edgell
Yolande was born in Hertfordshire and trained at Arts Educational School, Central School of Ballet and London Studio Centre. After graduating she joined Extemporary Dance Theatre. She went on to dance with Extreme Measures before joining Rambert Dance Company under the direction of Richard Alston.
In 1994 she moved to Los Angeles to join the Lewitzky Dance Company where she danced many leading roles and was appointed Master Teacher by Lewitzky herself. After the closure of the Lewitzky Dance Company in 1997 Yolande formed her own dance company in Los Angeles, Yorke Dance Project, presenting her own choreography alongside fellow Los Angeles based choreographers. Yolande has been a guest artist for Pacific Dance Ensemble, the Posthouse Dance Group and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s Stravinsky Evening at the new Disney Hall. She has worked for the Los Angeles Opera and in 2001 she co-directed the play Time Out for the New York Fringe Festival.
On returning to England she danced in Adam Cooper’s production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and also Graham Vick’s production of A Midsummers Marriage with the Royal Opera. Yolande joined Richard Alston Dance Company in the summer of 2006 touring throughout the UK and the US. Whilst performing with Alston, Yolande continued to develop her own choreography with the premiere of two of her works in the Resolution! season at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre in 2007 and 2008, both of which are available to view on the video gallery on this website. She has now launched Yorke Dance Project in the UK and to mark the first season, Yolande has secured the rights for the UK premiere of Bella Lewitzky’s 1992 work, Recuerdo.
Yolande’s biography photo by Edmund Barr.
