My Story:

Luke Schaufuss is a principal dancer born in Surrey, England. He is the third generation in a distinguished dance dynasty. He began full-time dance training at the age of six at The Royal Danish Ballet School. As a child, he performed in numerous professional productions, touring extensively throughout Denmark, Norway, Germany, and England.

At 16, Luke became an apprentice at The Royal Danish Ballet, dancing professionally full-time, and soon joined the corps de ballet. His repertoire includes the traditional Bournonville classics such as Napoli, La Sylphide, A Folktale, La Ventana, and Kermessen in Brugges. Additionally his international repertoire consisted of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lady of the Camelias, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, La Bayadere, and Etudes, with choreography by John Neumeier, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Martins, and Harald Lander. With the company he toured the USA, Oman and the Paris Opera.

In November 2013, he joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Where he performed in productions including: Sir Peter Wright's Nutcracker and Swan Lake, John Cranko's Card Game, Balanchine's Slaughter on 10th Avenue and Theme and Variations, Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Elite Syncopations and Romeo & Juliet, David Bintley's Prince of The Pagodas, Beauty and The Beast, Sylvia, and The King Dances, Alexander Whitley's Kin, and Sir Frederick Ashton's Façade, Les Rendezvous, Dante Sonata, and La Fille Mal Gardee. In 2015 toured Japan with the company

July 4th, 2016 Luke joined Scottish Ballet as a Soloist, performing lead roles in Ivgi & Greben's Each Other, Scottish Ballet's Rite of Spring, and A Streetcar Named Desire, which toured the USA. He also danced the prince in both Cinderella and Peter Darrell's production of The Nutcracker. Tours include: Scottish Highlands & Islands, Hong Kong, Macau, & Seoul in South Korea.

Since joining Sarasota Ballet in 2019, Luke has taken on lead roles in many ballets, including Ricardo Graziano's Shostakovich Suite, Murcia, and Weightlessness; George Balanchine's Theme and Variations and the fourth movement of Western Symphony; Robbins' Fancy Free. Additionally he has appeared in Sir Frederick Ashton's Romeo & Juliet (Romeo), Les Rendezvous, Wedding Bouquet, Birthday Offering and Dante Sonata; MacMillan's Dance Concertante; Solo man in Dominic Walsh's I Napolitani; ‘Letter V’ by Mark Morris; Sir Peter Wright's production of Giselle (Albrecht). He was in the original cast of Sir David Bintley's new production of A Comedy of Errors and danced in Jessica Lang's creation The Lorenz Butterfly. In 2025 he appeared at Jacob's Pillow with the company.

Guestings, Awards & Appearances

2011 Recipient of J.C.Jacobsen legacy grant.
2012 Received a commendation from Royal Ballet Summer School
2012 Guested with the Schaufuss Ballet in "The Tchaikovsky Trilogy" at the London Coliseum in 2012 during the olympics
2013 Danced the title role in Sir Frederick Ashton's legendary Romeo and Juliet on a national tour of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to great critical acclaim
2014 Performed his first James in La Sylphide at the prestigious 6th Bournonville Festival in Biarritz, France
2015 He was named a rising star of dance by The Observer and The Guardian
2015 Was featured in Vogue Italia
2015 Guested with the Los Angeles Ballet in their world premiere of Sleeping Beauty
2015 Starred as James in the Olivier Award-winning production of La Sylphide with QLD Ballet in Brisbane, Australia, as well as the Coliseum in London
2015 Appeared in "Darcey's Ballet Heroes" with Darcey Bussell for the BBC
2016 Danced the role of Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet with Los Angeles Ballet, a role originally created by Sir Frederick Ashton for his grandfather Frank Schaufuss at the Royal Danish Ballet in 1955
2016 Staged La Sylphide for Birgit Keil's company in Karlsruhe
2017 Guested as James in La Sylphide for Birgit Keil's company in Karlsruhe
2019 Guest artist with Marcia Haydee’s company in Chile
2020 Throughout the pandemic, Luke also became a teacher and co-director of the Edinburgh Festival Ballet & School
2022 For the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Luke served as both the rehearsal director and played Horatio in the production of `Hamlet` alongside Sir Ian McKellen. The show was a massive success, selling out all 32 performances