Born in Bristol, he studied at London’s prestigious Ballet Rambert School, before joining their company as a dancer. Wherlock was Ballet Director at Hagen Theatre in Germany from 1991 to 1996, then spending three seasons as director of the Lucerne Ballet before moving to Komische Oper Berlin as artistic director and choreographer of Berlin Ballett. He was director and head choreographer of Ballett Basel since the 2001/2002 season until 2023, and artistic director of the renowned festival ‘Basel Tanz’ from 2004 to 2009.
He has enjoyed particular success with his adaptations of great classics such as ‘A Swan Lake’, ‘James or La Sylphide’, ‘Traviata - a Ballet’, ‘Carmen’, ‘Giselle’, or ‘Eugene Onegin’ and other full-length narrative ballets which he has reinterpreted using contemporary dance techniques.
He worked as choreographer with, among others, the following companies: New English Contemporary Ballet, Tanzforum Köln, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Finnish Dance Theatre Helsinki, Ballett Staatstheater Braunschweig, Romanian National Ballet, The Icelandic Ballet, Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de l’Opéra de Nice, Aalto Ballett Theater Essen, Europa Danse (UNESCO), Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballett der Vereinigten Bühnen Graz, Introdans in Arnheim/Holland, Ballett des Badischen Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, Phoenix Dance Theatre Leeds and Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martín/Argentina. Wherlock also created a full-length ballet for Les Étoiles de l’Opéra National de Paris, for the Ballet of the Opéra National de Bordeaux and for the Seoul Ballet Theatre. At the International Music Festival in Lucerne he developed choreographies for operas by Monteverdi and Debussy.
Co-operation partners and artists include Bryan Arias, Rami Beer, Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher Bruce, Claude Brumachon, Joelle Bouvier, Stijn Celis, Patrick Delcroix, Nacho Duato, Jorma Elo, Alexander Ekman, Sharon Eyal, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Itzik Galili, Jirí Kylián, Blanca Li, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Thomas Noone, Angelin Preljocaj, Jiří Pokorný, Hofesh Shechter, Stephan Thoss and Ed Wubbe.
His film and TV work includes the choreography for Claude Lelouch’s cinema production ‘Hasards ou Coïncidences’, presented in 1998 at the Venice Biennale and at the Montréal and Chicago festivals. In 2000, Wherlock received the Prix Italia for the award-winning dance film ‘Passengers’, produced by the Swiss broadcasting company DRS, RM Associates and 3SAT. His most recent film success ‘One bullet left’ – also produced by Swiss broadcasting company DRS – was awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux in 2003. In 1999 he was nominated for the international dance award ‘Benois de la Danse’.
He was co-founder of SiWiC, a Swiss international advanced training course in choreography from 1997 to 2011, and Richard Wherlock’s choreographies are regularly danced by participants in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne. Wherlock’s particular interest lies in supporting talented up-and-coming dancers and choreographers. He serves on the juries of numerous international dance and choreographic competitions. He has maintained a long association with the Prix de Lausanne and has also served as President of the Jury.
The city of Basel has dedicated a plaque to Wherlock on the Spalenberg ‘walk of fame’, where he appears alongside other Basel personalities such as Roger Federer, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.