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At the age of 14 or 15, Michael Revie was given an opportunity originally intended for someone else.
It was by chance, not by design. He didn't push himself forward for it, he just got lucky.

As a young dancer at the Royal Ballet School in London, he was asked to perform a piece created by an important visitor, a man called David Bintley.

He shouldn't really have been in the performance at all, it was just that someone fell sick.

And Michael, even though he wasn't even in the right class and wasn't even the right age, was picked to take his place.

The piece, called Un Bateau, was one he has never forgotten.
Years later, he was to find out that David Bintley hadn't forgotten either. Michael, who looks more like a young Elvis Presley - albeit with a goatee, tattoos and a chin piercing - than a ballet dancer - has just joined the Brimingham Royal Ballet as principle dancer.

The man he now politely calls 'Mr Bintley' is his boss, director of the company.

'I remember I was very chuffed, very excited, but very nervous about being chosen for Un Bateau,' says Michael, his accent a hotch-potch of his native Northern Ireland mixed with bogstandard English and Germanic intonations from his time with European ballet companies.  

Born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, Michael Revie studied at the Royal Ballet School before joining the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Dusseldorf, in 1993. In 1996 he became a Principal with Zürich Ballet under director and choreographer Heinz Spoerli, who created many roles for him in Zürich, most notably the leading role in Mozartina, for which he was an Olivier Award nominee in 2001. He was promoted to Principal in 1999. Since joining BRB in 2002 he has demonstrated his formidable virtuoso talents as Mercutio and relished the opportunity to take on a broader range of roles, such as Will Mossop in Hobson’s Choice.

Repertory: with Zürich Ballet: principal roles in ballets by Balanchine (Agon, Serenade, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Violin Concerto), Tharp (Push comes to Shove), Spoerli, Van Manen, Ek, Forsythe, and classical roles including Albrecht (Giselle), Bluebird (The Sleeping Beauty); with BRB: leading role (Sanctum), Romeo, Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), Second Seminarian (Carmina burana), Will Mossop (Hobson’s Choice), Sailor (Fancy Free), Third Movement (Western Symphony), the Prince (The Nutcracker) and Cavalry Officer (Far from the Madding Crowd).

Created roles: Mozartina (Spoerli)