Corey Baker (choreographer)


Corey Baker is a classical and contemporary choreographer, and former dancer from New Zealand.

Early life

Baker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He attended a rural primary school in Canterbury.
In high school, at age fourteen, he was aspiring to be a musical theatre actor. His English teacher, who ran a ballet class in the centre of town, saw him tap dancing in the corridor because of his interest and said, “Ballet will help with that.” Baker left high school at fifteen to join the International Ballet Academy in Christchurch; he danced full time for a year. His lead teacher at IBA was Carl Myers.

Career

In 2017, Baker became Resident Choreographer at Royal New Zealand Ballet.
In 2018, Baker created the first professional dance performance in Antarctica, which was filmed for Channel 4 and aired on Earth Day 2018.

Personal life

Since early 2018, Baker has been dating American actor Jonathan Groff, whom he met while both were teaching at Christchurch International Musical Theatre Summer School, a biennial programme bringing professional musical theatre training to Christchurch.