100 stories: Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE
As part of our centenary year, we are featuring 100 stories that make up The Royal Ballet School’s past, present and future, which will be released over the next 12 months. Today, we share the story of Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE.
Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE began his dance journey at the age of five, studying classical ballet in Glasgow. As one of the leading dance artists of his generation, Tharp performed for 13 years with the internationally acclaimed London Contemporary Dance Theatre. He also spent a 25-year career with other leading companies as a performer, choreographer, teacher and director.
‘I think the privilege of being a dancer for all those years was that every day, you learned what it meant to be totally present, to be absolutely in that moment. The gift of dancing is that every second that you’re in the studio or on stage, you’re practising that divine juggling act of passion and detachment and how you can be fully present in that moment.’
From 2005-2007, Tharp worked at The Royal Ballet School as Lead Artist & Artistic Advisor for what was then called our Partnership and Access Programme. As part of this work, Tharp played a key role in our aDvANCE Projects, in which our students and local secondary school students came together to explore elements of ballet and create and perform new work. He also taught for 12 years at our White Lodge Summer Intensives and was regularly invited to serve on the panel for our full-time students’ contemporary assessments.
From 2007 to 2016, Tharp was Chief Executive of The Place, the UK’s leading centre for contemporary dance development. In 2018 he became Director of London’s Africa Centre, leading the redevelopment of its new home in Southwark. He has since worked as Interim Chief Executive of Eclipse Theatre, Interim Executive Director of Inc Arts and Interim Head of Operations for CandoCo Dance Company.
Since September 2023, Tharp has been working as a freelance Creative Consultant and as Joint Assistant Director of Culture & Creativity for the London Borough of Haringey. In 25 August 2025, he started a new role as Director of Culture & Communities. Haringey will become the London Borough of Culture in 2027.
Tharp has served on various arts boards, including The Royal Opera House (2002-2010), The Royal Opera House Benevolent Fund (2010-2018) and Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures (2017-2024). He is also a member of the British Council’s Arts & Creative Economy Advisory Group (2018-2024). He is currently a Patron of Akademi and The Place and a Founding Patron of the Black British Theatre Awards. He is a Trustee of the Chineke! Foundation (which runs Europe’s first majority-Back and ethnically diverse classical orchestra) and a Director of the Robert Cohan Dance Legacy. He is also a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Advisory Council and an Ambassador of Wellbeing in the Arts, a charity, providing mental health and well-being support for the arts industry.
Tharp reflected on his career full of pivots and new opportunities:
‘Dancers get used to being in the discomfort zone because that’s what we have to do. When you get used to being uncomfortable, then it means if you’re faced with a new challenge or something that you’re not sure about, most of us develop the courage to explore and feel that you don’t have to have an instant answer for everything.’
In September 2015, Tharp was named among the London Evening Standard’s annual Progress1000 list of ‘The 1000 most influential Londoners.’ He appears in eight successive Powerlists of Britain’s most influential people of African and African Caribbean heritage. 2025 marked his 10th year serving on the judging panel of the Black British Business Awards.
In 2003 Tharp was made an OBE, and in June 2017, he was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, both in recognition of his service to dance.
