Corey Baker (choreographer)

Baker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 6 June 1990.^[2] He grew up in Hornby and attended Yaldhurst School. In his teens he attended Ao Tawhiti school, then known as Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti.^[3][4]

At age fourteen, he was aspiring to be a musical theatre actor.^[1] His English teacher, who ran a ballet class in central Christchurch, saw him tap dancing in the corridor because of his interest and said, "Ballet will help with that."^[1] Baker left high school at fifteen to join the International Ballet Academy (IBA) in Christchurch; he danced full time for a year.^[1] His lead teacher at IBA was Carl Myers.^[4]

Baker has been Resident Choreographer at the Royal New Zealand Ballet^[5] and Associate Artist of the Royal Albert Hall.^[6] In 2018, Baker created the first professional dance performance in Antarctica, which was filmed for Channel 4 (UK) and aired on Earth Day 2018.^[7]

In 2020, Baker received a "Culture in Quarantine" commission from the BBC and remotely directed and choreographed a 3-minute film titled Swan Lake Bath Ballet, filmed by 27 elite ballet dancers in their homes during COVID-19 lockdowns.^[8][9] The film was released in July 2020 and went viral,^[10] with over 4 million views by the following month.^[11] The film won the 2021 Prix Italia award for web fiction.^[12]

In 2021, Baker created two dance films focusing on climate justice: Blown for the BBC^[13] and Leaders of a New Regime,^[14] which uses Lorde's track of the same title. Dance Race, a commission for the BBC's Dance Passion season,^[15] was broadcast on BBC3 in March 2022.^[16]

Baker was chief choreographer and movement director for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.^[17] In 2023, he was creative director for the United Nations's Human Rights 75 Concert in Geneva.^[18]

Baker created "The Dead Dance" for Lady Gaga's song of the same name, originally created for season 2 of Netflix's Wednesday and later used for the music video of the single.^[19][20] His other TV credits include choreographing Julianne Nicholson's "Dance Mom" in season 4 of Hacks,^[21] Strictly Come Dancing, Ru Paul's Drag Race Down Under, Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant, The National Lottery's Paralympics GB Homecoming,^[22] and advertisements for O2/Dua Lipa, Marks & Spencer^[23] and EE.^[24] He was choreographer of the 2024 Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice^[25] and movement director of the music promo for Lola Young's 2025 single "One Thing".^[26]

Baker was in a relationship with American actor Jonathan Groff from 2018 to 2020.^{[27][28][29][2][1][30]}