Corey Baker (choreographer)
Corey Baker is a New Zealand creative director, choreographer, filmmaker and former dancer.
Early life
Baker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 6 June 1990. He grew up in Hornby and attended Yaldhurst School. In his teens he attended Ao Tawhiti school, then known as Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti.At age fourteen, he was aspiring to be a musical theatre actor. 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." 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
Baker has been Resident Choreographer at the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Associate Artist of the Royal Albert Hall.In 2018, Baker created the first professional dance performance in Antarctica, which was filmed for Channel 4 and aired on Earth Day 2018.
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. The film was released in July 2020 and went viral, with over 4 million views by the following month. The film won the 2021 Prix Italia award for web fiction.
In 2021, Baker created two dance films focusing on climate justice: Blown for the BBC and Leaders of a New Regime, which uses Lorde's track of the same title. Dance Race, a commission for the BBC's Dance Passion season, was broadcast on BBC3 in March 2022.
Baker was chief choreographer and movement director for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In 2023, he was creative director for the United Nations's Human Rights 75 Concert in Geneva.
Baker created the "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. His other TV credits include choreographing Julianne Nicholson's "Dance Mom" in season 4 of Hacks, Strictly Come Dancing, Ru Paul's Drag Race Down Under, Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant, The National Lottery's Paralympics GB Homecoming, and advertisements for O2/Dua Lipa, Marks & Spencer and EE. He was choreographer of the 2024 Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and movement director of the music promo for Lola Young's 2025 single "One Thing".