Photo by Ceri Powell

Originally from Mississippi, William Byram (he/they) is a director & choreographer currently based in London, UK. William’s work seeks to destabilise the classical canon and tell stories of queer resilience through alternative narratives.

He has most recently directed Die Fledermaus for Salon Opera and the first UK revival since its premiere in 1898 of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Dream Lovers, which Arts Council England, The British Library and Stanley Arts funded. William’s choreography has been commissioned by Battery Dance Festival (NYC), JCE Jazz Dance Project, Trinity Laban, Dancers Responding to AIDS, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has worked as an assistant director & movement director for Dorset Opera, Purchase Opera, Trinity Laban Opera, Instant Opera, Opéra de Baugé, St Pauls Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. His production of Dido & Aeneas (choreographer) won 2nd place for Best Production from the National Opera Association in the US. He has been featured in One Dance UK, The Dance Enthusiast and Dance Arts Journal.

He holds a BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, where he received the Bert Terborgh Award for creativity, leadership & vision. He also studied ballet at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He has performed the works of George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and Wayne McGregor and has worked with Ohad Naharin, Maxine Doyle, Kinsun Chan, and Maya Taylor. William was the 2021-2022 US-UK Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar in Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, where he completed his MFA in choreography. He then completed a fellowship in opera direction at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he assisted Martin Lloyd-Evans, John Ramster and Oliver Platt.

William also teaches ballet and contemporary dance across London, with teaching qualifications from the American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet School. In 2023, William became an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and now teaches movement to singers at Trinity Laban. He will be published in the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Ballet Pedagogy.