Sir Jon Trimmer KNZM MBE
Leading Artist
Sir Jon Trimmer has been a mainstay of the Royal New Zealand
Ballet. Jon started dancing at his sister's ballet school in
Wellington at the age of 12. He spent a year with the then New
Zealand Ballet, before studying at the Royal Ballet School in 1959,
which was followed by two years with Sadler's Wells. He danced with
both The Australian Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. He has
performed with Dame Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn and
many of the world's top dancers. Career highlights include being
nominated for the best actor award in the Fireraiser
television series (1986) and dancing the title role in
Petrouchka, and the role of Albrecht in Giselle.
The last 20 years have seen Jon performing mainly character roles
with the RNZB, alongside dramatic roles in television and stage
plays. In 2004 he toured New Zealand with Helen Moulder in the play
Meeting Karpovsky. Jon was awarded Television Performer of
the Year in 1971, received an MBE in 1974, a Fulbright Scholarship
in 1981, and in 1986 was the third recipient of the Turnovsky
Award. He received a knighthood in 1999 for services to ballet. To
celebrate Jon's 50th anniversary with the RNZB in 2008 he took to
the stage as "The Don" in Don Quixote. In 2009 he reprised
his role as Hook in Peter Pan, much to the delight of
audiences and critics.
In 2010 Jon performed as the Matron in The Nutcracker
with the Dominion Post calling him a "rib-tickling
show-stopper". The NZ Herald said his Matron was "a
masterly portrait that balances the two arts of over-exaggeration
and supreme control."
Our oldest dancer, Jon jokes that these days he mainly plays
"old ladies and witches". He is a keen gardener, painter and potter
and enjoys spending time at home on the Kapiti Coast.