Russell Maliphant trained at The Royal Ballet School and graduated into Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet where he worked for 7 years before leaving to pursue a career in independent dance. 

He performed with DV8 Physical Theatre, Michael Clark Company, Rosemary Butcher and Laurie Booth – with whom he was awarded a Time Out Live award for ‘raising improvisational dance to new heights’ in 1991. Between 1991–1994 Maliphant also studied anatomy, physiology and biomechanics, and qualified as a practitioner of the Rolf Method of Structural Integration (or Rolfing). These studies have informed both his teaching and choreographic work, alongside further studies in a diverse range of body practices and approaches, whilst exploring context and currency of movement.

Since 1994 he collaborated closely with lighting designer Michael Hulls, evolving a language where movement and light are intimately connected and the meeting point becomes a language in itself. 

He formed Russell Maliphant Company in 1996 and has also worked with renowned companies and artists including Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage, Isaac Julien, BalletBoyz, English National Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett and Lyon Opera Ballet. 

In 2002 he received the Time Out Live award for outstanding collaboration for his work Sheer and in 2003 received a South Bank Show dance award for the piece titled Choice. 

At the end of that year he created Broken Fall for Sylvie Guillem and BalletBoyz which premiered at the Royal Opera House and received an Olivier Award for best new dance production.

Broken Fall was restaged in 2004 as part of a programme titled Rise and Fall, consisting of three Maliphant’s works, and received the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for best modern choreography. Rise and Fall toured for two years and in 2005 Sylvie Guillem invited Maliphant to create an evening of work for them both, culminating in the duet Push. This premiered at Sadler’s Wells and received a South Bank Show award and an Olivier Award in 2006. Push toured throughout the world until 2014. Its creation was followed by two artistically diverse collaborations: Cast No Shadow with visual artist Isaac Julien, and Eonnagata which was created and performed alongside theatre director Robert Lepage and Sylvie Guillem, costumes designed by Alexander McQueen.

In 2009 Maliphant created part one of Afterlight for In the Spirit of Diaghilev, Sadler’s Wells’ celebration of Les Ballets Russes. This received the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for best modern choreography in 2010 and was also nominated for an Olivier Award. Parts two and three of Afterlight followed and toured as a full evening together with part one. The Rodin Project opened at Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris at the end of January 2012 and was also adapted for film, in a collaboration with the directors Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones, and re-titled Erebus.

Maliphant created Fallen for the BalletBoyz, winning the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Modern Choreography in 2013. Second Breath was created for English National Ballet in 2014, as part of ENB’s Lest We Forget program. In the same year Maliphant created Spiral Pass for Bayerisches Staatsballett.

His Company evenings, continued 2013- 2017 with the program Still Current (2013-2015) and Conceal/Reveal (2015-2017)

Maliphant also choreographed, curated and performed in the programme maliphantworks1 at The Coronet in 2017 and maliphantworks2 at The Coronet in 2018 - The same year that he completed a creation combining contemporary and Greek traditional dance, with music by Vangelis, lighting by Michael Hulls and costumes by Mary Katranzou in 2018. Russell Maliphant Dance Company was awarded the National Critics Circle Dance Award for Best Independent Dance Company in 2018. 

In 2019 he created Silent Lines for RMDC which toured up until the beginning of the pandemic.

Maliphant also created a new programme for The Coronet in the shape of maliphantworks3, which included a new duet titled The Space Between, danced by long term collaborator and composer Dana Fouras and Maliphant, alongside 2 short films made in collaboration with the photographer Julian Broad.

Maliphant was the guest artistic director of National Youth Dance Company in 2019, creating work on 40 young dancers, presented at Sadler’s Wells in 2020. 

Maliphant gained his PhD in 2020, to stand alongside the honorary doctorate he received from Plymouth University in 2011.

Russell Maliphant has been an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells since 2005.