Timothy O’Donnell is a dancer, choreographer, graphic artist, art director, and photographer who hails from Wauchope, Australia. He is currently resident choreographer at Milwaukee Ballet.

His choreographic style is physically explosive; equal parts intricate and intelligent; impressive and interesting. His works ruminate on issues that affect us all. He holds up a mirror to the audience and invites them to think about their own idiosyncrasies.

O’Donnell commenced his dance training with his mother, Francessca O’Donnell, at her ballet school at age seven. He eventually joined The Australian Ballet School where he won several awards, including the Jacob Bloch Memorial Award and first place in The Australian Institute of Classical Dance’s national choreographic competition.

As a dancer, O’Donnell performed multiple principal and soloist roles for West Australian Ballet in works including Coppèlia, Cinderella, The Red Shoes, The Nutcracker, and Romeo & Juliet. O’Donnell was also fortunate enough to work with celebrated national and international artists such as Paul Lightfoot, Petr Zuska, Simon Dow, Matjash Morzewski, and Ivan Cavallari. In 2007, he won Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer at the West Australian Dance Awards.

O’Donnell continued to explore choreography during his years dancing at West Australian Ballet. In 2009, he entered Milwaukee Ballet’s international choreographic competition, Genesis, where he was awarded first place and the Audience Choice Award for his work, The Games We Play. As part of his grand prize, he returned in 2010 to create another new work, Boléro–Let There Be Light.

As co-director of Ludwig, he worked for major dance events such as the Australian Dance Awards and appeared as a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance Australia.

O’Donnell joined Milwaukee Ballet in 2012 in a full-circle moment, as Michael Pink’s Dracula, which he saw at age 15, was a major influence on his path to becoming a choreographer. Upon joining the company, he danced as Marcello in La Bohème, Verdigris (the green stepsister) in Cinderella, Harker in Dracula, Hilarion in Giselle, and the title character in Dorian Gray, as well as an assortment of beloved character roles including Dr. Coppelius in Coppèlia, Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker, and the title character in Don Quixote. He retired as a dancer in June 2019.

As Resident Choreographer, O’Donnell has staged five world premieres on Milwaukee Ballet: Children of the Wall, Talk to Me, The Sixth Sin, Sans Pleurer (Without Crying), more truth than poetry, and Sacre, in addition to various works for Milwaukee Ballet II and Milwaukee Ballet School & Academy.