Mr Peter Kyle

Peter Kyle studied drama and acting at Bretton Hall College of Education and followed this by training at the Rambert School of Ballet in London and at the Institut fur Buhnentanz in Cologne. This led to a career as a soloist dancer, teacher and choreographer with a number of companies including Northern Ballet Theatre and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Subsequently, Peter was invited to join Leicestershire Education Authority’s Arts Advisory Service where he was responsible for a team of peripatetic teachers. He also founded the National Festival of Youth Dance and the National Youth Dance Company and was part of the team that founded the National Festival of Youth Theatre. During this period he was Chairman of East Midlands Arts Dance and Mime Panel and a member of its Council. He was a board member of the Gulbenkian Foundation, contributing to the publication ‘Dance Education and Training in Britain’ and was Chairman of an Arts Council of Great Britain Panel.

The next two years were spent as Dance and Mime Officer for the Arts Council of Great Britain, where, in addition to assessing grant applications and monitoring grant awards, he held special responsibilities for developing arts and education policies nationally and for monitoring the work of a number of Regional Arts Associations. This was followed by five years in Northumberland as Founder/Director of a newly created arts complex comprising performance and exhibition spaces, a library, crafts workshops, a cinema, photographic studios, a teachers’ centre and attendant facilities. During this period he was Chairman of Panel and a member of Council for Northern Arts and organised ‘Dance for Africa’ – a nation-wide series of hundreds of events, raising large sums for UNICEF.

Peter was invited to become Chief Executive of The Scottish Ballet, responsible for all functions of this international touring company. A member of the Board of Directors and Company Secretary, he was responsible for a staff of 90 plus a seasonally contracted orchestra of 70. International touring was revived and the artistic repertoire enhanced substantially. Inheriting a deficit of £270,000 this was converted to a healthy operating surplus and the company’s financial turnover increased threefold.

Two years as an arts management consultant included tutoring an international management course for leaders of cultural and educational establishments, held in Poland, and advising on the creation of a new arts complex in Malaysia. In Zimbabwe, he directed a black Zimbabwean dance company introducing international touring and devising a new company structure. In Scotland, he was Chairman of the Centre for Contemporary Arts, leading the bid for a successful £9.4 million application to the National Lottery; he was chairman of International New Moves Ltd and was an external assessor for National Lottery arts funding bids.

After being ‘headhunted’ for a newly created post as Dean of the Arts Educational Schools, London, his responsibilities combined the formerly separate functions of Principal and Bursar. Ultimately responsible for all areas of academic study and vocational training in the arts, he led the management team, served on the Board of Governors and was Company Secretary.

Also ‘headhunted’ as the first General Director of Shakespeare’s Globe and subsequently appointed Chief Executive, he chairs the Executive Committee. Responsible to the Trustees for all functions of the organisation, he is additionally a Director of the affiliated Shakespeare Globe Centres in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and Japan.

Peter is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute (CIMgt), is Chairman of Innovision Media and of Tavaziva Dance Company. He is a member of the Court of Governors of the University of Westminster and an Honorary Fellow of South Bank University. He has been an external examiner for several BA and MA courses. For many years he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Institute of Directors but in recent years has allowed membership to lapse!

Peter is married to Kathryn, a Headteacher, and they have two daughters.