At age fourteen, he was aspiring to be a
musical theatre actor in high school.[1] His English teacher, who ran a ballet class in the center of town, saw him tap dancing in the corridor because of his interest and said, "
Ballet will help with that."[1] Baker left high school at fifteen to join the International Ballet Academy (IBA) in Christchurch; he danced full time for a year.[1] His lead teacher at IBA was
Carl Myers.[3]
Career
In 2017, Baker became one of three resident choreographers at the
Royal New Zealand Ballet.[4]
In 2018, Baker created the first professional dance performance in Antarctica, which was filmed for
Channel 4 (UK) and aired on Earth Day 2018.[5]
In 2020, Baker received a "Culture in Quarantine" commission from the
BBC and remotely directed and choreographed a 3-minute film titled Swan Lake Bath Ballet, filmed by 27 elite
ballet dancers in their homes during
COVID-19 lockdowns.[6][7] The film was released in July 2020 and went
viral,[8] with over 4 million views by the following month.[9] The film won the 2021
Prix Italia award for web fiction.[10]
In 2021, Baker created two dance films focusing on
climate justice: Blown for the BBC[11] and Leaders of a New Regime,[12] which uses
Lorde's track of the same title. Dance Race, a commission for the BBC's Dance Passion season,[13] was broadcast on
BBC3 in March 2022.[14]
Baker was chief choreographer and movement director for the opening ceremony of the 2022
Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.[15]