Paul Liburd was born in Leeds and studied at the London School of Contemporary Dance. He was a member of London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Irek Mukhamadov & Dancers, Rambert Dance Company and Scottish Ballet as a soloist.
On leaving Scottish Ballet, Paul was a guest artist with Phoenix Dance Theatre, David Hughes Dance Productions & Simon Rice’s Abundance.
Paul has danced works by some of the world’s most prominent contemporary-modern choreographers. Amongst those are Bruce, Kylian, Ek, Cunningham, McGregor, Tharp, van Manen, Taylor, Page, Petronio, Forsythe, Alston, Bonachela, Naharin, Tetley, de Frutos, Davis, Cohan, North, Tudor, Armitage, Brown, Balanchine, Robbins, Pastor, Kemp, Clarke and Baldwin.
His awards include the Cosmopolitan/Scholl Award in 1985, the BBC Yorkshire Black Achievers Award 1992, Critic’s Circle Award for Outstanding Male Dancer 2004 (Contemporary) and Critics Circle National Dance Award 2009 (The Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer). He was awarded the MBE in 2009 for services to dance.
After a twenty four year career, Paul retired from performing. He holds a diploma from the British Ballet Organization (BBO DTLLS). In 2014 Paul assisted the re-staging of Ashley Page’s ‘Alice’ on HNK National Ballet of Croatia.
Paul has taught at a number of UK dance schools, also guest taught Phoenix Dance Theatre, Michael Clarke Dance Company, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company, David Hughes Dance, Rambert Dance Company and Yorke Dance Project.