William Louther was born in New York in 1942. He was a member of the Alvin Ailey dance company (joined 1964) and the Martha Graham dance company (joined 1966), touring Europe and Australia extensively with the former. Louther came to England in 1967 with Black New World and stayed, co-founding the London Contemporary Dance Theatre with Robert Cohen and Robin Howard. In 1972, he became Director of the Batsheva Dance Company of Israel and continued to make appearances with London Contemporary Dance Theatre. He was appointed Artistic Director of the Welsh Dance Theatre in 1975 and a year later became director of the Dance and Theatre Corporation. In 1977 he became an artisitic associate of Prospect Theatre Company. (Prospect Theatre Company programme biography)