Xander was born in East Yorkshire, England and began dancing in Kingston upon Hull at the age of eight. In 1998 he joined the Royal Ballet School in London where he trained until summer 2005 when he joined The Royal Ballet Company. In 2009, Xander was invited to join The Mariinsky Ballet by it's ballet director Yuri Fateyev and moved to St. Petersburg to join the company in January 2010 as its first and only British dancer.

His repertoire includes: Count Albrecht (Giselle), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), The Nutcracker Prince (Nutcracker), Count Vronsky (Ratmansky's Anna Karenina), The Golden Slave (Scheherazade), Aminta (Ashton’s Sylvia) and Armand (Marguerite and Armand), Balanchine ballets include the title role in Apollo, Emeralds & Serenade; and Hans Van Manen’s Adagio Hammerklavier and Variations for Two Couples.

His awards include the Premia La Danza Léonide Massine Emerging Dancer on the International Scene Award 2014 in Positano, Best Young Male Dancer at the 1st Taglioni European Ballet Awards in Berlin 2014 and Best Male Performance (Classical) for Apollo at the UK’s Criticsircle National Dance Awards 2014.