Wherlock studied dance at the Ballet Rambert School and eventually became committed to the Ballet Rambert as a dancer. In 1981, he was engaged by as the Solo Dancer at the Cologne Dance Forum. While there, he first worked out his own choreography, which was soon an inherent part of the troupe’s repertoire. From 1991 to 1996, he was the Ballet Director at the Hagen Theatre, where, according to the opinions of critics, he succeeded in advancing “into the first element of his craft” and finally removed the label of provinciality from the Hagen dance troupe. With his anticlassical choreography of "La Fille mal gardée", he garnered wide recognition, and he was awarded a sponsorship prize from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1993. After that, he was the ballet director at for three seasons and worked from 1999 until 2001 at the "Komische Oper Berlin". The dance troupe there was renamed the "BerlinBallett" in 1999, and after Wherlock’s departure in 2004, it became the Berlin State Ballet, joining with the ensembles of the German State Opera and the State Opera Under the Linden. In Berlin, he worked with the Italian dancers and choreographers Giorgio Madia and , among others.