Friederike Adolph, originally from Berlin, studied media and cultural studies and management.
Since the start of Demis Volpi's Artistic Directorship in the 2024/2025 season, she has been working as Press Officer for the Hamburg Ballet, the School of the Hamburg Ballet and the German National Youth Ballet.
She joined the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier in February 2021 and has since been a member of the Communications/PR and Dramaturgy department and contact person for press and public relations for the German National Youth Ballet.
She gained her first experience in press relations during her bachelor's degree at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, during which she worked in the press and public relations department of tanzhaus nrw and also did journalistic work; as a freelancer at the radio station Antenne Düsseldorf.
Friederike Adolph came to Hamburg for her Master's degree in Cultural and Media Management at the University of Music and Theatre. Here she worked from then on as a project manager in Tina Heine's office and was responsible, among other things, for the artistic operations office of the Jazz & The City Festival in Salzburg until February 2021.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-919
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-917
friederike.adolph@hamburgballett.de
Vivien Arnold received her dance training at the Hartford Ballet School, the School of American Ballet and the Heinz Bosl Foundation and danced with the Hartford Ballet in works by George Balanchine, August Bournonville, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins and Michael Uthoff, among others.
She subsequently studied at Wesleyan University and graduated with a thesis on "The Ballet Body: Changing Perspectives on the Feminine Ideal" under Professor Sally Banes.
As of 1988 she worked for Houston Ballet, first as marketing manager, then as press officer. In 1996, at the invitation of Reid Anderson, she joined the Stuttgart Ballet, where she ran the department for Press, Dramaturgy and Public Relations until 2002.
After the birth of her two sons, she assisted Eric Gauthier in the founding and development of Gauthier Dance at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart from 2006 to 2010 as dramaturg, consultant and press officer. From 2010 to 2024, she was Director of Dramaturgy and Communication at the Stuttgart Ballet.
She has worked with Demis Volpi as dramaturg on "Krabat", "The Soldier's Tale" and "Salome", as well as with Kevin O'Day (Hamlet) and Edward Clug / Jürgen Rose (The Nutcracker).
She is the editor of the biography of Reid Anderson and editor of "John Cranko: Tanzvisionär" (both Henschel Verlag).
As a moderator, she has led discussions with Marcia Haydée, Birgit Keil, Richard Cragun, Egon Madsen, Jürgen Rose, Glen Tetley, Martin Schläpfer, Christian Spuck, Marco Goecke and Jean-Pierre Frohlich, among others.
From 2013-2015 she was a consultant ("Sachverständige") for dance for the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-929
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
vivien.arnold@hamburgballett.de
Poto © Carlos Quezada
Aszure Barton is a Canadian-American choreographer, director and innovator. She started tap dancing at the age of three and later began creating her own choreographies as a student at Canada's National Ballet School. Since then, her works have been performed on countless stages throughout the world, including the Palais Garnier, Mariinsky Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Alicia Alonso Grand Theater, Studio 54, Lincoln Center, and Sadler's Wells, as well as in museums and exhibits. She has also choreographed for theater, film, and opera, including Broadway. Early in her career, Aszure developed a working relationship with Mikhail Baryshnikov, with whom she collaborated on several projects.
In the early 2000s, she founded Aszure Barton & Artists in order to create an autonomous, interdisciplinary, and collaborative platform for process-centered creation, resulting in work that the US National Endowment for the Arts has equated to "watching the physical unfurling of the human psyche." Recently, this vision grew when she made her latest work for the company, this time in collaboration with her creative partner, acclaimed composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. The two premiered A a | a B : B E N D at Kampnagel and continue to tour the work internationally.
Over 30+ years of making dances, Aszure Barton has worked with celebrated artists and companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Ballett Am Rhein, Bayerisches Staatsballett, English National Ballet, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Limon Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney Dance Company, Teatro alla Scala, and Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka), among many others. In January 2024, she premiered a new work (Mere Mortals) at San Francisco Ballet in collaboration with British electronic music producer/DJ Floating Points and mixed media artists Hamill Industries — the first evening-length work created by a female choreographer in SFB's history, curated by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. She is the current Resident Artist at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, where her newest work was called "exquisite, subversive, exhilarating and mildly offensive - as dance should be to move it somewhere new" (Chicago Tribune).
Aszure Barton continues to be an innovator of form, having contributed to an evolution of highly specialized dance and theater companies worldwide. She was the first Martha Duffy Resident Artist at the Baryshnikov Arts in New York and has received accolades and honors, including a Bessie Award for her work "BUSK". A recipient of the prestigious Canadian Arts & Letters Award (joining the likes of Oscar Peterson, Karen Kain, and Margaret Atwood), she is also an official ambassador of contemporary dance in Canada. As an educator, Aszure is regularly invited to collaborate with private, public and independent art institutions and forums around the globe.
Photo © Michelle Reid
More about Aszure Barton
Born July 27, 1940 into a publican family in Solingen, she discovered her love of dance at an early age and joined children’s ballet classes where her talent was recognised. In 1955 she began a professional dance education at the Folkwang School in Essen, led by Kurt Jooss, a pioneer of the revolutionary 1920s/30s German movement Ausdruckstanz ('expressive dance'), completing the course in 1959. The most important values she took from her work with Jooss were 'honesty and precision', as she later put it: honesty in approaching reality and precision in developing form. After two years in New York, initially with a scholarship for the renowned Juilliard School of Music, then as a dancer at the New American Ballet and at the Metropolitan Opera House Ballet, she returned to Essen in 1962 on Jooss’ request as a soloist at the newly founded Folkwang Dance Studio. Here she worked with Jooss, Antony Tudor, Lucas Hoving, Hans Züllig and above all Jean Cébron. At the end of the 1960s she gained attention with her first choreographies, including "Im Wind der Zeit" (In the Wind of Time), for which she won first prize in the Cologne choreography competition.
It was Arno Wüstenhöfer, the new director of the Wuppertaler Bühnen (Wuppertal's combined municipal performing arts venues), who hired Pina Bausch as choreographer there, starting in the 1973/74 season. The times had changed. The new Regietheater (direction-orientated rather than text-based theatre) in Germany had altered expectations of dance too. It needed to be closer to real life, to develop new forms. Pina Bausch changed the name of her ensemble from 'ballet' to 'Tanztheater' ('dance theatre'). The clue was in the title. She tested out every possible genre, called her pieces 'dance opera', 'revue', even ‘operetta’ and began combining means of expression from both dance and theatre. Her choreographic language was unequivocal, clear. Together with her life partner Rolf Borzik, who created the costumes and sets until his death in 1980, she created a new aesthetic. Later she continued this work with Peter Pabst (sets) and Marion Cito (costumes). Together with her musical colleagues Matthias Burkert and Andreas Eisenschneider she continually sought out new, unusual music for her freely collaged pieces, which used poetic images and dances to address the fears and desires which drive human beings. The search for love, affinity and security became a central motif of her oeuvre, for which she developed new working methods. She asked her dancers questions, 800 to 1000 during the research and development on each piece, and out of 40 to 50 of the answers she composed her highly emotional, moving excursions into the inner realms of desire. Here too, she was to rewrite dance history.
By the time of her death, in 2009, she had created over 50 works and achieved world recognition for her art. Despite criticism at the start, she succeeded in establishing dance theatre as a new genre, influencing the development of dance internationally. She was awarded the greatest prizes and honours worldwide for her revolutionary redefinition of dance. Few other twentieth century choreographers were able to open up new freedoms for dance as she did, liberating it from its shackles with 'superficial beauty' and leading it towards real life. Her ground-breaking style remains influential to this day.
Text: Norbert Servos / Pina Bausch Foundation
Photo © Rolf Borzik / Pina Bausch Foundation
More about Pina Bausch
William Forsythe (*1949, New York) has been active in the field of choreography for over 50 years. His work is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. Forsythe's deep interest in the fundamental principles of organization of choreography has led him to produce a wide range of projects including installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation.
BIOGRAPHY
Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. Over the next seven years, he created new works for the Stuttgart ensemble and other ballet companies worldwide. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt, where he created works such as "Artifact" (1984), "Impressing the Czar" (1988), "Limb's Theorem" (1990), "The Loss of Small Detail" (1991), "Eidos:Telos" (1995), "Kammer/Kammer" (2000) and "Decreation" (2003).
After the closure of the Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new, more independent ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Works produced by this ensemble include "Three Atmospheric Studies" (2005), "Human Writes" (2005), "Heterotopia" (2006), "I don't believe in outer space" (2008) and "Sider" (2011). Forsythe's works developed during this time were performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world. More recently Forsythe has created original works for the Paris Opera Ballet, English National Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, La Scala Ballet Company, as well as "A Quiet Evening of Dance" produced by Sadler's Wells Theatre (London) and "The Barre Project (Blake Works II)" created for the digital stage.
Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations. These "Choreographic Objects", as he calls these works, have been presented in numerous museums and exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (New York, 1997), the Louvre Museum (2006), 21_21 Design Sight (Tokyo, 2007), the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, 2009), Tate Modern (London, 2009), MoMA (New York 2010) and the Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2012, 2014), ICA Boston (2018), Sesc Pompeia (Sao Paulo, 2019, Museum Folkwang (2019), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2020), Kunsthaus Zürich (2021) und ZKM | Karlsruhe (2023).
In collaboration with media specialists and educators, Forsythe has developed new approaches to dance documentation, research, and education. Core elements of his CD-ROM "Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye", developed with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and first published in 1999, are now accessible online.
In 2002, Forsythe was chosen as the founding Dance Mentor for The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Forsythe is an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and holds an Honorary Doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York.
Photo © Julian Gabriel Richter
More about William Forsythe
Trained in Barcelona, Valencia and New York in photography, movement and theatre, Marcos Morau (Valencia, 1982) builds imaginary worlds and landscapes where movement and image meet and engulf each other.
He obtained the highest grade possible for his undergraduate final year project and the grand award for creation from the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona. His artistic knowledge is not limited to dance, and extends to other disciplines such as photography and dramaturgy; he studied a Master’s degree in Dramaturgy at the UAB, the Pompeu Fabra University and the Institut del Teatre.
For more than ten years, Marcos has led La Veronal as a director, choreographer and designer for sets, costumes, and lighting. He has travelled the world presenting his works at festivals, theatres, and various international contexts such as the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, the Biennale di Venezia, Festival d'Avignon, Tanz Im August in Berlin, the Roma Europa Festival, the SIDance Festival in Seoul and Sadler's Wells in London, among many others.
In addition to his work with La Veronal, Marcos Morau has worked as visiting artist for various companies and theatres around the world where he develops new creations, always halfway between the performing arts and dance: GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Ballet du Rhin, Royal Danish Ballet, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Carte Blanche, Ballet de Lorraine, Compañía Nacional de Danza and the Tanz Luzerner Theater among others.
Being the youngest person to receive the National Dance Prize in Spain, Marcos Morau's language is an inheritance of abstract movement and physical theatre. A powerful body language based on the annihilation of all organic logic, one which dissects movement and turns it into a unique identity.
Marcos Morau was also awarded the FAD Sebastià Gasch prize, awarded by the FAD Foundation for Arts and Design, and the TimeOut prize for the best creator, among other awards. With his creations, he has managed to win prizes in numerous national and international choreographic competitions such as the Hannover International Choreographic Competition, the Copenhagen Choreographic Competition, Madrid and Masdanza.
In addition to his creative side, Marcos Morau also teaches, he combines his creations with training and gives classes and workshops on creative processes and new dramaturgies in conservatories, further education courses and universities, and at the Institut del Teatre, the University of the Arts of Strasbourg and the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.
The future of Morau opens up to new formats and languages where the lines between opera, dance, and physical theatre blur more than ever, seeking new ways of expressing and communicating in our current turbulent and changing times.
Since 2023 Marcos Morau is «Artist in Residence» at the Berlin State Ballet.
The guest performance of La Veronal’s "Sonoma" during the 50th Hamburg Ballet Days in summer 2025, will be the first time a work of Marcos Morau is presented at the Hamburg Ballet.
More about Marcos Morau
John Neumeier was born in 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he received his first dance training. He continued his dance studies in Chicago as well as at Marquette University in Milwaukee where he created his first choreographic works. After further ballet study both in Copenhagen and at The Royal Ballet School in London, John Cranko invited him in 1963 to join Stuttgart Ballet, where he progressed to soloist and continued his choreographic development.
In 1969, Ulrich Erfurth appointed Mr. Neumeier Director of Ballet Frankfurt, where he soon caused a sensation with his new interpretations of such well-known ballets as "The Nutcracker" and "Romeo and Juliet". In 1973, August Everding invited him to become Director and Chief Choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet. Under his direction, The Hamburg Ballet became one of the leading ballet companies on the German dance scene and soon received international recognition. As a choreographer, Mr. Neumeier has continually focused on the preservation of ballet tradition, while giving his works a modern dramatic framework. His ballets range from new versions of full-length story ballets to musicals and to his symphonic ballets, especially those based on Gustav Mahler's compositions, as well as his choreographies to sacred music. His latest creations for The Hamburg Ballet: "The Sleeping Beauty" (new version, 2021), "Hamlet 21" (2021), "Beethoven Project II" (2021) and "Dona Nobis Pacem" (2022).
In 1975, John Neumeier conceived the Hamburg Ballet Days as a climax and end to each season. In 1978, he founded the School of the Hamburg Ballet. In 1989 the school, together with the company, moved into its own "Ballettzentrum" (ballet center) provided by the city of Hamburg. Its facilities include nine studios and a boarding school for over 30 students. Today almost 80 % of the company's dancers are graduates from the school.
John Neumeier has worked as guest choreographer with many companies, including The Royal Ballet in London; The Vienna, Munich and Dresden State Operas; The Stuttgart Ballet (for which he has created several works); The Royal Danish Ballet; The Ballet of the Paris Opera; The Tokyo Ballet; American Ballet Theatre in New York; San Francisco Ballet; Joffrey Ballet; Boston Ballet; The National Ballet of Canada; The Ballet of the Mariinsky Theater; Moscow Bolshoi and Stanislavsky Ballet; and The National Ballet of China, among others.
Mr. Neumeier holds the Dance Magazine Award (1983), Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and French Order of Arts and Letters and the Legion of Honour. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Nijinsky Award for Lifetime Achievement. He received the Herbert von Karajan Musikpreis in 2007 and the Deutscher Jubiläums Tanzpreis in 2008. In 2007, he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Hamburg. In November 2012, he accepted the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation. In 2015, the Inamori Foundation presented Mr. Neumeier with the Kyoto Prize for his contributions to the Arts and Philosophy; in 2016 he received the renowned Prix Benois de la Danse for Lifetime Achievement. His most recent awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Prix de Lausanne, the Erich Fromm Prize and the Friendship Award of the People's Republic of China. In 2021, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark awarded John Neumeier the Medal of Honour "Ingenio et arti", a personal honour bestowed by the Danish royal house on outstanding personalities in the field of arts and scientists. In 2023, he received the Italian Music Prize "Una vita nella musica", the Honorary Membership of the Hamburg State Opera and July 2024 he was admitted as a new member of the order "Pour le mérite".
John Neumeier established the John Neumeier Foundation in February 2006 with the aim of preserving and eventually making available to the public his collection of dance and ballet-related objects. The Foundation will maintain and secure his repertoire and related materials for the city of Hamburg.
In 2011, John Neumeier founded Germany's National Youth Ballet. The young company of eight dancers is based at the Ballettzentrum in Hamburg but finds its performing spaces away from the Hamburg Opera. In addition to international touring this creative young company dances in schools, retirement homes and various social projects.
Justin Peck is a director, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is the Resident Choreographer of the New York City Ballet, the second person in the institution's history to hold this title. He has developed and created over 50 dance and theater works that have been presented on stages around the world, including Lincoln Center, the Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Broadway (most notably with his 2018 Tony Award-winning production of "Carousel"). His work has been performed by companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Boston Ballet, Juilliard, National Ballet of Canada, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, LA Dance Project, Dutch National Ballet, the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Houston Ballet among many others.
Peck works extensively as a filmmaker with credits including direction of music videos for The National, Chris Thile, and Dan Deacon; choreographing the 2021 film "West Side Story" in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg; and being commissioned by the New York Times to direct 10 films celebrating the best acting performances of the 2018 year, which included performances by Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Lakeith Stanfield, Glenn Close, Emma Stone, and Toni Collette.
Peck celebrates the art of collaboration and is honored to have worked across mediums with a wide array of luminaries, including Sufjan Stevens, Raf Simons, Elizabeth Moss, Steven Spielberg, Caroline Shaw, Jeffrey Gibson, Renee Fleming, Shepard Fairey, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Sondheim, Shantelle Martin, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Humberto Leon, Bradley Cooper, Nico Muhly, John Baldessari, Dries Van Noten, Damien Chazelle, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Marcel Dzama, and Jody Lee Lipes.
Peck danced with New York City Ballet from 2006-2019, eventually achieving the rank of soloist in 2013. He has performed a vast repertoire of works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Christopher Wheeldon, and many others.
Peck's honors include the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Broadway production of "Carousel" (2018), the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for "Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes" (2015), and the World Choreography Award for the film "West Side Story" (2022).
Photo © Ryan Pfluger
More about Justin Peck
Angelin Preljocaj was born near Paris in 1957. He first studied classical dance before turning to contemporary dance, training with Karin Waehner, Zena Rommett, Merce Cunningham, then Viola Farber and Quentin Rouillier. He sunsequently joined Dominique Bagouet until he founded his own company – Ballet Preljocaj – in December 1984. Since then he has choreographed 55 pieces, from solos to large forms and regularly collaborates with other artists from various fields. Angelin Preljocaj has created works for New York City Ballet, the Berliner Staatsballett, the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, among others.In addition to numerous awards, he was also appointed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the choreography section in April 2019. In the same year, he created a work to Schubert's "Winterreise" for La Scala in Milan as well as "Soul Kitchen" with inmates of the Centre pénitentiaire des Baumettes women's prison in Marseille. In the same year, he made the documentary "Danser sa peine", directed by Valérie Müller. The film won the first prize of the Fipadoc in 2020. After "Swan Lake" (2020) and "Deleuze / Hendrix" (2021), he choreographed and directed the opera "Atys" by Jean-Baptiste Lully for the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2022. For Dior, he created the choreography and film "Nuit romaine" with the ensemble of the Rome Opera Ballet as part of the International Day of Dance. He participated as actor and choreographer in the television series "Irma Vep" by Olivier Assayas. His new creation "Mythologies" for the dancers of the Preljocaj Ballet and the Ballet of the Opéra de Bordeaux to an original score for orchestra by Thomas Bangalter premiered in 2022.
Photo © Julien Bengel
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Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg. His work is performed by nearly all major ballet companies worldwide, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, The Royal Ballet, the Royal Ballet of Denmark, the Royal Ballet of Sweden, the Dutch National Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Bavarian State Ballet and the Miami City Ballet. He has also choreographed for star dancers such as Nina Ananiashvili, Wendy Whelan, Diana Vishneva, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
From 2004 to 2008, Alexei Ratmansky was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, which under his leadership was twice named "Best Foreign Company" by the London Critics' Circle. From 2009 to early 2023, Ratmansky was artist-in-residence at American Ballet Theatre. Since August 2023, he has held the same position at New York City Ballet.
Ratmansky is a specialist in revising and reviving ballets from the 19th- and early 20th-century repertoire. He has created his own versions of "Giselle", "The Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake", "The Nutcracker", "La Bayadère", "Paquita", and in 2010, he created a new, widely acclaimed production of "Don Quixote" for Dutch National Ballet. He has also created numerous original works.
For his ballets, Ratmansky has received many awards, including four Russian Golden Mask Awards, three prestigious Benois de la Danse awards, a Bessie Award, and the British National Dance Award. In 2013, he was named MacArthur Fellow of the Year for his exceptional achievements.
A biography on the life of Alexei Ratmansky titled "The Boy From Kyiv" by author Marina Harss was published in 2023.
Hans van Manen (Nieuwer-Amstel, the Netherlands, 1932) is internationally recognized as one of the grand masters of contemporary ballet. To date, he has created more than 150 ballets, including those he has choreographed for the television. Van Manen’s signature style and aesthetic shine through in all his choreographies, characterized as they are by clean lines, refined simplicity and an aversion to frills and frou frou. His innate musicality is revealed in all of his works, which center on human relationships without ever being anecdotal.
Van Manen started taking ballet classes in the late forties with Sonia Gaskell. He then joined her company Ballet Recital in 1951, and later went on to dance with the Netherlands Opera Ballet and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. In 1955, he made his debut as a choreographer with Olé, Olé, la Margarita. His third creation, Feestgericht, received the State Award for Choreography. From 1960 onwards, Van Manen primarily worked with the two most prestigious companies in the Netherlands. He was joint artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater for ten years, and then became resident choreographer of Dutch National Ballet (1973-1987) and Nederlands Dans Theater (1988-2003). In 2005, he returned to Dutch National Ballet as resident choreographer, where he has remained to date.
Hans van Manen's oeuvre comprises over 120 works, each of which bears the unmistakable signature of its creator. His ballets are part of the repertoire of all renowned companies in Europe, Canada, the USA and Japan and are performed by over 90 companies around the world.
He was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for his life's work at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2004. Nine years later, another Prix Benois followed for "Variations for two Couples", which will be performed at the Hamburg Ballet in the 2024/25 season. The Hamburg company first danced a van Manen choreography in May 1990: "Sarkasmen”. In 2013, van Manen received the German Dance Award in recognition of his worldwide achievements and his long-standing influence on German dance. In France, he was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2017, the highest honor in the field of the arts.
Outside dance, Hans van Manen is also a well-known photographer, having enjoyed huge success in the ten years he was active in this field. His work has been published in books and shown at international exhibitions.
Photo © Erwin Olaf
More about Hans van Manen
Demis Volpi, Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet as of the 2024/25 season.
The German-Argentinean received his dance education in Buenos Aires, at Canada's National Ballet School in Toronto and at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany. Subsequently he became a member of the Stuttgart Ballet. In 2006, Volpi choreographed his first work for the renowned Noverre Society: Young Choreographers series in Stuttgart. In 2013 was appointed Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet after the world premiere of his highly successful story ballet Krabat. He took on his first directorship in 2020/21 as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Ballett am Rhein, which he will lead until summer 2024. Fascinated by stories and their potential to inspire people, he continues to explore the possibilities of storytelling in ballet. In his first season as Director of the Hamburg Ballet, he will create Demian based on the novel by Hermann Hesse.
During his time at the Stuttgart Ballet, Demis Volpi choreographed, among others, Krabat (based on Ottfried Preussler’s novel), Salome (based on Oscar Wilde) and The Soldier’s Tale. He also created The Nutcracker for the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Giselle and Closed Game for the Ballett am Rhein. In addition, he has created numerous abstract works such Aftermath for the Stuttgart Ballet, Sanguinic for a quadruple bill titled Four Temperaments and The thing with feathers (both for Ballett am Rhein). In 2010, he created The Carnival of the Animals for the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, which was added to the repertoire of the Hamburg Ballet School by John Neumeier in 2012.
Over the past two decades, Volpi has created narrative and abstract works for renowned companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, the Ballet de Santiago de Chile, the Ballet Nacional del Sodre in Uruguay, the Latvian National Ballet, Ballett Dortmund, the Compañia Nacional de Danza de México, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Canada's National Ballet School, where he was Guest Artist in Residence in 2014.
Since 2014, Volpi has also been working as an opera director, expanding the boundaries of theater genres. In 2017, he staged Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice in a celebrated co-production of the Stuttgart State Opera, the Stuttgart Ballet and the John Cranko School. At the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, he interpreted Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók.
Volpi was awarded the Erik Bruhn Prize in 2011, the Chilean Prize of the Art Critics' Circle in 2012 and the German Dance Prize "Future" in 2014. He was nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2017 for his full-length ballet Salome and, following the successful opera premiere of Death in Venice, was voted Emerging Artist of the Year 2017 in the critics' choice of Opernwelt. Volpi was a member of the jury for the Prix de Lausanne 2018 and the International Competition for Choreography Hanover. In September 2019, his work and achievements as a choreographer over the past ten years were honored with the Merit Diploma at the Konex Awards in Buenos Aires.
March 2024
LIST OF WORKS
CHOREOGRAPHIES
on and on and on
World Premiere: "Young Choreographers", Noverre Society, May 2006, Stuttgart Ballet
spinto
World Premiere: Gala "Musik und Ballett" of the orchestra association Stuttgart at the Liederhalle Stuttgart
swish
World Premiere: "Young Choreographers", Noverre Society, June 2007, Stuttgart Ballet
palpable leers
World Premiere "Young Choreographers", Noverre Society, July 2008, Stuttgart Ballet
The Broadway Baby
Collaboration with Bridget Breiner; World Premiere on April 1, 2009 for the gala on occasion of Ballet Director Reid Anderson's 60th birthday
from me to you
World Premiere "Young Choreographers", Noverre Society, July 2009, Stuttgart Ballet
Big Blur
Commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet, World Premiere: March 31, 2010, Play House Theatre, Stuttgart
Der Zauberlehrling
World Premiere "Choreografen stellen sich vor", July 4, 2010; Baden State Theater Karlsruhe
Der Karneval der Tiere
Commissioned work for the John Cranko Schule, World Premiere during the "Aktion Weihnachten": December 5, 2010, Opera House Stuttgart
the choreography was taken into the repertoire of Hamburg Ballet's ballet school in May 2012
Little Monsters
World Premiere at The Ninth International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize on March 5, 2011, The National Ballet of Canada
Capricen
Commissioned work for the Badisches Staatstheaters Karlsruhe, World Premiere: March 12, 2011, Baden State Theater Karlsruhe
Private Light
Commissioned work for the American Ballet Theatre, World Premiere: November 5, 2011, Bard College, later at the New York City Center
Fingerspitzengefühl
World Premiere during the "Aktion Weihnachten": December 11, 2011, Stuttgart Ballet
Hypnotic Poison
World Premiere during the mixed bill "Forsythe, Galili, Volpi": March 24, 2012, Ballet Augsburg
Spaceman
Solo for Luis Ortigoza (Ballett de Santiago de Chile), World Premiere: August 29, 2012, Teatro Municipal de Santiago
Allure
Solo for Hyo-Jung Kang (Stuttgart Ballet), World Premiere: September 15, 2012, Dortmund Ballet
Krabat
Full-length ballet. Commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet, World Premiere: March 22, 2013, Stuttgart Ballet
Jam Session – on Tour
Choreography between objects of theartists Alexander Calder und Tamás Saraceno in the Kunstraum K20 und K21 in Dusseldorf, World Premiere: October 2, 2013, Ballett im Revier, Gelsenkirchen
self-protrait of a woman
World Premiere: February 8, 2014 at the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg, DanceWorks Chicago
Aftermath
Commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet, World Premiere: April 17, 2014, Stuttgart Ballet
Elēģija
World Premiere on April 26, 2014, Latvian National Ballet Riga
Chalkboard Memories
World Premiere in May 23, 2014, National Ballet School Toronto
Quasi una fantasia
World Premiere on August 27, 2014, Ballet de Santiago de Chile
Aus Ihrer Zeit
World Premiere on September 27, 2014 at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Stuttgart Ballet
Ebony Concerto
World Premiere February 14, 2015, Ballet Dortmund
The Soldier's Tale
Commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet, World Premiere: March 13, 2015, Stuttgart Ballet
of the People
World Premiere July 15, 2015, National Ballet School Toronto
Flair
Pas de Deux für Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo
The Nutcracker
Full-length ballet. World Premiere January 24, 2016, Royal Ballet of Flanders
Salome
Full-length ballet. Commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet, World Premiere: June 10, 2016, Stuttgart Ballet
Death in Venice
Co-Production Stuttgart Ballet and Oper Stuttgart: Direction/Choreography. Premiere: Mai 7, 2017
Le sacre du printemps
World Premiere for Compañía Nacional de Danza de México, Premiere: March 11, 2018
King and King
World Premiere for Compañía Nacional de Danza de México, Premiere: July 27, 2018
the little match girl passion
Choreography of the vocal composition of David Lang, Co-Production for the National Youth Ballett and the PODIUM Festival Esslingen, Premiere: May 2, 2018
Demian
World Premiere July 6, 2025, Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg
CHOREOGRAPHIES FOR OPERA
La Juive
Choreography for the opera "La Juive" at the State Opera Stuttgart, Premiere: March 16, 2008, State Opera Stuttgart
Don Giovanni
Staging of the opera "Don Giovanni" at the Nationaltheater Weimar, Premiere: September 8, 2018
Médée | Medea Senecae | Medeamaterial
(Opera by Luigi Cherubini | Choir by Iannis Xenakis | Monolgue from "Medeamaterial" by Heiner Müller)
Staging and Choreography of the Co-Production and Choreography of the Co-Production of opera, dance and drama of the Saarländisches Staatstheater, Premiere: January 19, 2019
Teseo
Choreography for the opera "Teseo" at the State Opera Stuttgart, Premiere: May 2, 2009, State Opera Stuttgart
Fetonte
Production of the opera "Fetonte" in Schwetzingen, Premiere: November 28, 2014, Theater Heidelberg
AWARDS
2007
Nomination in the category "Young choreographer to watch" in the critics' survey of the magazine ballettanz
2011
Nomination in the category "Young choreographer to watch" in the critics' survey of the magazine ballettanz
2011
Erik Bruhn Prize: Choreographic Prize for "Little Monsters", performed by Elisa Badenes and Daniel Camargo
2012
Nomination in the category "Young choreographer to watch" in the critics' survey of the magazine ballettanz
2012
Chilean Cultural Critics' Award nominated "Spaceman" the best choreography of the year 2012
2014
German Dance Prize "Future"
Xie Xin is the artistic director of the XieXin Dance Theater, which she founded in 2014. That same year, she also started her career as an independent choreographer. In 2024, Xie Xin was also appointed artistic director of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Dance Festival.
She has worked with Guangdong Modern Dance Company (GMDC), Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theatre, Beijing Tao Dance Theatre and Beijing Dance/LDTX, and participated in performance tours with these dance troupes in Art Festivals held in over 25 countries.
As the first female Chinese choreographer commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet, she created "Horizon" for opening the 2023/24 season in Paris. For the 2023 Biennale di Venezia, Wayne McGregor, artistic director of the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, commissioned the work "When I am facing U" from her. Before that, she worked as guest choreographer for the Hessisches Staatsballett (Wiesbaden) and Balleboyz Dance Company (London).
In recent years, Xie Xin has been invited with her company to many European and Asian art festivals, including Kuopio Dance Festival in Finland, Colours Dance Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, Festival Paris Lete in France, STEPS Dance Festival in Switzerland, Wiesbaden Theatre Performance Season in Germany, Croatian Sprite and Hibernik Dance Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Chinese Dance Biennale, Spring for Chinese Arts, National Center for the Performing Arts Chinese Dance For 12 Days, etc.
Xie Xin is associate artist of the Shanghai International Dance Centre Theatre, a guest professor at the Shanghai University of Sport, and guest choreographer at the Shanghai Dance Theater Co., Ltd. She is also executive director of Shanghai Dancers' Association and founded the Vanguard Body International Workshop and the dance clothing brand Vanguard Body.
In the 2025/26 season she will, for the first time, create a piece for the Hamburg Ballet.
Photo © Xu Xiaowei
From Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Elisabeth Bell began dance at an early age receiving scholarships at The Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York before completing her B.F.A. at Butler University in Indiana, USA Cum Laude. She went on to dance professionally at the Dayton Ballet and Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco!), working with diverse choreographers from Septime Webre, Stephen Mills, Christopher Fleming and Lynn Taylor Corbett to Ron Brown, Rennie Harris, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Geoffrey Holder and Carman De Lavallade. Before completing a Masters of Law and Business at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, her engagements included Staatstheater Cottbus, "The Lion King" (Hamburg) and the international tour of "Cats", where she also worked as Assistant Artistic Director.
After coming from the stage, she worked in project management in Show Development at AIDA Cruises and the Hauptsache Frei Festival. In 2016 she began as a representative of the Hamburg Ballet with TUSCH, Theater und Schulen Partnerschaften in Hamburg, and joined the School of the Hamburg Ballet as Assistant to the School Direction in 2022. As of the 2024/25 season, she is responsible for dance education and outreach.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-916
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-917
elisabeth.bell@hamburgballett.de
Photo @ Daniel Müller
Jean-Jacques Defago was born in Switzerland and began his ballet training in 1976 in Cannes at the Centre de Danse International Rosella Hightower. His most important teachers during his training included Rosella Hightower and José Feran. From 1977 to 1979 he received the Migros Culture Percentage Scholarship.
After graduating, he went to the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier in 1979, where he was a member of the company until 2000. In his 21 years as an active dancer, he took part of creation process of John Neumeier's ballets like "Requiem" and "Saint Matthew Passion". His repertoire included a leading role in "Tristan" and several solo roles in John Neumeier's ballets, including "Magnificat", "Romeo and Juliet", "Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler" and "Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler". He also danced in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, José Limón and Antony Tudor, among others.
While he was still a dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, he worked on designing and programming the Hamburg Ballet's first online presence in 1999.
Jean-Jacques Defago has been a member of the communications team since 2000 and is still responsible for the website and digital content. In addition to the Hamburg Ballet website, he also designed the website of the John Neumeier Foundation, the Foundation for the Promotion of the Hamburg State Opera and the Friends of the Hamburg Ballet Center, which he also looks after and maintains.
defago@gmx.com
BORN
31.3.70 in Cassano d'Adda. Italian
EDUCATION
In Bergamo
Academie de Danse Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo.
The School of The Hamburg Ballet
MAIN TEACHERS
Marika Besobrasova, Truman Finney
ENGAGEMENET
The Hamburg Ballet since 1988, Soloist in 1993,
Principal in 1998. Ballet Mistress since 2008
CREATIONS
Cinderella's Mother and Princess from Another Country in "A Cinderella Story"
The Sea in "Odyssey"
Revue Star in "The Seagull"
Geruth in "Hamlet" (1997, new version)
Pas de deux "Sheherazade III" (Easter Concert 1999, Munich)
Laura in "Préludes CV"
Aschenbach's assistant, his mother and Tadzio's mother in "Death in Venice"
Orgeluse in "Parzival – Episodes and Echo"
Silver Fairy in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
and solos in
Time after Time from "Images from Bartók"
Messiah
Winterreise
Nocturnes from "Songs of the Night"
REPERTORY
Lykainion in "Daphnis and Chloe"
Olympia and Prudence in "Lady of the Camellias"
Penelope in "Odyssey"
Diana in "Sylvia"
Cinderella's Mother and a Stepsister in "A Cinderella Story"
Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Dulcinea in "Don Quixote"
Bianca in "Othello"
Bäsle and The Music in "Windows on MOZART"
The Good Fairy and The Queen in "The Sleeping Beauty"
Lady Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet"
Olivia in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
The Queen Mother in "Illusions - like Swan Lake"
Myrtha in "Giselle"
Louise, Mrs. Stahlbaum, "La Fille du Pharaon" and Esmeralda and the Clowns" in "The Nutcracker"
Tamara Karsavina in "Nijinsky"
Ygerne in "The Saga of King Arthur"
Aase in "Peer Gynt"
Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina in "The Seagull"
Celia in "As You Like It"
Elizabeth in "Préludes CV"
Anticlea in "Odyssey"
Gamzatti and Hindu Dance in "La Bayadère" (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)
The Old Madge, a witchin "La Sylphide" (Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni)
Madame Larina in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Veronica in "Napoli" (August Bournonville / Lloyd Riggins)
and solos in
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Soldier Songs (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
Requiem
Kinderszenen
Trilogy M.R.: Secrets
Spring and Fall
Bernstein Dances
Vaslav
Le Sacre
Getting Closer
Bach-Suite 3
Fourth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Brahms-Waltz
(Frederick Ashton after Isadora Duncan)
Moments Movements Mendelssohn (Kevin Haigen)
Triple Self (Petr Zuska)
Fandango and Sinfonia Concertante (Lar Lubovitch)
Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
Violin Concerto (George Balanchine)
A la Françaix (George Balanchine)
Jewels – Emeralds (George Balanchine)
GUESTING
Cesena, Vicenza, Legnago, Munich and Moscow.
She has been coaching the candidates of the Prix de Lausanne 2008
SHE STAGED NEUMEIER'S BALLETS FOR
The Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris: "Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler", the Norwegian National Ballet and the Pittsburg Ballet Theatre: "A Streetcar Named Desire", the Het National Ballet: "Sylvia", the National Ballet of Canada: "Nijinsky"
AWARDS
Half final of the "Prix de Lausanne" and Silver Medal in the "Concorso di Danza Viotti"
Born in Mexico City, Natasha Lagunas began her professional ballet studies with Fernando Alonso and Alicia Alonso at the "Escuela Nacional de Arte" in Havana, Cuba. Following her academic studies, she studied for 3 years and graduated from Moscow Academy Ballet, in 1981.
As a professional dancer, she joined the "Compania Nacional de Danza" in Mexico as a demi-Soloist, where she performed a diverse repertoire for 15 years before becoming Balletmaster until the year of 2020.
She worked with many well known choreographers and stagers such as Jane Bourne (John Cranko), Elisabeth Gibiat (Itzik Galili), Ben Stevenson, Roser Munoz (Uwe Scholtz), Karl Burnett (Kenneth McMillan), Nanette Glouschak (George Balanchine) and Demis Volpi, among others.
In 2020 she joined Ballett am Rhein team as a Balletmaster under Demis Volpi’s direction.
Now, she dedicates her career as Balletmaster, Rehearsal Director as well guest Balletmaster in the world well known Ballet companies, such as National Finish Ballet, among others.
Photo © Sigrid Reinichs
BORN
21.7.71 in Puerto Rico. American
EDUCATION
Nana Hudo School of Dance, Puerto Rico
Southern Ballet Theater, Orlando, Florida
MAIN TEACHERS
Nana Hudo. Barbara Riggins, Russel Siulzbach, Kip Watson. Hennig Kronstam, Colleen Neary
ENGAGEMENTS
Royal Danish Ballet 1990-1995
The Hamburg Ballet since 1995, promoted Soloist in 2000, Ballet Mistress since 2007
CREATIONS
in Hamburg
Polina Andreyevna in "The Seagull"
Heather in "Préludes CV"
Ruby Fairy in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
and solos in
Messiah
Winterreise
REPERTORY
in Florida
Myrtha in "Giselle" (Jean Coralli-Jules Perrot/Henning Kronstam)
and solos in
Flower Festival (August Bournonville)
Tchaikovsky Pas de deux (George Balanchine)
Clowns and Others (Salvatore Aiello)
Missing Persons (Marc Bogeart)
Graduation Ball (David Lichine)
in Copenhagen
A Fairy and Puss'n Boots in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Helgi Tomasson)
Elsa in "A Folk Tale" (August Bournonville)
in Hamburg
A Fairy in "The Sleeping Beauty"
The Spanish dance in "The Nutcracker"
Maria in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
A foreign Princess in "A Cinderella Story"
Aurora in "The Sleeping Beauty"
Audrey in "As You Like It"
Bronislava in "Nijinsky"
Arete and Eurycleia in "Odyssey"
Prudence in "Lady of the Camellias"
Ygerne in "The Saga of King Arthur"
Aurora in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
Woman in "Rennen hinter dem was flieht" (Stephan Thoss)
The Young Girl in "Light Beings" (Mats Ek)
Hindu Dance in "La Bayadère" (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)
Amme in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Veronica in "Napoli" (August Bournonville / Lloyd Riggins)
and solos in
Time after Time from Images from Bartók
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Vaslav
Saint Matthew Passion
Le Sacre
Peer Gynt
Magnificat
Rondo
Moments Movements Mendelssohn (Kevin Haigen)
Triple Self (Petr Zuska)
Weight on my Back (Gustavo Sansano)
Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
She worked on Donna Feuer's documentary: "The Work of Utopia"
AWARD
Dr. Wilhelm Oberdörffer-Prize 2000
SHE STAGED NEUMEIER'S BALLETS FOR
The San Francisco Ballet: The Little Mermaid, the Stanislavsky Ballet Moscow: The Little Mermaid, The Royal Danish Ballet and Houston Ballet: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Vienna State Ballet: The Legend of Joseph and Verklungene Feste
BORN
In Verona. Italian
EDUCATION
Scuola di Ballo dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Diploma for Advanced Training Dance Education in John Cranko School, Stuttgart
ENGAGEMENTS
Teatro alla Scala Milan, as dancer 2000-2002
Stuttgart Ballet, as Soloist 2002-2015 and as Guest Ballet Master 2012-2015, 2017
Ballett im Revier, as Ballet Master 2018-2019
Ballett am Rhein, as Head Ballet Master 2020-2024
Hamburg Ballet, as Head Ballet Master from August 2024
CREATIONS
Rosny in "..., la peau blanche..." (Christian Spuck)
Police Minister Argenson in "Das Fräulein von S." (Christian Spuck)
Professor Spalanzani in "The Sandman" (Christian Spuck)
Nicholas Greene in "Orlando" (Marco Goecke)
and solos in
Sweet Sweet Sweet (Marco Goecke)
Igor Poems (Kevin O'Day)
Il Concertone (Mauro Bigonzetti)
Alben (Marco Goecke)
Dummy Run (Douglas Lee)
Melodious gimmick to keep the boys in line (Marc Spadling)
Nautilus (Wayne McGregor)
Orphée et Euridice (Christian Spuck)
Viciouswishes (Marco Goecke)
REPERTORY IN MILAN
A Prince in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Rudolf Nurejev)
and solos in
Excelsior (Luigi Manzotti)
Amarcord (Luciano Cannito)
Notre-Dame de Paris (Roland Petit)
REPERTORY IN STUTTGART
Othello and Jago in "Othello" (John Neumeier)
Harold Mitchell and Kiefaber in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (John Neumeier)
Monsieur Duval in "Lady of the Camellias" (John Neumeier)
José-Antonio in "Don Quixote" (Maximiliano Guerra)
Carabosse, Prince of the South in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Marcia Haydée after Marius Petipa)
Simone in "I fratelli – The Brothers" (Mauro Bigonzetti)
Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet" (John Cranko)
Gremin in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Urlicht (William Forsythe)
Rotbart, Prince's Friend, Spanish Dance in "Swan Lake" (John Cranko)
Hortensio in "The Taming of the Shrew" (John Cranko)
A Friend in "Gaîté parisienne "(Maurice Béjart)
Hilarion in "Giselle" (Reid Anderson, Valentina Savina)
Claudius in "Hamlet" (Kevin O’Day)
Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker" (Marco Goecke)
Brighella in "Pierrot lunaire" (Glen Tetley)
Pas de trois in "Voluntaries" (Glen Tetley)
Solo in B. in "Initials R.B.M.E." (John Cranko)
King Peter in "Leonce and Lena" (Christian Spuck)
Rodrigo, Jack the Ripper in "Lulu - A Tragedy of Monsters" (Christian Spuck)
Vision in "Poème de l’Extase" (John Cranko)
Roy in "Présence "( John Cranko)
The Host in "The Lady and the Fool" (John Cranko)
First Intruder in "The Cage" (Jerome Robbins)
and solos in
Fratres (John Neumeier)
Brouillards (John Cranko)
Grosse Fuge (Hans van Manen)
Forgotten Land (Jiří Kylián)
Le Sacre du printemps (Glen Tetley)
Corps (Hans van Manen)
Das siebte blau (Christian Spuck)
No more play (Jiří Kylián)
Yantra (Wayne McGregor)
The Song of the Earth (Kenneth MacMillan)
Jeu de Cartes (John Cranko)
Kleines Requiem (Hans van Manen)
Requiem (Kenneth MacMillan)
Return to a strange Land (Jiří Kylián)
Slice to Sharp (Jorma Elo)
Symphony in C (George Balanchine)
Die vier Temperamente (George Balanchine)
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR OF BALLETS BY:
Demis Volpi, Bridget Breiner, Twyla Tyarp, Roland Petit, George Balanchine, Hans Van Mannen, John Neumeier, Jerome Robbins, Flemming Flindt, Katarzyna Kozielska, Marco Goecke
GUESTING AS BALLET MASTER
Teatro Massimo Palermo
HE STAGED
Ballets by Demis Volpi:
Finnish National Ballet
Opéra National de Lyon
Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Ballets by Bridget Breiner:
Innsbruck Ballett
Ballett in Revier
Light Design by Katarzyna Kozielska:
Stuttgart Ballet
Czech National Ballet
BORN
9.10.69 in New York. American
EDUCATION
School of Southern Ballet Theatre, Orlando, Florida
MAIN TEACHERS
Barbara Riggins, Henning Kronstam, Kevin Haigen
ENGAGEMENTS
Southern Ballet Theatre, Orlando, Florida (1985-1987)
Royal Danish Ballet (1987-1995, 1989 as Principal)
Hamburg Ballet since 1995, as Principal. From 2006 to 2009 his was Assistant Ballet Master and he is since 2009 Ballet Master as well. Since 2015 he is also Deputy Artistic Director
CREATIONS
in Hamburg
Sebastian in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
Hamlet in "Hamlet" (1997 version)
Pas de deux "Scheherazade II" (Easter Concert 1998, Munich)
Petrushka in ‘Petrushka’ in "Nijinsky"
Piotr Nikolayevich Sorin in "The Seagull"
Lloyd in "Préludes CV"
Gustav von Aschenbach in "Death in Venice"
A Man in "Christmas Oratorio I-VI"
Ficsur in "Liliom" (for Dario Franconi)
Gustav Mahler in "Purgatorio"
King Florestan in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
and solos in
hello
Bernstein Dances
Winter Ways from "Images from Bartók"
Messiah
Winterreise
Voice of the Night
Nocturnes and Nachtwanderung
from "Songs of the Night"
Purgatorio
Moments Movements Mendelssohn (Kevin Haigen)
Beautiful Freak (Marco Goecke)
Renku (Yuka Oishi / Orkan Dann)
REPERTORY
in Copenhagen
Lenski in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
The Joker in "Jeu de Cartes" (John Cranko)
James in "La Sylphide" (August Bournonville)
Gennaro in "Napoli" (August Bournonville)
Albrecht in "Giselle" (Jean Coralli-Jules Perrot / Henning Kronstam)
Romeo and Benvolio in "Romeo and Juliet" (John Neumeier)
Puck and Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (John Neumeier)
King Christian VII in "Caroline Mathilde" (Flemming Flindt)
Don Quixote in "Don Quixote"
Apollo in "Apollo" (George Balanchine)
Poet in "La Sonnambula" (George Balanchine)
and solos in
Konservatorium (August Bournonville)
A Folk Tale (August Bournonville)
The Kermesse in Bruges (August Bournonville)
The Fifth Symphony (Gustav Mahler / John Neumeier)
Soldier Songs (John Neumeier)
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
Tchaikovsky Pas de deux (George Balanchine)
in Hamburg
Romeo, Mercutio, Valentino and Lord Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet"
Armand, Gaston and Monsieur Duval in "Lady of the Camellias"
Odysseus in "Odyssey"
Petrushka in "Petrushka"
Prince Désiré in "The Sleeping Beauty"
Günther and Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker"
Puck, Theseus/Oberon, Demetrius and Bottom/Pyramus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Orsino and Sebastian in "VIVALDI or What you will"
The Prince and Cinderella's Father in "A Cinderella Story"
The King in "Illusions - like Swan Lake"
Serge Diaghilev in "Nijinsky"
Albert in "Giselle"
King Arthur in "The Saga of King Arthur"
Petrushka in "Petrushka"
Doubt aspect in "Peer Gynt"
Touchstone in "As You Like It"
W. A. Mozart in "Windows on MOZART"
The Hermit in "Parzival – Episodes and Echo"
The Poet in "The Little Mermaid"
Harold Mitchell (Mitch) in "A Streetcar Named Desire"
A Man in "Seasons – The Colors of Time"
Widow Simone in "La Fille mal gardée" (Frederick Ashton)
A Dandy in "A la Françaix" (George Balanchine)
The Sage in "Le Sacre du Printemps" (Millicent Hoson, inspired by Vaslav Nijinsky)
Father Sheperd in "The Winter's Tale" (Christopher Wheeldon)
and solos in
Now and Then
Saint Matthew Passion
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Night Sketches aus "Images from Bartók"
Bach-Suite 3
Requiem
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
She was black (Mats Ek)
Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
Wege (Yukichi Hattori)
Jewels – Emeralds (George Balanchine)
GUESTING
Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto, Copenhagen, Florida, Washington, Paris, Munich and in New York with the American Ballet Theatre.
HE STAGED NEUMEIER'S BALLETS
"Sylvia" for the Het National Ballet in Amsterdam, "Odyssee" for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, "The Little Mermaid" for the San Francisco Ballet and for the National Ballet of China, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Houston Ballet
HE STAGED
Bournonville's "Napoli"-Pas de six for the National Youth Ballet and "The Kermesse in Bruges" for the Royal Danish Ballet for the Bournonville Festival 2005. In 2014 he staged and choreographically completed August Bournonville's "Napoli" for the Hamburg Ballet
He worked on Donya Feuer's documentary: "The Work of Utopia"
AWARDS
"Benois de la Danse 2004".
"Danza & Danza Prize 2004" for his interpretation of his roles in "Bernstein Dances" and "Nijinsky"
More about Lloyd Riggins
BORN
17.1.75 in Gomel. White Russian
EDUCATION
Minsk Ballet School
The School of the Hamburg Ballet
MAIN TEACHERS
Alexander Ivanovich Kaladenko, Anatoli Nisnevich, Kevin Haigen
ENGAGEMENT
Hamburg Ballet since 1994, Soloist in 1997, Principal in 1998, Ballet Master since 2020
CREATIONS
Telemachos in "Odyssey"
King Koll/Fortinbras in "Hamlet" ('97 version)
Sir Andrew in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
Eros in "Bernstein Dances"
Serge Diaghilev in "Nijinsky"
Carsten in "Préludes CV"
Frederick the Great in "Death in Venice"
Konstantin (Kostya) Gavrilovich Triplev in "The Seagull"
The Doctor and Serge Diaghilev in "Le Pavillon d'Armide"
Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin in "Anna Karenina"
and solos in
Time after Time from "Images from Bartók"
Messiah
Winterreise
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Osterkonzert 2004, Munich)
Du und Du-Waltzer (New Year's Concert 2006, Vienna)
Nocturnes from "Songs of the Night"
Verklungene Feste
Wege (Yukichi Hattori)
REPERTORY
Daphnis in "Daphnis and Chloe"
Armand, Des Grieux, Monsieur Duval and Comte N. in "Lady of the Camellias"
The Prince in "A Cinderella Story"
The young boy in "In The Between"
Theseus/Oberon and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Prince Désiré, Catalabutte and Blue Bird in "The Sleeping Beauty"
Drosselmeier and Günther in "The Nutcracker"
Romeo, Tybalt, Lord Capulet and Benvolio in "Romeo and Juliet"
Hamlet in "Hamlet" and Polonius in "Hamlet 21"
Aminta in "Sylvia"
Malvolio in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
The main role in "Bernstein Dances"
The King, Prince Leopold and Prince Siegfried in "Illusions - like 'Swan Lake'"
Albert in "Giselle"
Peer, Solveig's Father and The Producer in "Peer Gynt"
Merlin in "The Saga of King Arthur""
Don Juan in "Don Juan"
Gustav von Aschenbach in "Death in Venice"
Odysseus in "Odyssey"
The Poet in "The Little Mermaid"
Her Husband in "Christmas Oratorio"
Jago in "Othello"
The Angel in "The Legend of Joseph"
Liliom and Gate Keeper in "Liliom"
Piotr Nikolayevich Sorin in "The Seagull"
The High Brahmin in "La Bayadère" (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa)
The Young Boy in "Light Beings" (Mats Ek)
The Prince in The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
Madge, a Witch in "La Sylphide" (Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni)
Man in Green in "Dances at a Gathering" (Jerome Robbins)
The Husband in "The Concert" (Jerome Robbins)
Onegin in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Don Quixote in "Don Quixote" (Rudolf Nurejev after Marius Petipa)
and solos in
Saint Matthew Passion
Petrushka-Variations
Fratres
Requiem
Spring and Fall
Bernstein-Serenade
Soldier Songs (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
The Fifth Symphony (Gustav Mahler)
hello
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Bach Suite 2
Le Sacre
Magnificat
Opus 100 – for Maurice
Nocturnes from "Songs of the Night"
Afternoon of a Faun
Remanso (Nacho Duato)
Le Pavillon d'Armide (Michail Fokine)
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
Violin Concerto (George Balanchine)
Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
Jewels – Diamonds (George Balanchine)
GUESTING
Berlin, Dusseldorf, Essen, Munich (Easter Concert 2000 and 2002), Moscow, Bordeaux, Toronto, Beijing, Vienna (New Year's Concert 2006), St.Barth's Music Festival, World Ballet Festival 2006 in Japan, Roberto Bolle and Friends-Galas in Italy, at the Charity Gala "Event Prominent" 2007 and 2010 in Hamburg and 2011 at a Tribute to Natalia Makarova in Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
He danced the role of Konstantin (Kostya) Gavrilovich Triplev in "The Seagull" with the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto and with the ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre in Moscow.
HE CHOREOGRAPHED
"Instant"
Music: Samuel Barber
Premiere: Bolshoi Theatre on November 22, 2006
Cast: Bolshoi principal dancers' Marianna Ryzhkina and Yan Godovsky
AWARDS
In 1992 he was half finalist of the "Prix de Lausanne" and received a scholarship from the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation to complete his education at The Hamburg Ballet School.
Dr. Wilhelm-Oberdörffer-Prize 1996
BORN
20.6.1985 in Yerevan, Armenia. German
EDUCATION
Amaras Dance Studio, Yerevan
Yerevan State Choreographically College
John Cranko School
MAIN TEACHERS
Hovhannes Divanyan, Pyotr Pestov
ENGAGEMENTS
Stuttgart Ballet in 2004, Half-Soloist in 2007, Soloist in 2012
Tulsa Ballet, USA in 2015 as Soloist, Principal in 2016, Assistant Rehearsal Director as well in 2023
Hamburg Ballet since 2024 as Ballet Master
CREATIONS
Ciro in "I Fratelli" (Mauro Bigonzetti)
The Prince in "The Nutcracker" (Val Canipoli / Ma Cong)
Juro in "Krabat" (Demis Volpi)
Louis XIV, King of France in "Das Fräulein von S." (Christian Spuck)
Gravedigger in "Hamlet" (Kevin O’Day)
Alexander Pope in "Orlando" (Marco Goecke)
and solos in
Big Blur (Demis Volpi)
Remember Our Song (Andy Blankenbuehler)
Ballad Unto... (Dwight Rhoden)
While you were gone (Jennifer Weber)
Love-Notes (Nicolo Fonte)
Flight of Fancy (Ma Cong)
All things considered (Craig Davidson)
Creatures of Prometheus (Jorma Elo)
Parhelia (Jenifer Archibald)
Divinire (Nicolo Fonte)
Pentaptych (Ma Cong)
Meoal (Helen Pickett)
Spinto (Demis Volpi)
Shibuya Blues (Anabelle Lopez)
2017 (Young Soon Hue)
Double Bass Concerto ( Bridget Breiner)
Nightlight (Douglas Lee)
II Concertone ( Mauro Bigonzetti)
On Velvet (Marco Goecke)
Within ( Katarzyna Kozielska)
Ren in 3 ( Jorma Elo)
Ssss... (Edward Clug)
REPERTORY
Onegin in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Basilio und Don Quichotte in "Don Quichotte" (Anna Marie Holmes)
The Wild Warrior "Othello" (John Neumeier)
Don José in "Carmen" (Kenneth Tindall)
The Prince in "Cinderella" (Andrew McNicol)
Prince Siegfried and Rothbart in "Swan Lake" (Marcello Angelini)
Petruchio and Gremio in "The Taming of the Shrew" (John Cranko)
Prince Albrecht in "Giselle" (Marcello Angelini)
Dracula in "Dracula" (Ben Stevenson)
Tchaikovsky in "Tchaikovsky" (Ma Cong)
R. and E. in "Initials R.B.M.E." (John Cranko)
Bim and Napoléon III in "Gaité parisienne" (Maurice Béjart)
Alain, Rooster and the Flute Boy in "La Fille mal gardée" (Sir Frederick Ashton)
Gaston Rieux and Count N. in "Lady of the Camellias" (John Neumeier)
Charles, the Mouse King and Drosselmeyer in "The Nutcracker" (Marcello Angelini)
Valerio in "Leonce and Lena" (Christian Spuck)
Federico in "Vendetta" (Annabelle Lopez Ochoa)
Mercutio and Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet" (Edwaard Liang)
Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" (John Cranko)
The Nerd in "O Balcão de Amor" (Itzik Galili)
Bootface in "The Lady and the Fool" (John Cranko)
Siegmund in "The Sandman" (Christian Spuck)
Ali Baba and Puss in Boots in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Marcia Haydée after Marius Petipa)
The King in "Dorothy and the Prince of Oz" (Edwaard Liang)
Pas de deux in "Cacti" (Alexander Ekman)
Pas de trois und Général Lavine Eccentric in "Brouillards" (John Cranko)
Mann in Terracotta in "Dances at a Gathering" (Jerome Robbins)
Basilio, Gypsy Prince and Sancho Panza in "Don Quijote" (Maximiliano Guerra)
Peasant-Pas de deux in "Giselle" (Reid Anderson / Valentina Savina)
Joker in "Jeu de Cartes" (John Cranko)
The Rhythm in "Boléro" (Maurice Béjart)
Schigolch in "Lulu. A Monstre Tragedy" (Christian Spuck)
Amor Boys in "Orphée et Euridice" (Christian Spuck)
Cavalier of the Princess of Naples and Benno in "Swan Lake" (John Cranko)
Second Theme in "The Four Temperaments" (George Balanchine)
and solos in
Classical Symphony (Yuri Possokhov)
Petite Mort (Jiri Kylian)
Serenade (George Balanchine)
Remansos (Nacho Duato)
Infra (Wayne McGregor)
Swish (Demis Volpi)
Le Sacre du printemps (Glen Tetley)
Strictly Gerschwin (Derek Deane)
The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (William Forsythe)
Second to Last (Alejandro Cerrudo)
Million Kisses to my Skin (David Dawson)
Dancing in the Streets (Joshua Bergasse)
Roman Holiday (Luciano Cannito)
Starfish (Adam Hougland)
Der richtige Ort (Katarzyna Kozielska)
Forgotten Land (Jiri Kylian)
La Grande Parade du Funk (Bridget Breiner)
Les Bourgeois (Ben Van Cauwenbergh)
Letters of Others (Bridget Breiner)
Seventh Symphony (Uwe Scholz)
Slice to Sharp (Jorma Elo)
GUESTING
as dancer
Jacob's Pillow Festival, USA
Festival International Ballet Schools, Magdeburg
Canada's National Ballet School
Music and Ballet Gala, Stuttgart
Aalto Ballet, Essen
Gala in Chiasso, Switzerland
Ballet Benefit Gala, Chemnitz
Gala in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus
Gala for the 100 Years of the Armenian Genocide, Yerevan
Forceful Feelings, Yerevan
Gala for Central Oklahoma Ballet Company, USA
as Ballett Master
BalletMet, Columbus, USA
Academy of Ballet and Theater Arts, Oklahoma City
Tulsa Ballet – Center for Dance Education
CHOREOGRAPHY
"Scandal"
Premiere: Tulsa Ballet II – Young Choreographer, Tulsa, 2017
AWARDS
Prix de Lausanne 2003
Photo © Tulsa Ballet
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-925
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
frederic.fouson@hamburgballett.de
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-925
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
robert.goeing@hamburgballett.de
Catherine Dumont danced as Soloist with the Hamburg Ballet from 1995 to 2011. She then continued at the company as John Neumeier's assistant for 13 years. From August 2024, she will organize the numerous requests for rentals of John Neumeier's works to other companies and houses at both a national and international level.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-989
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
catherine.dumont@hamburgballett.de
Petar Kostov received his education with Konrad Elser at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, as well as in Vienna. He attended master classes with Andrzej Jasiński, Ludmil Angelov, Boris Berman, Paul Badura-Skoda, Alexander Jenner and Bozhidar Nojev.
He is a multiple prize winner of national and international piano and chamber music competitions, including the International Chamber Music Festival "Allegro Vivo".
As part of "Wien Modern 2018", Petar Kostov played at the Vienna Konzerthaus for the entire performance of Luciano Berio's Sequenze cycle. In 2016, at the Vienna Radio Culture House, he performed Geirr Tveitt's piano concerto "Aurora Borealis" and Igor Stravinsky's piano concerto under Maestro Toshiyuki Shimada (Yale Symphony Orchestra), and in 2015 he created the piano part in Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon". He made his debut with orchestra in 2013 with the Plovdiv State Opera Orchestra. He is a sought-after chamber music partner and performs with various musicians and ensembles.
Since 2020 Petar Kostov has been working as a pianist for the Hamburg Ballet and the Hamburg Ballet School at the Hamburg State Opera.
From 2001-2010, Philip Handschin completed his dance training at the ballet school of Theater Basel. After a three-month guest engagement with the Finnish National Ballet, he joined the Ballett am Rhein in 2010/11. During this time, he danced solo roles in "The thing with feathers" by Demis Volpi, "Ein Deutsches Requiem" by Martin Schläpfer, "Adagio Hammerklavier" by Hans van Manen, "Forgotten Land" by Jiří Kylián and "One Flat Thing Reproduced" by William Forsythe, among others.
From the 2024/25 season, he will be responsible for the artistic production coordination of the Hamburg Ballet.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-914
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
philip.handschin@hamburgballett.de
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-912
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-926
nicolas.hartmann@hamburgballett.de
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-421/-205
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-472
Barbara.Huber@staatsoper-hamburg.de
Vladimir Kocić stammt aus Belgrad, Serbien. Er studierte zunächst Tanz in Novi Sad und wechselte anschließend an die Ballettschule des Hamburg Ballett. 1994 wurde er ins Ensemble des Hamburg Ballett aufgenommen. Im Jahr 2001 übernahm er die Position des Technisch-künstlerischen Koordinators beim Hamburg Ballett. In dieser Funktion koordiniert er – insbesondere bei Neukreationen von John Neumeier – die Abstimmungsprozesse zwischen Administration bzw. künstlerischer Produktion und Technischer Abteilung. Des Weiteren verkörpert Vladimir Kocic regelmäßig Charakterrollen in Aufführungen des Hamburg Ballett.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-977
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
vladimir.kocic@hamburgballett.de
Vladimir Kocić stammt aus Belgrad, Serbien. Er studierte zunächst Tanz in Novi Sad und wechselte anschließend an die Ballettschule des Hamburg Ballett. 1994 wurde er ins Ensemble des Hamburg Ballett aufgenommen. Im Jahr 2001 übernahm er die Position des Technisch-künstlerischen Koordinators beim Hamburg Ballett. In dieser Funktion koordiniert er – insbesondere bei Neukreationen von John Neumeier – die Abstimmungsprozesse zwischen Administration bzw. künstlerischer Produktion und Technischer Abteilung. Des Weiteren verkörpert Vladimir Kocic regelmäßig Charakterrollen in Aufführungen des Hamburg Ballett.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-977
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
vladimir.kocic@hamburgballett.de
Katerina Kordatou was born in Athens, Greece. She studied Business Administration at the Philipps University Marburg and at the Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf. After completing her studies, she worked in the Marketing Communication department of the musical theatre production company Stella Entertainment AG, which later became Stage Entertainment. In 2002 she moved to the PR & Communication Department of the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier. Since then, she has worked in the areas of Press and Public Relations for the Company and the School of the Hamburg Ballet. From the season 2024/25, she will be responsible for Marketing and Communication
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-916
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-917
Katerina.Kordatou@hamburgballett.de
Elizabeth Loscavio was born in Jacksonville, Florida, USA and studied classical dance at the Contra Costa Ballet School, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1986 she became a member of the San Francisco Ballet, where she advanced to soloist two years later and in 1990 to first soloist. In 1997 she joined the Hamburg Ballet as soloist and was promoted to principal in 1998. In addition to numerous creations in San Francisco and Hamburg, she danced an extensive repertoire in both companies and completed several international guest appearances. In 1991 she was honored with the Isadora Duncan Award for Individual Performance and in 1996 with the Arts Achievement Award for Classical Dance of the San Francisco Focus Magazine. In the DVD "Illusions – like Swan Lake" she dances Princess Natalia. Since 2005 she is responsible for the management of ballet shoes at the Ballettzentrum Hamburg John Neumeier. From 2014 to 2017 she taught classical dance at the Erika Klütz Professional School for Theatrical Dance and Dance Pedagogy. Since the season 2017/18 she teaches classical dance at the Ballet School of the Hamburg Ballet.
John Neumeier was born in 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he received his first dance training. He continued his dance studies in Chicago as well as at Marquette University in Milwaukee where he created his first choreographic works. After further ballet study both in Copenhagen and at The Royal Ballet School in London, John Cranko invited him in 1963 to join Stuttgart Ballet, where he progressed to soloist and continued his choreographic development.
In 1969, Ulrich Erfurth appointed Mr. Neumeier Director of Ballet Frankfurt, where he soon caused a sensation with his new interpretations of such well-known ballets as "The Nutcracker" and "Romeo and Juliet". In 1973, August Everding invited him to become Director and Chief Choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet. Under his direction, The Hamburg Ballet became one of the leading ballet companies on the German dance scene and soon received international recognition. As a choreographer, Mr. Neumeier has continually focused on the preservation of ballet tradition, while giving his works a modern dramatic framework. His ballets range from new versions of full-length story ballets to musicals and to his symphonic ballets, especially those based on Gustav Mahler's compositions, as well as his choreographies to sacred music. His latest creations for The Hamburg Ballet: "The Sleeping Beauty" (new version, 2021), "Hamlet 21" (2021), "Beethoven Project II" (2021) and "Dona Nobis Pacem" (2022).
In 1975, John Neumeier conceived the Hamburg Ballet Days as a climax and end to each season. In 1978, he founded the School of the Hamburg Ballet. In 1989 the school, together with the company, moved into its own "Ballettzentrum" (ballet center) provided by the city of Hamburg. Its facilities include nine studios and a boarding school for over 30 students. Today almost 80 % of the company's dancers are graduates from the school.
John Neumeier has worked as guest choreographer with many companies, including The Royal Ballet in London; The Vienna, Munich and Dresden State Operas; The Stuttgart Ballet (for which he has created several works); The Royal Danish Ballet; The Ballet of the Paris Opera; The Tokyo Ballet; American Ballet Theatre in New York; San Francisco Ballet; Joffrey Ballet; Boston Ballet; The National Ballet of Canada; The Ballet of the Mariinsky Theater; Moscow Bolshoi and Stanislavsky Ballet; and The National Ballet of China, among others.
Mr. Neumeier holds the Dance Magazine Award (1983), Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and French Order of Arts and Letters and the Legion of Honour. In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious Nijinsky Award for Lifetime Achievement. He received the Herbert von Karajan Musikpreis in 2007 and the Deutscher Jubiläums Tanzpreis in 2008. In 2007, he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Hamburg. In November 2012, he accepted the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation. In 2015, the Inamori Foundation presented Mr. Neumeier with the Kyoto Prize for his contributions to the Arts and Philosophy; in 2016 he received the renowned Prix Benois de la Danse for Lifetime Achievement. His most recent awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Prix de Lausanne, the Erich Fromm Prize and the Friendship Award of the People's Republic of China. In 2021, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark awarded John Neumeier the Medal of Honour "Ingenio et arti", a personal honour bestowed by the Danish royal house on outstanding personalities in the field of arts and scientists. In 2023, he received the Italian Music Prize "Una vita nella musica", the Honorary Membership of the Hamburg State Opera and July 2024 he was admitted as a new member of the order "Pour le mérite".
John Neumeier established the John Neumeier Foundation in February 2006 with the aim of preserving and eventually making available to the public his collection of dance and ballet-related objects. The Foundation will maintain and secure his repertoire and related materials for the city of Hamburg.
In 2011, John Neumeier founded Germany's National Youth Ballet. The young company of eight dancers is based at the Ballettzentrum in Hamburg but finds its performing spaces away from the Hamburg Opera. In addition to international touring this creative young company dances in schools, retirement homes and various social projects.
Since the 1999/2000 season, Birgit Paulsen has worked as an assistant to the Managing Director of the Hamburg Ballet.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-915
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
Birgit.Paulsen@hamburgballett.de
BORN
In Verona. Italian
EDUCATION
Scuola di Ballo dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Diploma for Advanced Training Dance Education in John Cranko School, Stuttgart
ENGAGEMENTS
Teatro alla Scala Milan, as dancer 2000-2002
Stuttgart Ballet, as Soloist 2002-2015 and as Guest Ballet Master 2012-2015, 2017
Ballett im Revier, as Ballet Master 2018-2019
Ballett am Rhein, as Head Ballet Master 2020-2024
Hamburg Ballet, as Head Ballet Master from August 2024
CREATIONS
Rosny in "..., la peau blanche..." (Christian Spuck)
Police Minister Argenson in "Das Fräulein von S." (Christian Spuck)
Professor Spalanzani in "The Sandman" (Christian Spuck)
Nicholas Greene in "Orlando" (Marco Goecke)
and solos in
Sweet Sweet Sweet (Marco Goecke)
Igor Poems (Kevin O'Day)
Il Concertone (Mauro Bigonzetti)
Alben (Marco Goecke)
Dummy Run (Douglas Lee)
Melodious gimmick to keep the boys in line (Marc Spadling)
Nautilus (Wayne McGregor)
Orphée et Euridice (Christian Spuck)
Viciouswishes (Marco Goecke)
REPERTORY IN MILAN
A Prince in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Rudolf Nurejev)
and solos in
Excelsior (Luigi Manzotti)
Amarcord (Luciano Cannito)
Notre-Dame de Paris (Roland Petit)
REPERTORY IN STUTTGART
Othello and Jago in "Othello" (John Neumeier)
Harold Mitchell and Kiefaber in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (John Neumeier)
Monsieur Duval in "Lady of the Camellias" (John Neumeier)
José-Antonio in "Don Quixote" (Maximiliano Guerra)
Carabosse, Prince of the South in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Marcia Haydée after Marius Petipa)
Simone in "I fratelli – The Brothers" (Mauro Bigonzetti)
Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet" (John Cranko)
Gremin in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
Urlicht (William Forsythe)
Rotbart, Prince's Friend, Spanish Dance in "Swan Lake" (John Cranko)
Hortensio in "The Taming of the Shrew" (John Cranko)
A Friend in "Gaîté parisienne "(Maurice Béjart)
Hilarion in "Giselle" (Reid Anderson, Valentina Savina)
Claudius in "Hamlet" (Kevin O’Day)
Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker" (Marco Goecke)
Brighella in "Pierrot lunaire" (Glen Tetley)
Pas de trois in "Voluntaries" (Glen Tetley)
Solo in B. in "Initials R.B.M.E." (John Cranko)
King Peter in "Leonce and Lena" (Christian Spuck)
Rodrigo, Jack the Ripper in "Lulu - A Tragedy of Monsters" (Christian Spuck)
Vision in "Poème de l’Extase" (John Cranko)
Roy in "Présence "( John Cranko)
The Host in "The Lady and the Fool" (John Cranko)
First Intruder in "The Cage" (Jerome Robbins)
and solos in
Fratres (John Neumeier)
Brouillards (John Cranko)
Grosse Fuge (Hans van Manen)
Forgotten Land (Jiří Kylián)
Le Sacre du printemps (Glen Tetley)
Corps (Hans van Manen)
Das siebte blau (Christian Spuck)
No more play (Jiří Kylián)
Yantra (Wayne McGregor)
The Song of the Earth (Kenneth MacMillan)
Jeu de Cartes (John Cranko)
Kleines Requiem (Hans van Manen)
Requiem (Kenneth MacMillan)
Return to a strange Land (Jiří Kylián)
Slice to Sharp (Jorma Elo)
Symphony in C (George Balanchine)
Die vier Temperamente (George Balanchine)
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR OF BALLETS BY:
Demis Volpi, Bridget Breiner, Twyla Tyarp, Roland Petit, George Balanchine, Hans Van Mannen, John Neumeier, Jerome Robbins, Flemming Flindt, Katarzyna Kozielska, Marco Goecke
GUESTING AS BALLET MASTER
Teatro Massimo Palermo
HE STAGED
Ballets by Demis Volpi:
Finnish National Ballet
Opéra National de Lyon
Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Ballets by Bridget Breiner:
Innsbruck Ballett
Ballett in Revier
Light Design by Katarzyna Kozielska:
Stuttgart Ballet
Czech National Ballet
Peter Piterka was born in Topoľčany, Slovakia. In 1994 he began his ballet training at the Tanećné Konzervatorium Evy Jaczovej in Bratislava, in 2002 he went to the Académie de danse classique Princesse Grace in Monaco where he graduated two years later.
From 2004 to 2008 he was member of the Corps de ballet at the Stuttgart Ballet. He danced soloistic roles such as the attendant of the Prince and an attendant of the Princess of Poland in "Swan Lake" (John Cranko) as well as the Prince of the West, the Prince of the Princess on the Pea and the Companion of the Fairies in Marcia Haydée's "The Sleeping Beauty" (after Marius Petipa). Furthermore he performed in other ballets by John Cranko, Maurice Béjart, Mauro Bigonzetti, Glen Tetley, Christian Spuck and Marco Goecke. Tours with the Stuttgart Ballet les him to Asia and to foreign countries of Europe.
After he stopped dancing in 2008 Peter Piterka started a vocational training as management assistant in event organisation.
From September 2010 to March 2011 he was working as assistant for the Anniversary "50 Years Stuttgart Ballet". Afterwards he was Assistant to the Director of Production at the Stuttgart Ballet. From the 2014/15 season until the 2020/21 season he continued being Scheduling Coordinator and Assistant to the Director of Production.
In the seasons 2022/23 and 2023/24 he was Rehearsal Scheduler and Production Manager at Ballett am Rhein.
Starting with the 2024/25 season, he will be in charge of the Ballet Schedule at the Hamburg Ballet.
peter.piterka@hamburgballett.de
Photo © Sigrid Reinichs
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-913
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-926
paula.reiprich@hamburgballett.de
BORN
9.10.69 in New York. American
EDUCATION
School of Southern Ballet Theatre, Orlando, Florida
MAIN TEACHERS
Barbara Riggins, Henning Kronstam, Kevin Haigen
ENGAGEMENTS
Southern Ballet Theatre, Orlando, Florida (1985-1987)
Royal Danish Ballet (1987-1995, 1989 as Principal)
Hamburg Ballet since 1995, as Principal. From 2006 to 2009 his was Assistant Ballet Master and he is since 2009 Ballet Master as well. Since 2015 he is also Deputy Artistic Director
CREATIONS
in Hamburg
Sebastian in "VIVALDI or What You Will"
Hamlet in "Hamlet" (1997 version)
Pas de deux "Scheherazade II" (Easter Concert 1998, Munich)
Petrushka in ‘Petrushka’ in "Nijinsky"
Piotr Nikolayevich Sorin in "The Seagull"
Lloyd in "Préludes CV"
Gustav von Aschenbach in "Death in Venice"
A Man in "Christmas Oratorio I-VI"
Ficsur in "Liliom" (for Dario Franconi)
Gustav Mahler in "Purgatorio"
King Florestan in "The Sleeping Beauty" (Mats Ek)
and solos in
hello
Bernstein Dances
Winter Ways from "Images from Bartók"
Messiah
Winterreise
Voice of the Night
Nocturnes and Nachtwanderung
from "Songs of the Night"
Purgatorio
Moments Movements Mendelssohn (Kevin Haigen)
Beautiful Freak (Marco Goecke)
Renku (Yuka Oishi / Orkan Dann)
REPERTORY
in Copenhagen
Lenski in "Onegin" (John Cranko)
The Joker in "Jeu de Cartes" (John Cranko)
James in "La Sylphide" (August Bournonville)
Gennaro in "Napoli" (August Bournonville)
Albrecht in "Giselle" (Jean Coralli-Jules Perrot / Henning Kronstam)
Romeo and Benvolio in "Romeo and Juliet" (John Neumeier)
Puck and Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (John Neumeier)
King Christian VII in "Caroline Mathilde" (Flemming Flindt)
Don Quixote in "Don Quixote"
Apollo in "Apollo" (George Balanchine)
Poet in "La Sonnambula" (George Balanchine)
and solos in
Konservatorium (August Bournonville)
A Folk Tale (August Bournonville)
The Kermesse in Bruges (August Bournonville)
The Fifth Symphony (Gustav Mahler / John Neumeier)
Soldier Songs (John Neumeier)
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
Tchaikovsky Pas de deux (George Balanchine)
in Hamburg
Romeo, Mercutio, Valentino and Lord Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet"
Armand, Gaston and Monsieur Duval in "Lady of the Camellias"
Odysseus in "Odyssey"
Petrushka in "Petrushka"
Prince Désiré in "The Sleeping Beauty"
Günther and Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker"
Puck, Theseus/Oberon, Demetrius and Bottom/Pyramus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Orsino and Sebastian in "VIVALDI or What you will"
The Prince and Cinderella's Father in "A Cinderella Story"
The King in "Illusions - like Swan Lake"
Serge Diaghilev in "Nijinsky"
Albert in "Giselle"
King Arthur in "The Saga of King Arthur"
Petrushka in "Petrushka"
Doubt aspect in "Peer Gynt"
Touchstone in "As You Like It"
W. A. Mozart in "Windows on MOZART"
The Hermit in "Parzival – Episodes and Echo"
The Poet in "The Little Mermaid"
Harold Mitchell (Mitch) in "A Streetcar Named Desire"
A Man in "Seasons – The Colors of Time"
Widow Simone in "La Fille mal gardée" (Frederick Ashton)
A Dandy in "A la Françaix" (George Balanchine)
The Sage in "Le Sacre du Printemps" (Millicent Hoson, inspired by Vaslav Nijinsky)
Father Sheperd in "The Winter's Tale" (Christopher Wheeldon)
and solos in
Now and Then
Saint Matthew Passion
Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler
Night Sketches aus "Images from Bartók"
Bach-Suite 3
Requiem
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine)
She was black (Mats Ek)
Forgotten Land (Jirí Kylián)
Wege (Yukichi Hattori)
Jewels – Emeralds (George Balanchine)
GUESTING
Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto, Copenhagen, Florida, Washington, Paris, Munich and in New York with the American Ballet Theatre.
HE STAGED NEUMEIER'S BALLETS
"Sylvia" for the Het National Ballet in Amsterdam, "Odyssee" for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, "The Little Mermaid" for the San Francisco Ballet and for the National Ballet of China, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Houston Ballet
HE STAGED
Bournonville's "Napoli"-Pas de six for the National Youth Ballet and "The Kermesse in Bruges" for the Royal Danish Ballet for the Bournonville Festival 2005. In 2014 he staged and choreographically completed August Bournonville's "Napoli" for the Hamburg Ballet
He worked on Donya Feuer's documentary: "The Work of Utopia"
AWARDS
"Benois de la Danse 2004".
"Danza & Danza Prize 2004" for his interpretation of his roles in "Bernstein Dances" and "Nijinsky"
More about Lloyd Riggins
Nathalia Schmidt, born in Hamburg in 1990, is a scholar of comparative literature. With the beginning of Demis Volpi's artistic directorship in the 2024/2025 ballet season, she will support the team as an dramaturgy assistant and in the field of outreach.
She joined the Hamburg Ballet in the 2014/15 season. After an internship in the press office, she initially worked in communications/PR and dramaturgy and was also managing the "jung" program and social media channels. In the same year she completed her Master's degree with the thesis "Poetry and Dance in Stéphane Mallarmé. On the significance of écriture corporelle in his work".
While still studying comparative literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, she gained her first experience in PR and dramaturgy and supported artists at various dance and chamber music festivals, including the DANCE Festival in Munich and the International Mendelssohn Festival in Hamburg. Her work behind the scenes at the Hamburg Ballet brings her full circle, as she completed her professional dance education at the affiliated School of the Hamburg Ballet.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-934
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-917
Nathalia.Schmidt@hamburgballett.de
BORN
in Zurich. German
EDUCATION
Royal Ballet School, London, she got the "Benesh Prize for Dance Notation"
Benesh Institute of Choreology, London
ENGAGEMENTS
She worked as a guest with the Hamburg Ballet for the "In the Between" (1994) and "Odyssey" (1995) productions.
Hamburg Ballet since 1996 as choreologist
SHE STAGED NEUMEIER'S BALLETTS IN
Copenhagen, Helsinki, Dusseldorf, Moscow, Dresden, Toronto and Vienna
Kiran West based in Hamburg, Germany, is a former soloist with the Hamburg Ballet turned filmmaker, artist, book/poster/program designer, and fine-art photographer. He specializes in concert, documentary, and dance theatre. Having traveled extensively, he has captured artists on many of the world's historic stages, such as the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Bunka Kaikan Theater in Tokyo, The Joyce Theater in New York City, and the Opera di Firenze in Florence, among others. His work is published in DVDs, within stage set projections, and in newspapers/magazines such as Der Spiegel, Arte, Dance magazine, Geo, Lufthansa, Die Zeit, and Die Welt. He also has a permanent photo exhibition at Hamburg International Airport.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-922
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
kiran.west@hamburgballett.de
Since 2012, Eliot Worrell has been a professional ballet dancer within the corps de ballet of the Hamburg Ballet. Over the past twelve years, he has performed in numerous choreographies of John Neumeier in Hamburg and on tours abroad. This journey has not only fulfilled his passion for dance but has also provided him with invaluable insights into the complexities of international productions and touring.
Building upon these experiences, with the beginning of the 2024/25 season, he disembarks on a new chapter, utilizing this knowledge and aiming to seamlessly transition into the realm of stage management, thus merging his love for the arts with a deeper understanding of the intricacies involved in bringing productions to life.
Martina Zimmermann grew up near Munich and studied English literature, drama arts, and business administration at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the University of Birmingham (UK). During her studies, she gained first experiences in dance management at the Munich dance promoter Joint Adventures, where she was in charge of the National Performance Network (NPN) and the Bayerischer Landesverband für Zeitgenössischen Tanz (BLZT) for two years. After completing her studies, she has worked at Bavaria Film Interactive GmbH for seven years as video editor, deputy project manager and senior consultant and was in charge of international projects in the field of corporate TV. From June 2016 to June 2024, she was responsible for marketing, sales, web content and audience communication for the Bayerisches Staatsballett.
T: +49 (0)40 35 68-970
F: +49 (0)40 35 68-988
martina.zimmermann@hamburgballett.de
Photo © Nicholas Mackay
