Ballet

Dancer, teacher and choreographer Alfonso Bordi, born in Mexico, followed his dance education the Boston and Atlanta Schools of Ballet. Following different dancing engagements in Canada, Ireland and Germany, he is now among the most outstanding protagonists at Düsseldorf company NEUER TANZ under the direction of visual artist VA Wölfl.

Anne Grafweg ist Tänzerin, dipl. Tanzpädagogin, ausgebildet an der Tanzakademie Arnheim, Choreografin und Yogalehrerin mit jahrzehntelanger Berufserfahrung in Tanzvermittlung und Körperarbeit. Sie unterrichtet Tanz mit einem Schwerpunkt auf einem Mix aus Ballett und zeitgenössischem Tanz und Hatha-Yoga mit tänzerischen Elementen an verschiedenen Institutionen in fortlaufenden Kursen und Workshop-Formaten.
Als Tänzerin hat sie sich in der freien Szene, in Stadttheatern, auf Messen, bei Events, in Fernsehshows und eigenen Stücken bewegt. Als diplomierte Tanzpädagogin unterrichtet sie alle Altersstufen und gibt auch Fortbildungen für Tanzpädagog*Innen u.a. im Bereich Kinderballett, kreativer Kindertanz, Ballett für Erwachsene und Crossover-Ballett-Modern.

Chin-A Hwang, geboren in Südkorea, erhielt ihre Ausbildung als klassische Bühnentänzerin an der Seoul Arts High School in Korea. Im Anschluss studierte sie Bühnentanz am Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz - ZZT in Köln.
Seit 2017 ist Chin-A Hwang als freiberufliche Tanzpädagogin unter anderem in der Tanzfaktur, im Cologne Dance Center Köln sowie in verschiedenen Ballettschulen tätig.
Sie unterrichtet sowohl Amateure als auch Profis im klassischen und modernen Tanz.
Regelmäßig tanzt Chin-A Hwang auch in verschiedenen Produktionen der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Duisburg/ Düsseldorf und der Oper Köln.
Seit 2019 studiert sie den Master-Studiengang "Tanzpädagogik klassischer Tanz" an der Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen.

Daniel Smith is a freelance Creator/Performer/Educator. He was born in Vancouver Canada and currently lives in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Since 2022 after many years of working as a professional dancer in various companies, he shifted focus to working primarily on his own creative projects as well as collaborations with other artists. Until now his pieces have been shown on the stages of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the tanzhaus nrw and the Werkraum Göttingen.
Before this he has been employed as a soloist with the Ballett am Rhein. He received his formal dance education at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. He was also engaged as a company artist with Ballett Magdeburg, Colorado Ballet, and the National Ballet Of Canada. Throughout his career, he had the pleasure of collaborating with many noted choreographers on new creations as well as existing repertoire.

When Dawna Dryhorub first started ballet dancing at age three, the decision was already taken: “I want to be a dancer!” She took additional classes in tap dance, jazz dance and folkloristic dance, subseqently pursuing her dance education at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she specialised in Graham and classical dance. She received an invitation to collaborate on a project in Düsseldorf during the mid-1990s and swiftly became an artist close to the “Werkstatt”, the precursor of tanzhaus nrw. The native Canadian remained in Germany and participated in various productions by, among others, Rodolpho Leoni and Samir Akika. She offered trainings at Folkwang Tanzstudio for many years and was a guest lecturer for classical dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts. 2020 will see Dawna concluding her Master’s degree in dance sciences from Bern University in 2020.

Feline van Dijken, born in Amsterdam, studied ballet and dance at the Royal Ballet School in The Hague and the Heinz Bosl Foundation in Munich. She deepened her training in summer courses at the Royal Ballet in London and the Juilliard Summer Dance Intensive program in New York. Feline van Dijken's first engagement took her to the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. She then spent many years as a solo dancer with the Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf and Duisburg. During this time, she danced in countless pieces by various choreographers, including Hans van Manen, Martin Schläpfer, William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown and Andry Kaydanovskiy, and has thus developed a wide range of different styles during her active dance career. Numerous solo roles have been created for her. Feline van Dijken has also choreographed herself and is passionate about dance coaching.

Gabriela Santos holds a BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she was able to dance numerous works by American choreographers such as Bill T. Jones, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and many more. Gabriela also taught at the Ballet Academy East in New York, gave numerous workshops, and took every opportunity to complete internships with prominent teachers while dancing in professional projects. Beyond New York, Gabriela worked as a dance teacher, choreographer, and dancer in Peabody Preparatory of Dance in Baltimore. Very soon after completing her studies, Gabriela was contracted as a stage dancer by TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 1, where she performed daily in several theatre productions. She is currently working towards her master’s in dance pedagogy at the Palucca University of Dance. Gabriela has been teaching dance in Germany since 2019.

Born in Western Australia, Jemima was awarded a full scholarship to attend the ZHdK in Zürich where she completed her education in stage dance with a focus on
classic ballet technique. After competing as a finalist in the Prix de Lausanne, Jemima went on to graduate and work in the following classical and contemporary companies:
Bayerisches Staatsballett, Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, Ballet of Difference am Schauspiel Köln, and guested with Theater Basel, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Donlon Dance Collective,
Gintersdorfer/Klaßen and Schauspiel Köln to name a few. Jemima currently creates and assists in the production of theatre pieces, as well as performing throughout Europe.
Jemima is a firm advocate for ethical, safe and inclusive teaching/working practices in the realm of dance.

Jozsef Csaba Hajzer completed his training in classical dance and as a dance teacher at the Hungarian Dance Academy in Budapest and at the School of American Ballet in New York. He began choreographing as a young dancer and in a short time gained international recognition as a choreographer. Since 2015 he has been working as a resident choreographer at Theater Hagen. During his career, he has worked with companies such as New York City Ballet, Theater Augsburg, Milwaukee Ballet, Theater Trier and Mystic Ballet Connecticut.

Katarzyna Kozielska

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was born in Zabrze, Poland and received her initial ballet training at the State Ballet School in Beuthen. Subsequently she attended the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart from which she graduated in 2000. In 2000/01, Katarzyna Kozielska joined the Stuttgart Ballet as an apprentice. She was taken into the Corps de ballet in 2001/02 and promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2006/07. She has danced a wide variety of classical, neo-classical and contemporary roles in works by, among others, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Glen Tetley, John Neumeier, Mauro Bigonzetti and Marco Goecke.
In July 2011 Katarzyna Kozielska created her first choreography for the renowned Noverre-Society’s “Young Choreographers” Programme. Der richtige Ort for four Stuttgart Ballet dancers was celebrated by audiences and critics alike and was subsequently presented at the Stuttgart Ballet. In 2012 she was also named a Young Choreographer to watch in the dance magazine “Tanz”.
In January 2013 she choreographed Symph for the Noverre Society, which was immediately taken into the Stuttgart Ballet repertory. In May 2014 she created Palpitation for Ballett Augsburg. Also in May 2014, her commissioned choreography A.Memory, a collaboration with the American sculptor Janet Echelman, premiered at the Stuttgart Ballet. In March 2016 her second piece for the Stuttgart Ballet, Neurons, received its world premiere in the Play House. Her third work for the Stuttgart Ballet Dark Glow to a commissioned score by Gabriel Prokofiev receive its world premiere in the Opera House in February 2017 beside works of S.Larbi Cherkoaui, M.Goecke, M.Béjart.

Luis studied both ballet and electrical engineering before dedicating himself entirely to dance. After his first engagements in his hometown Caracas, Luis moved on to Europe. Following stints with the Spanish IT Dansa Jove Companya and the abcdancecompany in St. Pölten, he was a member of Kevin O'Day's and Dominique Dumais' Ballet of Nationaltheater Mannheim for 13 years. In 2014, he embarked on a freelance career as dancer, choreographer and lecturer in the Rhine-Neckar region.
Since 2019 Luis is rehearsal director of Gauthier Dance where he is closely collaborating with renowned choreographers such as Hofesh Shechter, Marco Goecke, Ohad Naharin, Marie Chouinard, Cayetano Soto, Sharon Eyal among others. His passion for dance is evident in his ability to guide artists toward excellence, elevating productions to new creative heights.

Marclúcia do Amaral, born in Ponte Alegre, Brazil, left high school at 15 and accepted a scholarship invitation to the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. Her training in Cuba lasted three years and fundamentally shaped her, both technically and artistically.
From Cuba, she moved on to New York in 1995, again with a scholarship in her pocket that allowed her another year of training, this time at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. When she was offered a contract as a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet after completing her training, she declined and moved back to Brazil instead. There, she earned her high school diploma and studied dramatic arts for two years at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At the International Ballet Competition in Brasília in 1998, the German chamber dancer Birgit Keil became aware of her and offered her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Dance of the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim. Thus Marlúcia do Amaral came to Germany in October 1998, stayed, and found a second home.

In 2000, choreographer Martin Schläpfer engaged her for his newly formed ballettmainz. She followed him to the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf in the 2009/2010 season. In ten years, Schläpfer created an immense repertoire and created numerous leading roles for her. A special testimony to the Schläpfer-Do Amaral connection is given by two duets by Hans van Manen, which the two of them have brought to numerous performances and which were recorded on film: "Old man and me" and "Alltag" to be seen in the film "Feuer bewahren - nicht Asche anbeten". From 2009 to 2020, as a first soloist of the Ballet of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, do Amaral also embodied numerous principal roles in works by other style-shaping choreographers, ranging from Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe, Brigitta Luisa Merki, Marco Goecke, Jerome Robbins and Mark Morris to Antoine Jully, Hubert Essakow, Terence Kohler and Natalia Horecna or Hans van Manen.
In July 2021, she completed her master's degree in dance education at the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden and lives in Düsseldorf.

Raquel was born into a musical home in Vancouver, Canada. She completed her formal dance training at ecole Supérieure de Ballet du Québec after having performed and toured with Le Jeune Ballet du Québec after several years. She began her career in Montreal 2012 until moving to Berlin in 2016, where she continues to free-lance with various choreographers as well as her own compositions. Raquel has performed and worked in classical, neoclassical, and contemporary genres. She has had the privilege of performing works by Aszure Barton, Sharon Eyal, Christopher Wheeldon, Mario Radacovsky, Andrea Pena, Ron de Jesus, Thierry Malandain, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Balanchine and Petipa amongst others.

Ronaldo Navarro was born in São Paulo/Brazil and successfully completed his ballet education in the Royal Academy of Dancing style. An engagement at Bremerhaven’s municipal theatre led him to come to Germany in 1993, where he would go on to later freelance work as a dancer with dance theatre icons such as Reinhild Hoffmann or Johann Kresnik at his Choreographical Theatre at the Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg Platz in Berlin. Ronaldo has been living in Düsseldorf since 2007, working as a classical ballet teacher. In July of 2016, he published his third book in Brazil, this time revolving around his experiences in dance: “Etapas de um artista da dança“.

Sagí erhielt eine große internationale Präsenz. Sein Tanzfilm und seine Performance „Silent Force“ wurden im Louvre Museum in Paris und beim Cinedans Festival im EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam gezeigt. Seine Arbeit wurde von Carolyn Carlson und CCN Roubaix in Frankreich koproduziert. Er wurde eingeladen, Werke für die Deutsche Tanz Kompanie in Deutschland, das Grand Rapids Ballet Michigan in den Vereinigten Staaten, die Pori Dance Company in Finnland und das Austinmer Dance Theatre in Australien zu schaffen. Zu Beginn seiner Karriere wurde er ausgewählt, für die Tänzer des English National Ballet beim „LAB“-Projekt in Zusammenarbeit mit DanceEast Jerwood in Großbritannien zu choreografieren. Sagí wurde ausgewählt, am „Siwic-Projekt“ im Tanzhaus Zürich teilzunehmen. Er nahm am Internationalen Choreografiewettbewerb Hannover und am internationalen Wettbewerb des British Sadler’s Wells Theatre teil. Seit September 2021 ist Sagí künstlerischer Leiter und Choreograf des WDTanztheater in Deutschland, einer Kompanie, die er zusammen mit dem Manager, Choreografen und Maler Jozsef Csaba Hajzer leitet. Seit 2012 leitet er die Stiftung GrossDanceCompany Amsterdam in den Niederlanden.
Sagí hat mit internationalen Kompanien und Akademien zusammengearbeitet (um nur einige zu nennen): Sydney Dance Company PPY, Deutsche Opernhäuser: Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Theater Hagen, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Grand Rapids Ballet Michigan, Architans in Tokyo, Royal Ballet School of Antwerpen, The National Conservatory of Lisbon Portugal, Dansateliers in Rotterdam, The Royal Ballet Conservatory in Den Haag, Marameo-Tanzprobebühne in Berlin, Harmonic Studio in Paris, Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, Danza - L'AED in Livorno Italy, Busan Dance Academy in Südkorea, Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Korzo Theater, Arte&Balleto Italien und viele andere.
Als Tänzer arbeitete er mit: Bat-Dor Dance Company, The Israeli Opera House, Dede Dance Company, The Netherlands Opera House in Amsterdam, De Dutch Don't Dance Division Den Haag und Resextansa Company in Bari, Italien. Er wurde an der Dutch National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, der Bat-Dor Dance Academy und der Tellma Yellin High School for the Arts in Tel-Aviv ausgebildet. Während seines Studiums gewann er fünf Stipendien für Choreographie und Tanz von der American-Israel Sharet Foundation

Sofia Klein Herrero was born in Düsseldorf and received her dance training at the Escuela de Ballet Carmina Ocaña y Pablo Savoye in Madrid, as well as at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila de Madrid, where she completed a Bachelor in Choreography and Dance in 2018. Sofia has danced in numerous ballet companies and theatres (Aalto Ballett Essen, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Oper Wuppertal, Ballett Bautzen, Musik Theater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Pasodos Dance Company Mallorca, and many more).
Her work as a dance teacher includes various dance schools, workshops and companies where she taught different styles: ballet, contemporary, modern dance, pointe, creative children's dance, preballet, stretching, improvisation technologies, choreography, as well as yoga, pilates, balletfit and body conditioning. Since 2020 she is studying a Master in Dance Education (Classical Dance) at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen. Sofia Klein Herrero works as a dancer, dance teacher, choreographer and fitness trainer.

Tanja Emmerich started dancing ballet at age eight. Later on, she took additional classes in modern dance and jazz with Carlo Melis and others. As a youth, she discovered the variety on offer at tanzhaus nrw and took even more classes in jazz dance and hip hop. Tanja studied at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem and completed her dance pedagogy studies at the Weber-Schule in Düsseldorf. Following this, she obtained a certificate as a dance pedagogue at the Ballettseminar Stuttgart under the direction of Eva Steinbrecher. She has been teaching children, youths and adults in different dance styles while also working regularly as a choreographer for dance and theatre productions such as the Neusser Musical-Wochen. She has been a member of the core instructional team at tanzhaus nrw since 2015.

Tereza Matos completed her studies in classical ballet and modern dance at Brazil’s Universidade Federal da Bahia. She was subsequently invited to journey to Germany by renowned Wuppertal choreographer Pina Bausch, later studying at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Here, she graduated as a classical ballet dance pedagogue in 2008. Tereza took part in several opera and musical theatre productions. She accumulated more than 35 years of stage experience in pieces like “Orpheus und Eurydice”, “Hair”, “Die Bassgeige” and as a guest dancer at Essen’s Grillo Theater, as well as in Dortmund and Aachen. Among her colleagues and role models are Jean Cébron and Susanne Linke, both seminal choreographers, in their works closely linked with the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Soon Hue was born in Inchon (South Korea) and received her training at the "Sunhwa Arts School" in Seoul (with Adrian Dallas) and at the "Academie de danse classique de Princesse Grace" in Monte Carlo (with Marika Besobrasova). Engagements led the solo dancer to the Frankfurt Ballet (with Egon Madson and William Forsythe), the Zurich Ballet (with Uwe Scholz), the Ballet Basel (with Heinz Spoerli and Youri Vámos) and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg. She has danced numerous principal and solo roles in choreographies by Mats Ek, Youri Vámos, Nils Christe, Heinz Spoerli, William Forsythe, Uwe Scholz, Hans van Manen, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Judith Jamison and Paul Taylor.
Young Soon Hue has been successfully working internationally as a choreographer since 2001 and has choreographed over 42 ballets in her career, including "Romeo and Juliet", "Carmen", "Carmina Burana", "The Firebird", "Noname?", "Imperfectly Perfect", "Reminiscence", "If" "Contrast", "The edge of the circle", "Illusion", "Wave of Emotions", and many more. Her works have been and are in the repertoire of international companies such as Tulsa Ballet/USA, Queensland Ballet/Australia, National Ballet of Korea/Korea, Universal Ballet Company/Korea, Ankara Ballet/Turkey, Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg/Germany, Aalto Ballett Theater Essen/Germany, Seoul Ballet Theater/Korea, Ballet Blanc/Korea, Staatstehater Augsburg/Germany and Landestheater Coburg/Germany. Young Soon Hue has been invited with her works to international galas and festivals such as Zagreb International Ballet Festival, Ballet EXPO in Korea, The Korea World Stars Dance Festival, International Ballet Gala of Ballet Kiel, Queensland International Ballet Festivals, Hagen International Aids Gala and Pusan International Ballet Festival. In 2006, she was named the best choreographer of the year by Korea's largest dance magazine. In 2009, she received the Dance Critics Award in Korea for "This is your life" as the best choreographer and for "Wave of Emotions" as the best piece. In 2010, her piece "El susurro del Tiempo" was awarded again by the Dance Critics.
In 2010 and 2011, Young Soon Hue was invited to work as artistic director for The Korea World Stars Dance Festival and Seoul International Ballet Festival. August 2012, she is invited to "Ballet EXPO 2012" as a choreographer & co-organizer and created the piece "Transparent Moment" for it. In December 2013, she again received the Korean Ballet Association Best Choreography 2013 award for the piece "The Moment". For the same piece, she won two more awards from dance critics and dance magazine "MOM" in 2014. She lives in Düsseldorf/Germany and is also invited as a guest teacher to different ballet companies and universities in Europe, Korea and Japan.