The School of the Hamburg Ballet, founded by John Neumeier in 1978, is one of the leading schools for a professional dance education in Europe. The school is committed to developing young, creative artists. The syllabus aims to prepare international students for the versatile requirements of the current dance world. Directly connected to the Hamburg Ballet, regular involvement in the company's performances creates a course full of practical experience and a shared learning atmosphere at the Hamburg Ballet Center – John Neumeier.
The curriculum is essentially based on the classical ballet technique. This includes Pointe or Pirouette/Batterie classes, pas de deux, classical and contemporary variations, and the study of repertoire reflecting the work of the Hamburg Ballet, especially the vast repertoire of John Neumeier. Modern dance and choreographic composition also occupy a central part of the course. The training is supplemented by character dance, Pilates and strengthening classes, as well as theory lessons in anatomy, music theory and dance history.
New impulses are forthcoming under the direction of Demis Volpi, introducing further choreographic voices, and thus continuing the focus of preparing our students for the diverse and varied repertoire which is performed on international stages.
Gigi Hyatt, Pedagogical Principal and Deputy Director summarizes: "Possessing a strong technique enables a dancer the freedom in choice of expression through movement. An environment of respect and trust nurtures the development of a young artist who then will be valuable and inspiring within the dance world of today."
Final year students present their own compositions in two programmes over the period of five six evenings. The young dancers are not only responsible for creating the choreography, but also for the choice of music, the lighting and costume design and the staging. Their fellow students are cast and dance in an array of diverse works. This is a big step on the road to their future careers as professional dancers.
Creativity Workshop XV
Ernst Deutsch Theater
Program I
March 3, 4 and 5, 2025
Program II
March 7, 8 and 9, 2025
7.30
Open to the public Warm-Up at 7.00 pm
Tickets only at the Ernst Deutsch Theater
040/22 70 14 20 or ticket@ernst-deutsch-theater.de
Erste Schritte / First Steps
A performance by the Hamburg Ballet School
Every two years, the School of the Hamburg Ballet gives an in-depth insight into the top-class training of its young dancers - from the youngest pre-school classes to the graduates of the theater classes. The audience can look forward to a meaningful, family-friendly program including "The Carnival of the Animals" to the famous music of Camille Saint-Saëns. Demis Volpi choreographed the ballet for the John Cranko School in Stuttgart in 2010. In 2012, John Neumeier added the choreography to the repertoire of the Hamburg Ballet School. If you would like to experience up close the professional work throughout all the levels of the ballet school, you should not miss the performance "Erste Schritte" on the stage of the Hamburg State Opera.
Erste Schritte / First Steps
June 3, 2025, 7.00 pm
June 6, 2025, 12.00 pm (Performance exclusively for school classes)
July 7, 2025, 7.00 pm
Beethoven Dances
40 Dances for 40 Years
A ballet to dances by Ludwig van Beethoven created by John Neumeier with students of all classes of the ballet school
"Beethoven Dances is a project for our school. I found it appealing to celebrate the 40th anniversary with 40 Beethoven dances. Especially the shortness of the dances fascinated me: It is a challenge to capture the specific mood with a group of students within only 40 seconds! Unlike in symphonic ballets, the emotional content of an existing composition is not the starting point of the choreography. Rather, I see the 40 freely combined dances as a material, with which I give every single student the opportunity to contribute with his own gifts and learned techniques and present the ballet school in a cohesive work."
John Neumeier
More Trailers:
>> Yondering
>> Creativity Workshop X
>> The Ballet School
By Zofia Jablonska (Theater Class VIII)
The past years have been very challenging for all of us, restrictions and safety measures have influenced every aspect of our lives. That made it even more special to be part of an exchange program that was brought back to life after three years.
Visiting Canada's National Ballet School is an amazing opportunity for a young student to get to know a new environment and learn from it. During my stay in Toronto I took classes with teachers that were great dancers and now are sharing their knowledge with the new generation. It was an interesting experience to see both similarities and differences in training that I am used to. Our days contained not only technique class and pointe technique with repertoire, we also got the chance to work with the choreographer Jera Wolfe. We learned his ballet „Arise", created specially for NBS. Mr. Wolfe uses a lot of contemporary movement in his work, which nowadays is so important in the dance world.
Talking about Canada's National Ballet School I must mention the amazing facilities. The school's beautiful building is located in Toronto's downtown. The studios are big and full of light. Meeting other students from around the world, observing their way of working and getting to know them was truly inspiring.
I never imagined I would be able to take part in an exchange like this one, it wouldn't be possible without the generous help of the Freunde des Ballettzentrums. I am beyond grateful for this incredible opportunity that has allowed me to grow and acquire a new perspective on a beautiful art form, which Ballet is.
who were/are in the company
Joseph Aitken, Maude Andrey, Anton Alexandrov, Aurore Lissitzky, Braulio Alvarez, Lucilia Alves, Mayo Arii, Stefanie Arndt, Silvia Azzoni, Silvano Ballone, Maria Baranova, Gabriel Barbosa, Patrick Becker, Franziska Beckmann, Borja Bermudez, Amélie Berthet, Olivia Betteridge, Viktoria Bodahl, Radoslaw Boguski, Leeroy Boone, Stephan Bourgond, Jemina Bowring, Jacek Bres, Karin Brennan, Gabriel Brito, Aurelian de Brocas, Alison Brooker, Eleanor Broughton, Alexander Busch, Lasse Caballero, Marie-Soizic Cabié, Laura Cazzaniga, Christelle Cennerelli, Florencia Chinellato, Ghanima Choffat, Zachary Clark, Filip Clefos, Hannah Coates, Yaiza Coll, Antonin Comestaz, Philippa Cook, Francesco Cortese, Orkan Dann, Peter Dingle, Ralf Dörnen, Catherine Dumont, Christopher Evans, Anita Ferreira, Christina Fritschi, Alessandro Frola, Agnès Galatoire, Massimo Garon, Lennard Giesenberg, Giorgia Giani, Nicolas Gläsmann, Andrzej Glosniak, Célicia Haas, Nicole Ham, Skye Harrison, Ulrike Hartmann, Abbey Haller, Anne-Catherine Haller, Francesca Harvey, Louis Haslach, Yukichi Hattori, Vladimir Hayryan, Julia Hellmund, Anna Herrmann, Sonja Herrmann, Georgina Hills, Nako Hiraki, Roger Höde, Natalia Horecna, Siteng Hu, Marià Huguet, Matias Iaconniani, Takeshi Ikeda, Carolin Inhoffen, Paula Iniesta, Futaba Ishizaki, Almudena Izquierdo, Milan Jarosch, Marissa Jiménez, Emilija Jovanovic, Marc Jubete, Carsten Jung, Stella Kanatouri, Alison Kappes, Yungu Kang, Ayumi Kato, Susanne Klement, Vladimir Kocic, Megumi Kondo, Viktor Koukal, Charlotte Kragh, Yosuke Kusano, Paco Laguna, Anna Laudere, Hocine Layada, Aljoscha Lenz, Marcelino Libao, Xue Lin, Carolina Lohfert, Diogo Maia, Carolina Mancuso, Klara Matyas, Kim David McCarthy
Hannah McCloughan, Aleix Martinez, Javier Martinez, Bettina Marup, Emilie Mazon, Alice Mazzasette, Alfie McPherson, Arsen Megrabian, Cornelia Meierhans, Amelia Menzies, Isadora Meza, Frederike Midderhoff, Stephanie Minler, Ekaterina Mamrenko, Javier Monreal, Kallum Morris, Taisia Muratore, Louis Musin, Mathias Nolte, Matias Oberlin, Yuka Oishi, Shintaro O-ue, Tomi Paasonen, Hayley Page, Yun-Su Park, Kristina Paulin, Pietro Pelleri, Manuel Pelmus, Zhaoqian Peng, Roberto Pérez, Percevale Perks, Nathalie Perriraz, Tibor Perthel, Mia Petrovic, Lidia Pettinicchio, Alban Pinet, Florian Pohl, Pablo Polo, Artem Prokopchuk, Anna Rabsztyn, Lennart Radtke, Filipe Rettore, Edvin Revazov, Dale Rhodes , Alexandre Riabko, Roberto Rigamonti, Sasha Riva, Lucia Rios, Chiara Ruaro, Estelle Sallé, Caspar Sasse, Valentina Scaglia, Sofia Schabus, Parvaneh Scharafali, Dominik Schoetschel, Alexandra Schmidt-Rieche, Megan Scott, Torben Seguin, Mirabelle Seymour, Sakura Shimizu, Ben Shitrit, Lea Sjövall, Madeleine Skippen, Joel Small, Emily Smith, Lucia Solari, Ines Sprenger, Jane Standish, Yohan Stegli, Karen Stephenson, Martin Stiefermann, Thomas Stuhrmann, Hermine Sutra Fourcade, Airi Suzuki, Maciej Sziszkowski, Ana Torrequebrada, Alexandr Trusch, Konstantin Tselikov, Priscilla Tselikova, Jacek Tyski, Ivan Urban, Ricardo Urbina, Isadora Meza, Sophie Vergères, Constant Vigier, Miljana Vracaric, Lizhong Wang, Miguel Wansing Lorrio, Hana Watanabe, Kiran West, Dirk Weyershausen, Anna-Lena Wieg, Kohana Williams, Chelsea Winter, Joanne White, Natalia Wojciechowska, Eliot Worrell, Mengting You, Dao Yuan Chen, Illia Zakrevskyi, Mariana Zanotto, Dina Zaripova, Lin Zhang, Aleksa Zikic, Jakub Zouplna
Regularly talented young dancers selected for prizes by the jury of the "Prix de Lausanne" chose the School of The Hamburg Ballet to spend their scholarship year. Others choose to dance as an aspirant with the company of The Hamburg Ballet.
Past winners of this international competition who have chosen our school or company for their scholarship prize include Stefanie Arndt (1983), Jirí and Otto Bubenícek (1992), Yohan Stegli (1998), Aleix Martínez (2008), Zhaoqian Peng (2009), Emanuel Amuchástegui (2010), Christopher Evans (2010), Madoka Sugai (2012), João Vitor Santana (2020), Lin Zhang (2020), Miguel Oliveira (2022) and Taichi Toshida (2024).
Visit the "Prix de Lausanne's" official web site for more information about the competition.
