“COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2017.”
Magazin „tanz“

“EXPRESSIVE, POWERFUL AND SEXY.”
Kenny Farquharson, The Times


The Ballett am Rhein has thrilled audiences ever since its relaunch in 2009 under the direction of Martin Schläpfer. No other company in Germany can match the breadth of its repertoire combined with a reputation for work of outstanding quality, which pioneers “the art of ballet in the 21st century”. Since the 2016/17 season, Ballet Director Remus Şucheană manages the Ballett am Rhein alongside Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Martin Schläpfer.

The company is made up of 43 dancers working on the basis of classical danse d’école, yet each individual is a powerful soloist with a distinct personality and expression of movement. This extraordinary ensemble of dance artists, combined with Martin Schläpfer’s remarkable imagination and talent in creating ballet programmes, delights audiences of all ages and nationalities. German tanz magazine awarded the Ballett am Rhein as “Company of the Year” in four successive years in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

The Ballett am Rhein performs Martin Schläpfer’s ballets along with numerous world premieres and many major works from over 170 years of dance history. This covers a spectrum from Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, August Bournonville, Kurt Jooss, Jerome Robbins and Antony Tudor to Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. Choreographers such as Nils Christe, Mats Ek, Marco Goecke, Jiří Kylián, Sol León & Paul Lightfoot, Amanda Miller or Regina van Berkel work with the Ballett am Rhein at the same time as Robert Binet, Natalia Horecna, Young Soon Hue, Brigitta Luisa Merki, Terence Kohler, Ben J. Riepe or Remus Şucheană. In addition, the ensemble is regarded as one of the leading interpreters of Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen.

While its home is at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg, the Ballett am Rhein can be seen outside in numerous international touring engagements and at leading festivals. Recent highlights include performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, in Paris, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Maastricht, Barcelona, Bilbao, Geneva, Moscow, Muscat (Oman), Tel Aviv, St. Pölten, Berlin, Bonn, Gütersloh, Hannover, Cologne, Ludwigsburg, Ludwigshafen, Munich and Wiesbaden. The Ballet’s invitations for the 2018/19 season include a Taiwan Tour with performances in Weiwuying and Taichung, and guest performances at the Teatro Real Madrid, the Oper Köln and Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele among others. With the re-staging of Merce Cunningham’s “Night Wandering” in June 2019 the company will be part of the Merce Cunningham Centenary, an international celebration of the American choreographer.

As musical partners, the Ballett am Rhein has two high-class orchestras at its disposal in the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the Duisburger Philharmoniker. In 2014, “DEEP FIELD” with a commissioned score by Adriana Hölszky marked its first collaboration with the WDR Rundfunkchor Cologne. On tour, the Ballett am Rhein has worked together with the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Stanislavsky Music Theatre Moscow, the Württembergische Kammerphilharmonie, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the Bachchor Mainz and many others.