Swan Lake, Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failure, it is now one of the most popular of all ballets.
Violette Verdy was a French ballerina, choreographer, teacher, and writer who worked as a dance company director with the Paris Opera Ballet in France and the Boston Ballet in the United States. From 1958 to 1977 she was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet where she performed in the world premieres of several works created specifically for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She was Distinguished Professor of Music (Ballet) at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in Bloomington, and the recipient of two medals from the French government.
Teet Kask is an Estonian choreographer.
Christopher Bruce is a British choreographer and performer. He was the Artistic Director of the Rambert Dance Company until 2002.
Sir Anthony James Dowell is a retired British ballet dancer and a former artistic director of the Royal Ballet. He is widely recognized as one of the great danseurs nobles of the twentieth century.
Mats Ek is a Swedish dance and ballet choreographer, dancer and stage director. He was the manager of the Cullberg Ballet from 1985 to 1993.
The Hamburg Ballet is a ballet company based in Hamburg, Germany. Since 1973, it has been directed by the American dancer and choreographer John Neumeier. In addition there is a ballet school, School of the Hamburg Ballet, established in 1978. The performances of the Hamburg Ballet are usually held at the Hamburg State Opera, while the training and education facility is the "Ballettzentrum Hamburg – John Neumeier".
Daniela Malusardi is an Italian choreographer, teacher and dancer.
Stijn Celis is a Belgian choreographer and set designer. He danced in companies such as the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the Zürich Ballet, Contemporary Dance Zurich, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Cullberg Ballet. In a survey of critics, the German magazine "ballett international / tanz aktuell" named him "most promising young choreographer" in 2001. From 2004 to 2007, he was director of the Bern Ballet; he worked as a freelance choreographer until 2014 when he took over as ballet director of the Saarländisches Staatstheater.
Stéphane Bullion is a retired French Étoile dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Jorma Elo is a contemporary choreographer.
Heinz Spoerli is a Swiss dance maker, internationally known. After a long career as a ballet dancer and company director, he is now widely considered to be one of the foremost European choreographers of his time.
Vienna State Ballet, Wiener Staatsballett, is considered one of the world's top ballet companies. It was formerly named the Vienna State Opera Ballet as it is based at the Vienna State Opera building. In 2005 the ballets of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper were merged under the name Das Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper und Volksoper and Gyula Harangozo became the artistic director. On 1 September 2010, a further name change was accompanied by a change in leadership. Manuel Legris, former principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, succeeded as the artistic director.
Giovanni Bucchieri is a dancer and musician from Linköping, Sweden. He established himself early as a prolific dancer, specialised in breakdance and in Street dance. At the age of 15 he moved to Stockholm. Together with his longtime companion Aleksander Maksic he traveled to New York at the age of 16. There they eagerly took part in the frantic club life of New York. It was here that Bucchieri's love for Vogue was discovered, at various ballroom dances.
Liam Scarlett was a British choreographer who was an artist in residence with The Royal Ballet and artistic associate with Queensland Ballet. He also choreographed new works for Ballet Black, Miami City Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, the BalletBoyz, English National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Polish National Ballet, and the Royal Ballet School.
Irina Laurenova was born in Ros', Belarus and studied at the Minsk Ballet Academy. She has been dancing with the Royal Swedish Ballet since 2004 and in 2007 was appointed second soloist. Prior to her employment in Sweden, Laurenova worked with the Bolshoi Ballet in Poznań, Poland, the Ballet Theatre in Minsk and the Ballet Theatre of Trier, Germany. In addition, she has performed as a guest dancer in appearances and festivals throughout the world, including: Belgium, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
Gina Tse is an English ballerina of British-Chinese descent, and first soloist of the Royal Swedish Ballet. Beginning in the 2012–2013 season, she was elevated to the principal dancer of the company.
Krzysztof Pastor is a Polish dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He was resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam from 2003 to 2017, director of the Polish National Ballet in Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw since 2009 and at the same time from 2011 until 2020 was the artistic director of the ballet of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius.
Mikael Karlsson is a Swedish composer based in New York City. He grew up in Gävle, Sweden and moved to NYC in 2001 to study and he took a master's degree in classical composition at the Aaron Copland School of Music 2005.
Lea Elizabeth Ved is an American contemporary dancer and choreographer. She was a second soloist contemporary dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, dancing with the company from 2016 until 2018. Ved currently dances with Nederlands Dans Theater.
