When Staatsballett Berlin artist Leroy Mokgatle debuted as the Fairy of Wisdom last December, she made waves around the world. With her soaring jumps, sensitive phrasing, and captivating charisma, the then first-year corps member announced herself as a star on the rise. Her Fairy of Wisdom performance went viral not only for her artistry but also for her identity as nonbinary. 

As Staatsballett Berlin’s Chloé Lopes Gomes—the sole Black female dancer with the company—has shared the shameful and blatant discrimination she says she endured at the hands of an unnamed, tenured ballet mistress, it could be seen as the salvo announcing a second wave of the racial reckoning ballet experienced in the summer. After the pure […]

In November, the French dancer Chloé Lopes Gomes went public with accusations of institutional racism against Staatsballett Berlin, first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel. In the article, several anonymous dancers confirm her account. Lopes Gomes, 29, who trained in Marseille and at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, danced for the Ballet de l’Opéra de […]

Rising from the seats of an empty theater, Daniil Simkin could be a vampire in an old silent movie. To the percussive, insistent accents played by the Kronos Quartet in this first-time collaboration, longtime partners Simkin and Maria Kochetkova explore the options of dancing together while apart—from Deutsche Oper Berlin and the sand dunes at […]

Staatsballett Berlin announced today that artistic directors Sasha Waltz and Johannes Öhman intend to step down at the end of 2020, despite having only held the posts since 2019 and summer 2018, respectively. According to a company press release, Öhman is leaving to accept a directorship at Swedish contemporary dance presenter Dansens Hus. Waltz has […]

You could say that Sasha Waltz has had a rough few years. When she was appointed co-artistic director of Staatsballett Berlin in 2016, along with Johannes Öhman, former artistic director at Royal Swedish Ballet, it didn’t go so well. She was met with petitions and protests from the dancers, who argued that under the leadership […]

One of the ballet world’s busiest superstars is adding another role to his resume, and it’s a big one. American Ballet Theatre principal Daniil Simkin is joining Staatsballett Berlin as a principal beginning with the 2018-2019 season. Though he will be based in Berlin, the virtuoso will maintain his position at ABT, performing with the […]

September has been a trying month for the dancers of Staatsballett Berlin, Germany’s largest ballet company. Last week, they learned that current artistic director Nacho Duato will be departing from the company at the close of the 2018–19 season, and his successors will be Sasha Waltz and Johannes Öhman, as co-artistic directors. This news, especially […]