Stacey Denham
Stacey Denham was born in New York. She danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Repertory Company, the Clive Thompson Dance Company, with Judith Jamison, at the Washington D.C. City Ballet Company and at the Theater des Westens in Berlin. As a long-standing guest teacher, she teaches the Theatre Classes in modern dance, based on the Horton-Technique. She is also in charge of the dance composition classes and co-ordinates the “Creativity Workshop” in the Ernst Deutsch Theater.
Janusz Mazoń
Janusz Mazoń was born in Bytom, Poland and trained for nine years at the ballet school there. In 1980 he was offered a contract with the ballet company of the Warsaw State Opera. In 1985 he joined the Hamburg Ballet. He advanced to soloist in 1989 and to principal in 1993. He danced many of the leading roles in the repertoire of the Hamburg Ballet as well as creating new roles in John Neumeier’s ballets. In 1997, he moved to the USA where he graduated with a degree as Doctor of Chiropractic in 2002. While maintaining his work in his chiropractic office, he was also ballet master for The Georgia Ballet School and Company. Janusz Mazon returned to Hamburg in 2013, where he took up a position on the teaching faculty of the School of the Hamburg Ballet. He staged John Neumeier’s ballets for Houston ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, the Boston Ballet, the polish National ballet in Warsaw and the Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
Gigi Hyatt
Gigi Hyatt is German American. She began her training in her hometown Berlin with Tatiana Gsovsky and continued in 1974 in Munich with Konstanze Vernon at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung. In 1982, Gigi Hyatt was awarded the Gold Medal in the Junior Division of the Jackson International Ballet Competition and in the same year joined the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier. In 1984, she was honored with the Wilhelm Oberdorfer Award. In her first season, Gigi Hyatt was promoted to demi-soloist, the following year to soloist and in 1986 to principal dancer. Gigi Hyatt was fortunate to dance in many ballets choreographed by John Neumeier and created numerous roles, including Desdemona in Othello, Solveig in Peer Gynt, Cinderella, Undine and Viola/Feste in Vivaldi or What You Will. In 1997, ending her career on stage, she moved to the USA, where she first became ballet mistress and teacher at The Georgia Ballet and School and in 2004 assumed the position of Artistic Director. In 2013, Gigi Hyatt returned to Hamburg to take up the position of Pedagogical Principal and Deputy Director of The School of The Hamburg Ballet.
Kevin Haigen
Kevin Haigen began his studies at Diana Avery‘s Sacred Dance Guild of Miami and simultaneously classical ballet with Martha Mahr. He received a scholarship for the School of American Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, where he was taught by Stanley Williams and Erik Bruhn. After dancing with the American Ballet Theatre (directed by Lucia Chase) and the Stuttgart Ballet (directed by Glen Tetley) he joined the Hamburg Ballet in 1976 under the direction of John Neumeier, whom he considers his artistic mentor. In 1983, he joined the Netherlands Dans Theater under the direction of Jirí Kylián, 1985 becoming Ballet Master for the Ballet de Monte Carlo under the direction of Ghislene Thesman. 1986 moving to English National Ballet under the direction of Peter Schaufuss. 1987 to 1991 joining the Béjart Ballet Lausanne having an enriching creative relationship with Maurice Béjart. He returned to Hamburg his »artistic home« in 1991, continuing his journey with the world of John Neumeier becoming Principal Ballet Master of the Hamburg Ballet and teacher for the School of the Hamburg Ballet under the pedagogical guidance from Irina Jacobson. Most inspiring for him is the development of the future: training creative thinkers and movers and conveying that the art of ballet is a never-ending journey. Kevin Haigen is Artistic and Pedagogical Director of the National Youth Ballet. He teaches internationally and stages John Neumeier’s ballets all over the world. He was awarded with the Theaterpreis Hamburg – Rolf Mares 2019.
Melanie Zimmermann
After working for film and television, Melanie Zimmermann studied Cultural Studies and Dance in Frankfurt on the Oder and in Paris. She was Press and Public Relations Assistant for the Forsythe Company and studied dramaturgy with Hans-Thies Lehmann in Frankfurt on the Main and in Brussels; in 2010, she was on a danceWEB scholarship. Then she began working as a freelance dance and theatre dramaturge, e.g. for Wanda Golonka, Peeping Tom, Sebastian Matthias, Laurent Chétouane and was project manager of the MAMAZA collective. Since 2010, she works as dance dramaturge and curator at Kampnagel.
Matthias Quabbe
Matthias Quabbe is a theatre scholar, dance dramaturge, and production manager. He studied at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies of the University of Giessen and at Tokyo Gaikokugo University as well as Senshú University Kanagawa (philosophy and research on Kabuki, Bunraku, Butoh). He worked as a freelance dramaturge, production manager, and director in different projects in Düsseldorf before he became part of the Kampnagel dramaturgy from 2005 to 2007. 2007 to 2019, he was dramaturge and production manager at K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg, where he was responsible for the residency programme, international cooperation, support of local artists, and special projects concerning contemporary dance. As artistic project manager, he executed the Tanzfonds Erbe project “HEUTE: volkstanzen”, which based on a continuous interest in collective movement in work and art. Since 2009, he has been in different symposia on concepts of artistic collaboration and production as well as in career management of emerging artists. In 2011, 2014 and 2017 he was a jury member of the promotion of excellence of Tanz NRW as well as part of the jury of Körber Studio Junge Regie in 2014. As freelance dramaturge, he works with Jee-Ae Lim, Frikar (Hallgrim Hansegard), Reut Shemesh et al.
John Neumeier
Born in Milwaukee/Wisconsin in 1939, John Neumeier studied in his native city as well as in Chicago, Copenhagen and London. In 1963 John Cranko invited him to join Stuttgart Ballet. After four years as Director of Ballet Frankfurt, he was appointed Director and Chief Choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet in 1973. Under his direction, the Hamburg Ballet became one of the leading ballet companies on the German dance scene.
As a choreographer, Mr. Neumeier has continually focused on the preservation of ballet tradition, while giving his works a modern dramatic framework. His ballets range from new versions of full-length story ballets to musicals and symphonic ballets as well as choreographies to sacred music. His latest creations for the Hamburg Ballet: “The Glass Menagerie” (2019), “Beethoven-Project” (2018) and “Anna Karenina” (2017). In addition to his great commitment to the Hamburg Ballet, he regularly works as guest choreographer with the most renowned international ballet companies.
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Kerstin Evert
Kerstin Evert studied Applied Theatre Studies in Gieβen, where she did her doctorate on the theme of “DanceLab-Contemporary Dance and New Technologies”. From 1997 to 2000, she was a doctoral candidate in the post-graduate program “Körper-Inszenierungen” at the Freie Universität Berlin and with Oliver Behnecke founded the production label “Stadt Raum Inszenierung” (Festival ZeitenWende, Gieβen 2000). From 2002 to 2006, she worked as dramaturge at Kampnagel. Evert founded the choreographic center K3 in Hamburg in August 2006 and has been the director of K3 –Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg since then. She works as a lecturer at universities in Berlin, Bern, Gieβen, Hamburg, Frankfurt/Main and Salzburg, among other places, and was part of the co-management teams of the artistic-scientific Research Training Groups “Assembly and Participation (HCU, Fundus, K3) and Performing Citizenship (HCU, HAW, Fundus, K3). Kerstin Evert is member of several juries and advisory boards and member of the board of the European Dancehouse Network.
Amelie Deuflhard
Amelie Deuflhard has been the artistic director of Kampnagel since 2007. It is Europe’s largest production center for independent performing arts; works on the interfaces between theater, performance, dance, music, visual arts and architecture are realized here. From 2000 to 2007, she directed the Sophiensæle in Berlin. In 2003, she was chairwoman of the „Zwischen Palast Nutzung” association and, in 2004/5, she was one of the artistic directors of the “Volkspalast”, a festival-like program of the half-deconstructed Palast der Republik. She belonged to the four-member curator team for the “Theater der Welt” festival in 2017, which was organized by the Thalia Theater and Kampnagel in Hamburg in 2017. She has also been active in a number of juries and curators.
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