Birgit Keil

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Birgit Keil (born September 22, 1944 in Kowarschen (Kovářov) in the Sudetenland ) is a German dancer and former prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet .

Life

Birgit Keil was born in Kowarschen (Kovářov) near Karlsbad in what was then the Sudetenland. After being expelled at the end of World War II, she came to Bad Kissingen with her parents and two brothers in 1946. Keil lived there until 1954, when the family moved to Stuttgart. Keil received her dance training in Bad Kissingen , Stuttgart and London . Since 1961 she became a member of the Stuttgart Ballet in 1963 under John Cranko . She has danced all the major classical and modern leading roles and has made guest appearances on the world's major ballet stages. She was the dance partner of famous dancers such as Richard Cragun , Rudolf Nurejew and Fernando Bujones . John Cranko and John Neumeier , Jiří Kylián , Glen Tetley , Heinz Spoerli , Hans van Manen and Uwe Scholz created their own choreographies for them. Keil was famous in the ballet world as the German ballerina . She has therefore received numerous awards, including the honorary title of chamber dancer (1980).

In 1995 she resigned from the stage and together with the Milanese art patron Maddalena Mina di Sospiro founded a dance foundation in Stuttgart, which is under the patronage of Diane von Württemberg with the chairman of the board of trustees Günther Langenbucher. From 1997 to 2019 Keil was director and professor of the Academy of Dance at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim and from 2003 to 2019 director of the State Ballet Karlsruhe at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe .

Vladimir Klos, born in Prague in 1946, has been her life and dance partner since 1968.

honors and awards

Birgit Keil has received numerous awards over the course of her career, including: Sudeten German Recognition Award (1966), Merit Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg (1979), the German Critics' Award ( 1981), Emmy Award (1984), John Cranko Medal (1985), Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (1985), appointment as a full member of the Sudeten German Academy of Sciences and Arts , Class of Arts and Art Studies (1987), German Dance Prize (1998), Great Sudeten German Culture Prize (1999). In autumn 2005 she received an honorary membership of the London Ballet Circle . In January 2008, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin honored Birgit Keil with an homage for her exemplary commitment to the next generation of dancers, her outstanding achievements as director of the Academy of Dance and as ballet director. In December 2015 she was also awarded the Baden-Württemberg State Teaching Prize.

In July 2019 she received the Great Staufer Medal in Gold from the State of Baden-Württemberg.

literature

  • Clive Barnes: Birgit Keil: Portrait of a ballerina . Photographs by Leslie E. Spatt. Neske, Pfullingen 1991, ISBN 3-7885-0334-3 , illustrated book.
  • Wiebke Hüster: Birgit Keil. Ballerina: Happiness is when the soul also dances . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 3-8948-7763-4 , biography, table of contents.
  • Birgit Keil: My first appearance. In: Maur (editor): Little stories from Stuttgart. Stuttgart: Engelhorn-Verlag, 1990, pages 98-100.

Movie

  • Birgit Keil - a life for dance. Documentary, Germany 2014, 44:50 Min, written and directed. Harold Woetzel , Production: SWR , Row: culture matinée , first broadcast: September 14, 2014 in SWR television , Summary of ARD .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ds: Birgit Keil. In: Munzinger Archive , July 2, 2013, only beginning of article.
  2. ↑ Andrea Kachelrieß: Country honors Birgit Keil: Golden Staufer Medal for outgoing ballet director. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. July 21, 2019, accessed March 9, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Götz Thieme: The dancer Birgit Keil: Ballerina and lady. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , September 22, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Wedge, Birgit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dancer
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Kowarschen, today Kovárov, Sudetenland