Jolantha Seyfried

Jolantha Seyfried (born 1964 in Vienna ) is an Austrian ballet dancer and university teacher. She was the first solo dancer of the Vienna State Opera Ballet and is now professor for dance at the Conservatory Vienna Private University .

Life

She received her training from 1971 to 1979 at the ballet school of the Vienna State Opera and the Center de dance international Rosella Hightower and Gabriel Popescu. In 1979 she was engaged in the Chorp de ballet of the Vienna State Opera, in 1984 she advanced to the position of solo dancer (under Gerhard Brunner).

In 1985 she married the future solo dancer Wolfgang Grascher and gave birth to her son in 1986. In 1990 their first daughter was born. After this break in her career for two years, she returned to the State Opera in 1993 under the direction of Anne Woolliams. In 1998 she was appointed first solo dancer by Renato Zanella (head of the Viennese ballet from 1995 to 2005). In 2000 her second daughter was born, after which she only returned to the stage of the State Opera in small roles and left it entirely in 2003.

In 2001 she began to turn to pedagogical work, first with the project "off ballet special", a project initiated by Renato Zanella and Katalin Zanin for dancers with and without disabilities. From 2002 to 2003 she was coach of the ballet company and teachers of the ballet school of the Wr. State Opera. In 2004 she took over the management of the Wr. State Opera (under Renato Zanella until 2005, then Gyula Harangozó ), which she held until 2010. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Dance at the Conservatory Vienna Private University

Artistic creation

She danced all the great roles of the classical ballet repertoire such as B. Odette / Odile in "Swan Lake" ( Rudolf Nurejev ), Marie in "Nussknbacker (Juri Grigorowitsch), Juliet in" Romeo and Juliet "( John Cranko ), Kitri in" Don Quichotte (Rudolf Nurejev), Raymonda in the ballet of the same name ( Rudolf Nurejev), Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" (Rudolf Nurejev, Peter Wright ), Lise in "La fille mal gardee" (Frederic Ashton) etc. She also danced in choreographies by George Balanchine (4 temperaments, symphony in C, Apollo), Léonide Massine (the three- cornered hat ), Grete Wiesenthal (Viennese Blood, Death and the Maiden, Wine Treading Dance), as well as contemporary choreographers such as John Neumeier (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Daphnis and Cloe, The Firebird, Mozart 338), Jiří Kylián (Symphony in D, return from a foreign land, Transfigured Night), Hans van Manen (Songs without Words, Great Fugue, Black Cake), Rudi van Dantzig (Four Last Songs), Ruth Berghaus (Orpheus), Heinz Spoerli (Pulcinella), Renato Zanella (empty place , La chambre, Sacre, Mata Hari, Alles Walzer, Cschenbrödel) u. a.

She made an excursion into the independent dance scene in 1992 with "Jaqueline du Pre" by Manfred Aichinger and Nikolaus Selimov , and in 2009 as " Margarethe Wallmann " in Renato Zanella's production "Wallfrau" at the Odeon Vienna .

She has appeared as a soloist in numerous New Year's concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic , e. B. 1987 under Herbert von Karajan .

Her international partners included Peter Schaufuss, Anthony Dowell , Gyula Harangozo, Tamas Solymosi, Manuel Legris and Jay Jolly. She toured across Europe, as well as to Israel, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Cuba.

Awards

• In 1996 Edeltraud Brexner gave her the Fanny-Elßler-Ring , which she kept until 2004, after which she passed it on to Dagmar Kronberger. The ring named after Fanny Elßler (1810–1884) was donated by Riki Raab in 1960 and, like the Iffland ring, is passed on to an active Austrian dancer.
• In 2005 she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st Class .

Web links

• Jolantha Seyfried on konservatorium-wien.ac.at
• Jolantha Seyfried's appearances at the Vienna State Opera

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dagmar Kronberger receives the Fanny-Elßler-Ring Tanznetz, April 21, 2008
2. ^ Vienna State Opera: Decoration of Honor for Jolantha Seyfried . APA notification dated April 22, 2004, accessed May 21, 2015.