Ariel Merkuri
Soloist
Born in 1995 in Tirana, Albania, Ariel started dancing at the age of five. He completed his training at the National Ballet School of Albania (2006-2011) and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala (2011-2014) in Milan. From 2014 through 2017, he was a corps de ballet member at Royal Danish Ballet. In the 2017/18 season Ariel Merkuri joined the corps de ballet of Bayerisches Staatsballet. In 2019 he was promoted to demi-soloist and at the beginning of the 2024/25 season he was promoted to soloist.
(Information as of October 2025)
Roles and parts in the 2025/26 season:
Boléro (Maurice Béjart), as part of the Waves and Circles triple bill
Le Parc (Angelin Preljocaj)
Previous roles and parts
Lewis Carroll / The White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Christopher Wheeldon)
Golden Idol in La Bayadère (Patrice Bart after Marius Petipa)
Pas de six Solo in Giselle (Peter Wright after Coralli/Perrot/Petipa)
Man in the Shadows and Count Alexander in Illusions – like Swan Lake (John Neumeier)
Thaïs-Pas de deux from Ma Pavlova (Roland Petit), as part of the Wurzeln und Blätter MultipleBill
Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream (John Neumeier)
Fritz inThe Nutcracker (John Neumeier)
Lenski in Onegin (John Cranko)
Scottish Couple Pas de deux in La Sylphide (Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni)
Mercutio and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (John Cranko)
Shepherd in Spartacus (Yuri Grigorovich)
Hortensio inThe Taming of the Shrew (John Cranko)
Affairs (David Dawson), as part of the Passagen Triple Bill
Anna Karenina (Christian Spuck)
The Blizzard (Andrey Kaydanovskiy)
Borderlands (Wayne MacGregor), as part of the Portrait Wayne MacGregor Triple Bill
Cecil Hotel (Andrey Kaydanovskiy), as part of theA Jour Multiple Bill
Cinderella (Christopher Wheeldon)
Coppélia (Roland Petit)
Don Quijote (Ray Barra nach Marius Petipa)
L'éternité immobile (Nicolas Paul), as part of theSphären.01 Multiple Bill
La fille mal gardée Frederick Ashton)
Generation Goldfish (Charlotte Edmonds)
Jewels (George Balanchine)
Kairos (Wayne McGregor), as part of the Portrait Wayne MacGregor Triple Bill
The Lady of the Camellias (John Neumeier)
Pictures at an Exhibition (Alexei Ratmansky), as part of the Passagen Triple Bill
Raymonda (Ray Barra nach Marius Petipa)
The Rite of Spring (Pina Bausch), as part of the Wings of Memory Triple Bill
Shutters Shut (Sol León & Paul Lightfoot), as part of the Sphären.03 Multiple Bill
Silent Screen (Sol León und Paul Lightfoot), as part of the Schmetterling Double Bill
Swan Lake (Ray Barra after Ivanov/Petipa)
Sweet Bones' Melody (Marco Goecke), as part of the Passagen Triple Bil
Tchaikovsky Overtures (Alexei Ratmansky)
To & From (Menghan Lou), as part of the Junge Choreographen 2018 Multiple Bill
Der Tod und das Mädchen (Edward Liaang), as part of theA Jour Multiple Bill
Waste (Štěpán Pechar), as part of the Junge Choreographen 2018 Multiple Bill