John Neumeier

From 1973 to 2024, John Neumeier served as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet. Since 1996, he also held the title of "Balletintendant". Born in 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he received his first ballet training in his hometown, later continuing his studies in Copenhagen and at the Royal Ballet School in London. He studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Theatre Studies. In 1963, John Cranko engaged him for the Stuttgart Ballet, where he later became a soloist and created his first choreographies. In 1969, Ulrich Erfurth appointed him as Ballet Director in Frankfurt am Main. Neumeier quickly gained attention, especially through his reinterpretations of well-known narrative ballets such as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and Daphnis and Chloé. In 1973, August Everding brought him to Hamburg. Under his direction, the Hamburg Ballet became one of Germany’s leading ballet companies and soon gained international recognition.

As a choreographer, Neumeier’s primary artistic interest lies in the grand form. A key artistic goal of his is to find new, contemporary formats for the full-length ballet—whether dramatic or symphonic—and to place them within the context of classical ballet tradition. This tradition is especially important to him in his reinterpretations of historical narrative and fairy tale ballets. In his original creations, Neumeier seeks to develop his own narrative structures, such as in the literary ballets The Lady of the Camellias, A Streetcar Named Desire, and in his adaptations of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and in Tatiana after Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. In 2003, he created Death in Venice based on Thomas Mann’s novella, and in 2006, Parzival – Episodes and Echo based on works by Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Neumeier’s choreographies set to Mahler’s symphonies have received international acclaim, notably Dritte Symphonie von Gustav Mahler (1975). A key aspect of his work is the ballets set to sacred music, including Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (1981) and Christmas Oratorio (2013), Mozart’s Requiem (1991), and Handel’s oratorio Messiah (1999).

As a guest choreographer, John Neumeier has worked with the American Ballet Theatre in New York City, the Royal Ballet in London, the Tokyo Ballet, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, and the Ballet of the Paris Opera, among others. John Neumeier has been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. Other honors include being named an Honorary Citizen of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the German Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement (2008), the Prix Benois de la Danse for Lifetime Achievement (2016), and admission to the Order "Pour le Mérite" (2024).

The Bavarian State Ballet has added several of Neumeier’s narrative ballets to its repertoire, including Illusions – like Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1993), The Lady of the Camellias (1997), and A Cinderella Story (2000). In 2003, the company presented a four-part evening titled Portrait John Neumeier. The ballet ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera had previously performed The Nutcracker (1973), Bach-Suite 2 (1980, world premiere), and Josephs Legende (1980). Additionally, during the 1977/78 season, John Neumeier directed Verdi’s Otello at the Bavarian State Opera.