Raffaella Renzi

Guest ballet mistress

Raffaella hails from Florence, Italy. At the age of sixteen, she joined in the corps de ballet of the Teatro Comunale di Firenze / MaggioDanza under the direction of Eugène Polyakov. Starting with the 1983-84 season, she became a soloist with the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper Berlin; she was soon promoted to principal dancer and subsequently appointed prima ballerina by ballet director Gert Reinholm. From 1991 to 1995 she was a principal dancer at the Aalto Ballet Essen, directed byHeidrun Schwaarz ; in 1994/95 she returned to Deutsche Oper Berlin, then under the direction of Ray Barra, later under the direction ofRichard Cragun and Sylviane Bayard. In 1995, Raffaella was awarded the honorary title of “Berliner Kammertänzerin” by Berlin’s Senator for Culture; she was the first artist ever to receive this title. From 2014 onwards, she worked as assistant to the choreographer Patrice Bart; in 2023, she worked for the first time with Bayerisches Staatsballett for the revival of La Bayadère. Since then, she has frequently been teaching company class and has also started leading rehearsals.

(Information as of April 2026)