Oleksandr Ryabko

Guest Ballet Master

Oleksandr hails from Kyiv, Ukraine. Born in 1978, he trained in his hometown and at the Hamburg Ballett School. He joined the Hamburg Ballett in 1996, was promoted to soloist in 1999, and finally to principal dancer in 2001. He has been associated with the company as a character dancer since 2022.
John Neumeier created roles for him including Harlequin in Carnaval, the Spirit of the Rose in Nijinsky, Sascha in Préludes CV and Vaslav Nijinsky in Le Pavillon d'Armide. In Neumeier’s ballets, he has danced, among others, Drosselmeier and Günter (The Nutcracker), the King and Count Alexander (Illusions – Like Swan Lake), Armand Duval and Chevalier Des Grieux (The Lady of the Camellias), Iago (Othello), as well as the title roles in Nijinsky, Parzival – Episodes and Echo, Joseph’s Legend and Orpheus. From the classical repertoire, he has also danced roles such as Colas in La Fille mal gardée (Frederick Ashton), James in La Sylphide (Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni), Solor in La Bayadère (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa) and the title role in Onegin (John Cranko). In 2026, he received the Prix Benois de la Danse in the category ‘Outstanding Artistic Partnership’.

(Information as of April 2026)