Tanja Rühl

Tanja was born and raised in Germany and began her training in the "Veranstaltungstechnik" field in 1999 at the Frankfurt Opera (Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt) and moved to the Frankfurt Ballet in 2002, under the artistic direction of William Forsythe. After the Forsythe Company was established in 2005 and Tanja completed her master's degree in "Veranstaltungstechnik", specialising in lighting, in 2007, she took on the position of lighting master for the company. In the same year, she began creating her first lighting designs for dance productions, initially outside the company, but soon also for Forsythe himself. As a member of the Forsythe Productions team, she advises international dance companies on the technical and creative implementation of Forsythe's works and continues to work as a designer for his new projects.

Since July 2014, Tanja has been working as a freelance lighting designer for the performing arts, collaborating with choreographers and companies worldwide. Her creations include works for Aszure Barton, Deborah Hay, Peter Chu, Anouk van Dijk, Martin Chaix, Juliano Nunes, Moritz Ostruschnjak, Louis Stiens, Iván Pérez and Wubkje Kuindersma. Her work to date has been featured in productions at venues such as the Palais Garnier in Paris, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City, the Tate Modern in London, the Kawasaki Arts Centre in Japan, the Ruhrtriennale venues and the Taichung National Theatre in Taiwan.

In addition to her work on stage, Tanja Rühl teaches the basics of lighting design as a guest lecturer and provides insights into the technical aspects of stage lighting in workshops at the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz in Dresden and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.