Stephan Thoss
The Ballet Director of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden was born in Leipzig in 1965. He completed his studies at the Palucca Schule Dresden where was strongly influenced by Patricio Bunster, ex soloist of the Kurt Jooss Ballet, who later took over the National Ballet of Chile. In a separate three years course he taught Stephan Thoss the theory of German Expressive Dance "Deutscher Ausdruckstanz" based on Rudolf von Laban.
In 1983 Thoss joined the ballet company of Staatsoper Dresden. After engagements at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Staatstheater Kassel he returned to the Staatsoper Dresden as a soloist, where he increasingly worked as a choreographer and subsequently got appointed to the role of resident choreographer in 1992.
In 1994 Thoss was invited by Marcia Haydée as guest choreographer to the Stuttgart Ballet where he created a new ballet set to Strawinsky's Les Noces. Following on from his success he was invited to stage further world premiers not only for the Stuttgart Ballet but also the Bayerisches Staatsballett München, John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet, Balletto di Toscana, Florence and in spring 2006 for the Nederlands Dans Theater II in Den Haag.
From 1998 to 2001 Thoss was appointed to his first position as ballet director at the Bühnen der Landeshauptstadt Kiel, Northern Germany. At this time he had already created more than 50 choreographies. They ranged from short solos to full length ballets as well as surrealistic inspired abstract ballets, burlesque comedies, ballet d'actions and a new interpretation of the romantic ballet Giselle.
From 2001 to 2006 Stephan Thoss took over the directorship of the Staatsoper Hannover / Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover GmbH. During his period he created 20 new choreographies. Among others there was a trilogy on Russian composers: Nach Moskau (2001) -music by Dmitri Schostakowitsch, Incantations (2003) - music by Igor Stravinsky, Alexandre Rabinovitch and Alexander Raskatov, and Zwischen Mitternacht und Morgen: Schwanensee (Between Midnight and Dawn: Swan Lake, 2004) - music by Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky. This version of Swan Lake was also performed by the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen. He concluded his engagement in Hanover with The Rite of Spring - music by Igor Stravinsky, in May 2006.
During the 2006-2007 season Stephan Thoss worked as a freelance choreographer producing yet two more world premieres. One for the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen in October 2006 Solitaire music by Béla Bartòk and a Coppelia-version for the Choreographisches Theater Johann Kresnik in Bonn in February 2007 Das Mädchen mit den Email-Augen (The Girl with the Email Eyes).
Since August 2007 Thoss has taken on the position as ballet director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, changing the ensemble's profile from classical to a modern company with a repertoire of contemporary dance in a unique style. Here within his first three seasons he has presented eleven ballet-productions - full length evenings and triple bills, including seven world premieres. His company is renowned for the variety of themes in its productions: From abstract and surrealistic ballets like Heim Suchen (Searching for Home) and Irr-Garten (Maze) to new interpretations of ballets of the classical repertoire like Giselle M. and Between midnight and dawn: Swan Lake that have been milestones in the work of the company - highly acclaimed by both, press and audiences. There is also a great affinity for comical and burlesque situations, you find in productions as Bolero, No Cha-Cha-Cha and Carmencita.
In 2008 he made a new creation for Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken Poem an Minotaurus as part of the production Picasso on the move. His choreography Visions Fugitives was also added to the repertoire of TanzTheaterMünchen of Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and his Bolero to the repertoire of the LandesTheater Flensburg.
Since several years Thoss is also creating stage and costume designs with great success. With his company he toured extensively throughout various places of Europe and abroad.
His first choreography My Way music by Frank Sinatra and Teufel-Engel (Devil-Angel) music by Steve Reich were recorded by the ZDF (German TV). In 2004 the French-German Arts Channel ARTE recorded his version of Swan Lake, which has gone to air repeatedly. The 35 minutes "making of" his Rite of Spring was to be seen several times on the German TV channel ZDF-Theaterkanal.
In 1990 Thoss won the second prize with his work D-x at the International Competition for Choreographers in Hanover. In 1993 he was presented with the prestigious "Mary-Wigman-Award" from the Dresden Semperoper Foundation for extraordinary efforts in choreography. In the following year he was awarded the "Medaglia Laurenziana" in Florence and in 1997 the "Kunstpreis der Stadt Dresden" (Arts award of the city of Dresden). In 1999 he received the "Bayerischer Theaterpreis" (Bavarian Theatre Award) for his first full length ballet Schlaraffenland ist abgebrannt created in Kiel. In 2006 the Thoss production Zwischen Mitternacht und Morgen: Schwanensee was nominated for the "Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust" (German Theatre Award) in the category "Best Choreography". In 2007 he was nominated again, winning this prestigious award for his production of Giselle M, he staged with the ballet company of the Theater Chemnitz.
