KATHRYN BENNETTS

Born in Sydney, Australia, Kathryn Bennetts was accepted into the Australian Ballet School at age 15. After graduation she joined the Australian Ballet and toured extensively throughout Australia and Europe. Ms. Bennetts later joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of Marcia Haydee, rising to the rank of soloist. During her time with the company she worked with Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Hans van Manen, Lar Lubovitch, Heinz Spoerli, John Neumeier, Maurice Béjart and William Forsythe. She had the opportunity to perform many leading roles and danced with Richard Cragun, Egon Madsen, Reid Anderson and Christopher Boatwright among others.

An injury ended her dancing career earlier than expected, but opened other possibilities. After completing a teachers’ training course with the ballet master of the Stuttgart Ballet, Alexander Ursuliak, she began teaching at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. Ms. Bennetts worked as the head teacher of the regional ballet school of Piedmont in Turin, Italy, before moving on to become a ballet master for the Arizona Dance Theater in Tucson. There she learned the inner workings of a ballet company and was involved at every level including teaching, rehearsing and scheduling. In 1986, she accepted the position of a senior teacher at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. She has taught for companies worldwide, such as the Stuttgart Ballet, Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Finnish National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Zurich Ballet, Vienna Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, and La Scala.

In 1989 William Forsythe invited her to join the Frankfurt Ballett as ballet mistress. She has staged Forsythe’s ballets on various companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Compania de Danza (Nacho Duato), Australian Ballet, Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Ballet du Rhin, National Ballet of Canada, Stuttgart Ballett, the Royal Ballet, the Ballet of La Scala, Hungarian State Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Ballet West and American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. Due to her long international career, she has made professional connections with choreographers, artistic directors of ballet companies and administrators of opera houses around the world. These contacts are invaluable for arranging programming and international touring for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, where she has served as artistic director since June 2005.

New York Choreographic Institute
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York NY   10023
Telephone: 212-870-4060
NYChoreoInst@nycballet.com