Raphaël Coumes-Marquet

Since the beginning of the 2024/25 season, Raphaël Coumes-Marquet has been Ballet Director of Ballett am Rhein, leading the company together with Chief Choreographer Bridget Breiner.

Born in Besançon, France, Raphaël Coumes-Marquet received his training at the École de Danse de l’Opéra de Paris. In 1995, Dance Magazine named him “Best Young Dancer”, and in 2009, he received the “Best Partnership Award” from Dance Europe Magazine alongside Esteban Berlanga. He was a soloist with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo (1992–1997), danced with the Vienna State Opera Ballet (1997/98), and held principal positions with Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam (1998–2006) and the Semperoper Ballett (2006–2015). From 2015 to 2019, he also worked in Dresden as ballet master, project leader, and artistic coordinator of the performance venue “Semper Zwei”.

It was during his time in Dresden in 2006 that he first met Bridget Breiner, who was also a principal dancer at the Semperoper Ballett. Their collaboration continued when Raphaël Coumes-Marquet was invited as a guest to join Bridget Breiner’s company in Gelsenkirchen. Together, they danced the leading roles in "Giselle" (2014). As a guest artist, he performed with companies around the world and appeared in several ballet film productions, including "The Grey Area in Creation" (2004), "Dornröschen" (2004), and "Giselle" (2008).

Raphaël Coumes-Marquet has worked with numerous renowned choreographers, including William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, David Dawson, and Hans van Manen. His collaboration with David Dawson began in 1999, initially as a dancer and later as Dawson’s choreographic assistant. His soloist repertoire includes nearly all major roles of classical ballet: Albrecht in "Giselle", Siegfried in "Schwanensee", Florimund in "Dornröschen", the Prince in "Der Nussknacker", Solor in "La Bayadère", and James in "La Sylphide". His repertoire also includes works by Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Rudi van Dantzig, Carolyn Carlson, Glen Tetley, Martha Graham, and Uwe Scholz.

He has appeared as a guest artist in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, England, France, Norway, Russia, and Lithuania. As Principal Guest Artist, he performed David Dawson’s "Faun(e)" with English National Ballet in London, and in Barcelona, Moscow, and Houston. He also appeared as Principal Guest Artist with the National Ballet of Croatia and Ballett im Revier in Gelsenkirchen.

In addition to his dance career, Raphaël Coumes-Marquet works as a choreographer and ballet master, including engagements with Ayumi Ballet Company in Tokyo, Stage de danse de Liège, and the summer program “ART of” in Berlin. He has staged David Dawson’s choreographies on many stages: "A Million Kisses to my Skin" for West Australian Ballet and Finnish National Ballet, "Giselle" in Gelsenkirchen and Essen, "Tristan + Isolde" for Het Nationale Ballet Amsterdam, "The Grey Area" for Staatstheater Saarbrücken, and "Opus 11" for Charlotte Ballet.

He has also choreographed for the Semperopernball and the ZDF. Beyond this, he regularly develops cross-disciplinary dance projects such as "Close-up", "Tanz-Dinner", "Tanz à la carte", and "Tanz:Film". For the Semperoper Ballett, he created "Tod im Tutu" (2017), collaborated with young choreographers on "Alice – Eine Reise ins Wunderland" (2019), and in 2023, the dance theatre work "Der 35. Mai oder Konrad reitet in die Südsee".