Tanja Rühl

Born and raised in Germany, Tanja Rühl began her training as an event technology specialist in 1999 at the Frankfurt Opera (Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt) and moved to the Frankfurt Ballet in 2002, under the artistic direction of William Forsythe. Following the reestablishment of The Forsythe Company (2005) and upon completing her master’s degree in event technology with a specialization in lighting (2007), Tanja Rühl assumed 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 Production Team, she advises international dance companies on the technical and creative implementation of Forsythe’s works and continues to work as a designer on his new projects.
Since July 2014, Tanja Rühl has been working as a freelance lighting designer for the performing arts, collaborating on works by international choreographers, artists, and companies. Among others, she has created designs for Aszure Barton, Deborah Hay, Peter Chu, Anouk van Dijk, Martin Chaix, Juliano Nunes, Moritz Ostruschnjak, Louis Stiens, Iván Pérez, and Wubkje Kuindersma. Her previous works have been part of productions at venues such as L'Opéra Garnier de Paris, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Kawasaki Arts Center in Japan, as well as the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum during the Ruhrtriennale and the Taichung National Theater in Taiwan.
In recent years, she has already worked with Iván Pérez in London on the Balletboyz production “Young Men” as well as the new creation “The Male Dancer” at the Paris Opera. In addition to her work on stage, Tanja Rühl teaches the fundamentals of lighting design and provides insights into the technical aspects of stage lighting in workshops, including at the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden and the HfMDK in Frankfurt am Main.