Bridget Breiner

Since the beginning of the 2024/25 season, Bridget Breiner has served as Resident Choreographer of Ballett am Rhein, leading the company together with Artistic Director Raphaël Coumes-Marquet.
For Ballett am Rhein, she has created works including “Dornröschen”, “Concerto for the Left Hand”, “Daphnis et Chloé, Suiten” and “Biolographie”, set to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and has presented her award-winning narrative ballet “Ruß – Eine Geschichte von Aschenputtel”.
Raised in Columbus, Ohio, Breiner received her early dance training at BalletMet Dance Academy. She completed her studies at the Heinz Bosl Foundation in Munich before joining the Bavarian State Ballet under the direction of Konstanze Vernon in 1992. In 1996, she moved to Stuttgart Ballet under Reid Anderson and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2001. From 2006 to 2008, she danced as a Principal Dancer with Semperoper Ballett Dresden under Aaron Watkin and remained Artist in Residence with Stuttgart Ballet until 2011. Her extensive repertoire included numerous dramatic and classical leading roles as well as many works created especially for her.
In 2005, she made her choreographic debut as part of the renowned “Young Choreographers” evening presented by Stuttgart’s Noverre Society. Since then, she has created works for Stuttgart Ballet, the Latvian National Ballet, Kevin O’Day Ballett Mannheim, Ballett Augsburg, Salzburg State Theatre, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, San Francisco Ballet and the John Cranko School.
In 2011, she was invited to choreograph and direct for Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen. One year later, she became Director of Ballett im Revier. In 2013, she received the FAUST Award for Best Choreography for her first full-length narrative ballet, “Ruß – Eine Geschichte von Aschenputtel”. The dance-opera collaboration “Charlotte Salomon: Der Tod und die Malerin”, commissioned with a score by New York composer Michelle DiBucci, was widely acclaimed and received a further FAUST Award in 2015. Other significant works from this period include “Romeo und Julia”, “Prosperos Insel” and “Ein Sommernachtstraum”.
In 2017, she created her first full-length symphonic ballet, “The Vital Unrest”, set to Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 and a commissioned composition by Latvian composer Georgs Pelēcis.
At the beginning of the 2019/20 season, Breiner became Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where she created, among other works, the full-length ballet “Was ihr wollt”. This was followed by the world premiere “Maria Stuart” for ballet and chorus, before she turned to a major ballet classic with “Das Mädchen & der Nussknacker”.
Bridget Breiner’s work moves between classical and contemporary dance, combining European and American influences and driven by a deep passion for storytelling. Alongside narrative ballets, she also creates interdisciplinary productions that bring together dance with opera, chorus and theatre. Fairy tales, literature, visual art and historical subjects are recurring sources of inspiration in her work. As of 2026, she has created ten full-length narrative ballets, five narrative one-act works and five ballets based on plays by William Shakespeare.