Anna Karenina

Christian Spuck, who trained at the John Cranko School, began his career with Needcompany and Rosas before joining Stuttgart Ballet in 1995, where he served as Resident Choreographer from 2001 to 2012. From 2012 to 2023, he was the Director of Ballett Zürich. In 2021, he created Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s novel, for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. For his works, he received the Der Faust German Theatre Prize in 2011, Italian Danza/Danza-Award, Prix Benois de la Danse in 2019 and was awarded Production of the Year and the Company of the Year by German magazine tanz.

Since the 2023/24 season, Christian Spuck has been the Artistic Director of Staatsballett Berlin and created the dance piece Bovary, based on Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. The critics of tanz magazine named Soloist Weronika Frodyma Dancer of the Year for her portrayal of Emma Bovary and honored Staatsballett Berlin as Berlin Company of the Year for 2023/24.

Katja Wünsche, born in Dresden, Germany and raised in Berlin, completed her training at the Berlin State Ballet School in 1999. She gained stage experience at Staatsoper Berlin while still at school. Her first engagement took her to Stuttgart Ballet in 1999 where she rose to First Soloist. In 2012, she followed Christian Spuck to Ballett Zürich, where she danced as First Soloist until 2023. Her repertoire includes leading roles in ballet classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Anna Karenina and The Nutcracker. She has received numerous awards, including the Prix de Lausanne (1998), German Theater Prize Der Faust (2007) and was nominated for the internationally renowned Prix de Benois in 2007. She has worked with renowned choreographers such as William Forsythe, Hans von Manen, Jiří Kylián, John Neumeier, Marco Goecke, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, Edward Clug and Christian Spuck, among others. Since 2023, she has been setting works by Christian Spuck worldwide and is completing an Executive Masters in Arts Administration at the University of Zürich.

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Jörg Zielinski was born in Berlin, Germany and since 1991, has lived in Switzerland. He completed his training and studies in Berlin in Germany, Basel and Zürich in Switzerland and Rochester in New York. As production manager at Theater Basel and senior employee at The Really Useful Group, Jörg gained experience with international theatre productions. He worked on Expo.02 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland and on the Hotel Offen spatial design in Baden, Germany. He gained his design experience at Vitra, a Swiss design company and as head of equipment at the Zürich Opera House, Jörg collaborated with the Shanghai Opera House leading to contacts with the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing and the Zürich University of the Arts, where he was invited to give lectures. He designs and creates stage sets and scenic installations. In addition to various independent projects, Jörg has created designs for Zürich Opera House, Bavarian State Ballet, Stanislavski-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow, Korean State Ballet in Seoul, Norwegian State Ballet in Oslo and the London studio “United Visual Artists”.

Emma Ryott is a designer who works internationally across opera, theatre and dance. Her designs for opera include The Love of Three Oranges (Semperoper Dresden), The Ring Cycle (Longborough Festival Opera), Verdi Requiem (Staatsballett Berlin, Dutch National Opera, Adelaide, Zürich Opera House). Her set and costume designs include La bohème (Copenhagen Opera Festival – Best New Opera Production at 2020 Copenhagen Culture Awards), Faust (Canadian Opera Company) and Roméo & Juliette (Savonlinna Opera Festival and Malmö Opera). For ballet, Emma’s designs include Bovary (Staatsballett Berlin), On the Move, Monteverdi, Little Match Girl, Romeo und Julia, Sonnett (Ballett Zürich), Cassiopeia's Garden, Lulu eine Monstretragödie, Das Fräulein von S (Stuttgart Ballet),The Seagull and Orlando (Bolshoi Theatre). In theatre, her designs include Young Chekhov: Platonov, Ivanov, The Seagull (National Theatre London), The Heart of Robin Hood (Royal Shakespeare Company/Vesturport in Boston, Toronto, winning an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design), Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll (West End and Broadway). For television, she designed the 2023, 2020 and 2016 New Year’s Concert (Vienna, for ORF) and for film, her designs include Death of Pentheus, Arhat and Taming the Dragon.

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Tieni Burkhalter studied fine arts at the Zürich University of the Arts where he specialized in video and video installation. After showing his works in galleries and at experimental film festivals, he began designing for the stage in 2009. As a video producer, he is closely associated with Zürich Opera House and his stage work has also taken him to theatres in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Moscow, Oslo and Savonlinna. At Zürich Opera House, he has worked with Andreas Homoki, Evgeny Titov, Jan Philipp Gloger, Adele Thomas, Rainer Holzapfel, Nina Russi and Kai Anne Schuhmacher. He has produced videos for Kim Brandstrup, Christian Spuck, Marcos Morau, Edward Clug and Douglas Lee for Ballett Zürich. He has also worked at the Savonlinna Opera Festival with Philipp Himmelmann, in Berlin with Christian Spuck and has been involved in Dmitri Tcherniakov's productions for many years.

Martin Donner studied media and cultural studies and has worked for many years as a freelance composer for theatre and ballet companies and as a media artist for sound installations. In the field of dance, he has worked with Christian Spuck for many years. His compositions for productions have been performed in many theatres and international ballet companies and have won various awards. Martin has worked at various universities and written two monographs, including On the Way to Cyberpolis: New Forms of Community, Self and Education, available in German as open access. Currently, he works at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg at the UNESCO Chair in Digital Cultures and Arts in Education. One of his main areas of research is the digital transformation in art, culture and education.

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Anisa Tejpar is a certified intimacy professional who specializes in dance and ensuring that artists navigate intimate scenes with confidence, consent and creativity. A Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning performer, Anisa fosters safe and respectful spaces where dancers and actors feel empowered to explore vulnerability while maintaining professional and personal boundaries. A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School, Anisa has collaborated with prestigious institutions such as The National Ballet of Canada, Ballet BC, Côté Danse and various film and television productions, including Star Trek: Section 31, Orphan Black: Echoes, Beacon 23, Darkest Miriam and the highly anticipated Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. She currently teaches Consent + Boundaries for Dancers at Toronto Metropolitan University. Anisa serves on the Board of Directors for Canada’s National Ballet School and Canada’s National Ballet School Foundation. Additionally, she is a member of the School of Performance Advisory Committee for Toronto Metropolitan University.

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Matthew Rowe stands out in the conducting world for his skill and experience with complex, collaborative productions. An exceptionally versatile conductor, he is respected and acknowledged for his passion, commitment and energy. His dynamic conducting style, exceptional technique and attention to detail are the trademarks of his approach. Matthew is passionate about building bridges between art forms and demonstrates remarkable adaptability in responding to the diverse challenges of collaborative music-making in the 21st century. Praised internationally for his work in the sphere of ballet and dance, noteworthy productions have included Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella, Alexei Ratmansky’s The Fairy’s Kiss and the world premieres of Shen Wei’s Sacre du Printemps, David Dawson’s Requiem, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida, Yuri Possokhov’s Violin Concerto and Jorma Elo’s Sibelius 4th Symphony. His extensive repertoire embraces the work of many renowned choreographers including George Balanchine and Hans van Manen. He is the Principal Guest Conductor of Dutch National Ballet and a regular guest with many international dance companies including San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Polish National Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater.

Jeff Morris joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1995. Born in Toronto, he studied technical theatre production and administration at Ryerson’s Theatre School (now Toronto Metropolitan University). From 1990 to 1995, he was Production Stage Manager for Toronto Dance Theatre, including the company’s debuts in Berlin, Warsaw, Tokyo and at the Joyce Theater. He was Production Stage Manager for Dancers for Life (1991 – 1997), Stage Manager for Theatre Passe-Muraille (Never Swim Alone) and for the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. Since joining the National Ballet, Jeff has stage-managed a wide range of the company’s unique classical and contemporary repertoire, including the world premieres of James Kudelka’s The Four Seasons, Cinderella and An Italian Straw Hat, Crystal Pite’s Emergence and Angels’ Atlas and Guillaume Côté’s Le Petit Prince and Frame by Frame (with Robert Lepage). Company premieres include John Neumeier’s The Seagull, A Streetcar Named Desire, Nijinsky and Anna Karenina and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale. He is a board member and instructor for SMArts and Festival CoDirector for dance:made in Canada/fait au Canada.

Alex Wommack (she/her) was born and raised in Waco, Texas and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Her passion for ballet led her to work with Alabama Ballet while completing her undergraduate degree. At Alabama Ballet, she stage-managed works by Jiří Kylián, Agnes de Mille and Sir Frederick Ashton. Following graduation, she moved to Seattle and joined the Stage Management team at Seattle Opera, where highlights included Porgy and Bess, The Barber of Seville and Flight. In 2017, she worked with Pacific Northwest Ballet as an Assistant Stage Manager for George Balanchine's The Nutcracker and then joined the company as Stage Manager in 2020. She is a member of AGMA and served two terms as the staging staff representative for the Northwest area on the National Board of Governors. Outside of her professional work, Alex is actively involved with Books to Prisoners, an organization that fosters a love of reading and help break the cycle of recidivism in American prisons.

Anna Spencer is a Toronto-based stage manager originally from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Previous credits include Emma Bovary (The National Ballet of Canada), Wozzeck, Faust, La Boheme (Canadian Opera Company), Ladies of the Canyon, The Big Easy, Detroit, A Christmas Carol (Soulpepper), The Bidding War (Crow’s Theatre), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Neptune Theatre/ Mirvish Productions), Women of the Fur Trade, The Crucible (Stratford Festival), The Rocky Horror Show (Neptune Theatre), Cabaret and Prom Queen (The Grand Theatre). Anna is an instructor and graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance Production Program.