The ballet company at the Theater Ulm is made up of five female dancers and five male dancers. The ballet director is supported in his work by a ballet master/ head instructor and a ballet repetitor. In addition, two to three guest choreographers join the company per season; these expand and enrich the company’s dance repertoire. The ballet ensemble currently organises two evenings per season for the Theater Ulm’s large stage (815 seats); one production is then included in all season ticket series. In addition, one or two of the company’s own evenings are shown in the second house venue, “Podium” (120 seats), also in with its own season ticket series. Here, company members are given the chance to test their skills as choreographers. It has also become a tradition for the ballet to collaborate with the music theatre department once per season. The theatre’s artistic directorship attaches great importance to conceptually integrating dance as a special theatre language into the respective music theatre productions. In addition to these diverse assignments, the ballet department has its own associated and constantly growing ballet school with approximately 200 students.
The basis of artistic work is daily classical training. On the basis of this foundation, a broad dance spectrum has been established in a company that creates productions in almost all current styles.
 

On the ensemble’s history

Since the establishment of the Theater Ulm in its present form approximately 50 years ago, the dance department has been an inherent part of this municipal theatre. The ballet company can, on average, be seen on 50 to 60 evenings per season in the various theatre venues through a solid integration within the season ticket structure with its own productions as well as in collaborations with other departments. Guest performances on many German stages and those in neighbouring countries add to the company’s dance work in Ulm. Since 2009, ballet director Roberto Scafati has been heading the dance department; from 1998 to 2009, Andris Plucis worked as the head of ballet in Ulm, and his predecessor from 1994 to 1998 was Chinese choreographer Qu Ping.

Robert Scafati

Roberto Scafati is the ballet director at the Theater Ulm. After completing his ballet training at the Scuola Italiana di Danza/Rome and with Rosella Hightower in Cannes, he worked in the ballet ensembles at the operas in Rome and Naples (Italy). At first he was a solo dancer, and he then became head instructor before becoming ballet director in 2009. He has been working as a choreographer since 1995. In addition to his productions in Ulm (most recently “Le Sacre du Printemps”, and “Bolero” and soon “Carmen”), he worked as a guest at the opera house in Ankara (Turkey), at Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart (Germany) and at the Mainfrankentheater in Würzburg (Germany). He heads the jury for the Internationale Solo-Tanz-Wettbewerb and has toured with his choreographies to numerous dance galas in Germany and abroad.

“Dance is innovation. Among the departments in a classic theatre, ballet most clearly stands for constant renewal of styles, aesthetics and subjects. Dance’s international language transcends borders.”

Roberto Scafati