Culture

The NRW Junior Ballet – dance as a profession!

Thanks to its founding director Xin Peng Wang, the Ballett Dortmund has developed into a company with an unmistakable artistic profile in recent years, transforming the Westphalian city of Dortmund from a dance-loving municipality into a hub of dance art.

Ein Tänzer streckt seine Arme und Beine X-förmig von sich

Europe

Germany

Dortmund

Funding period: 2014-2027

The NRW Junior Ballet in Dortmund, established in 2014, trains exceptionally talented young dancers, also thanks to the support of the Wilo-Foundation. The goal is to enable them to join a professional ballet ensemble one day. The Junior Ballet, which is based at the Balletzentrum Westfalen and closely associated with the Theater Dortmund, gives young international dancers from all over the world an opportunity to gain two years of stage practice and professional experience. The international talents are always selected from several hundreds of applications. Their curriculum includes elements of both theory and practice: they participate in running productions of the Dortmund Ballet, work with local schools and develop their individual repertoire in collaboration with renowned choreographers.

Tänzer der Eigenproduktion des NRW Juniorballetts „#zauberflöte 3.0“ — "#zauberflöte 3.0" is the in-house production of the NRW Junior Ballet with Yingyue Wang, Márcio Barros Mota, Amélie Demont from 2019. Photo: Theater Dortmund, Credit: Bettina Stöß

The project, initially designed as a pilot project, has now developed into a professional project for junior dancers. The Dortmund Junior Ballet is financed by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Dortmund, together with some private sponsors, including the Wilo-Foundation that has been supporting the Junior Ballet for many years now. In 2018, the Wilo-Foundation also supported the China ballet tour “Faust II” with performances in Dortmund’s sister city of Xi’an, in Beijing and in Dalian. The tour also involved the NRW Junior Ballet. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NRW Junior Ballet produced a video performance for the online format “Kultur@Home” at the Wilopark.

Vier Tänzer mit gestreiften Ganzkörperanzügen auf der Bühne unter gedimmtem Licht — The in-house production "DA VINCI MODE" by the NRW Junior Ballet Dortmund from 2024 with Jane Troupe, Jihan Jung Crow, António Ferreira, Milivoje Andrejević. Photo: Theater Dortmund, Credit: Leszek Januszewski

In the 2024/25 season, the year of the tenth anniversary of the NRW Junior Ballet, there will be a final performance, “La Bayadere”, as a goodbye to ballet director Xin Peng Wang, who led the Dortmund Ballet for many years. The performance will be supported by the Wilo-Foundation.

Photo Header: Theater Dortmund, Credit: Leszek Januszewski

Our funding partner

Theater Dortmund, with its six segments of opera, ballet, the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, drama, junior theatre and, most recently, the Academy for Theatre and Digitality (ATD), has played a central role in Dortmund’s cultural scene for more than 100 years. With over 750 performances and around 70 productions every season, it is one of the most productive theatres in Europe.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forms the global framework for action for socially, economically and ecologically sustainable development. Our funding commitment also supports these sustainability goals. With this project, we are making a contribution to achieving the following SDGs:

What are the SDGs`?