News coverage of Bridget Breiner being named new director of the Karlsruhe Ballet company

Metropol News

Bridget with Birgit Keil, whom she is replacing.

Interview with Bridget.  Here is the Google Translation

KARLSRUHE - Bridget Breiner, currently ballet director in Gelsenkirchen, succeeds Professor Birgit Keil and will take over the direction of the STAATSBALLET KARLSRUHE beginning in the season 2019/20. She will continue the line of classical ballet, combined with her own artistic style and the promotion of aspiring choreographers.

"It is a great honor for me to succeed Birgit Keil. I love working with a company and look forward to choreographing myself, "says Breiner.  

General Manager Peter Spuhler is proud to announce that an internationally acclaimed dancer and award-winning choreographer is coming to Karlsruhe: "With Bridget Breiner, we are getting a new ballet director who will continue Birgit Keil's career in Karlsruhe and redesign it with her own personality." Karlsruhe ballet director Brigit Keil attended the press conference.Theresia Bauer, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, was particularly pleased that Bridget Breiner, who danced for many years as the first soloist for the Stuttgart Ballet, is now back in the Baden-region. She called it "the return of a great artist to the Baden-Württemberg region."
Growing up in Columbus, Ohio (USA), Breiner danced at the Bavarian State Ballet, the ballet of the Semperoper Dresden and for many years as the first soloist for the Stuttgart Ballet, where she also started a successful career as a choreographer. Her choreography of "sirs" for the Stuttgart Noverre Society was immediately included in the repertoire of the Stuttgart Ballet.  

Together with students of the John Cranko School, she created the piece "Zeitsprunge" in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. "Letters of Others" was her first commissioned work for the Stuttgart Ballet in 2010. This was followed by work for the Kevin O'Day Ballet Mannheim, the Ballet Augsburg and the Latvian National Ballet.  

Since 2012 she has been an extremely successful ballet director at the Musiktheater in the district in Gelsenkirchen. Her Ballet "Soot" was also awarded the German Theater Prize THE FAUST in 2013, as was her creation "Charlotte Salomon: Death and the Painter." in 2015 This makes her one of the few female artists to receive Germany's highest theater prize twice. In the summer of 2016, Bridget Breiner choreographed for the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen for the first time; on March 15 she gave her world premiere of Stravinsky's "Firebird" for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal in Canada.

Four other women also bring a fresh breeze: Nicole Braunger succeeds Michael Fichtenholz as director of opera at the STAATSTHEATER KARLSRUHE, who moves to the Zurich Opera House. Also the VOLKSTHEATER gets a new direction: Stefanie Heiner, previously active in Weimar, replaces Beata Anna Schmutz, who goes to the National Theater Mannheim. The Artistic Directorate takes over Uta-Christine Deppermann from Monika Pichler, who is retiring. So far, Deppermann has been working in the same position at the Theater Magdeburg. The new warfare is completed by designated acting director Anna Bergmann.