Christian Shpuck

Biography

Born in Marburg. Studied at John Cranko School in Stuttgart. Started his career as a dancer with Jan Lauwers’s Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Rosas Ensemble.

In 1995, was accepted at the Stuttgart Ballet.
In 2001-12 he was a resident choreographer with this company, where he staged fifteen ballets, including narrative:

Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie to the music by D. Shostakovich, A. Schoenberg, N. Washington and D. Tiomkin, based on the plays by Frank Wedekind (2003)
Der Sandmann to the music by R. Schumann, A. Schnittke, M. Donner based on the novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann (2006), which in 2008 was resumed for the Latvian National Opera
Das Fräulein von S. to the music by R. Schumann, M. Donner, P. Glass and M. Torke, based on the novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann (2012)

Cooperated with various companies in Europe and the USA
 where he staged such ballets as:

Die Kinder to the music by M. Donner, based on the play by E. Bond (2004, Aalto Ballett Theater in Essen, nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse), The Return of Ulysses to the music by H. Purcell and the popular songs from the 1940s and 50s. (2006, the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the production was shown at the Edinburg International Festival), Don Q to the music by F. Schubert, A. Schnittke and the popular songs (2007, Stuttgart company Gauthier Dance, co-production with the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, with support from the Stuttgart Ballet in the framework of the 80^th anniversary of J. Cranko)
Leonce und Lena to the music by J. Strauss, B.A. Zimmermann, A. Ponchielli, A. Schnittke, M. Donner, L. Delibes and C. Porter, based on the play of the same name by G. Büchner, (2008, world premiere by the Aalto Ballett Theatre; 2010, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal; 2019, Charlotte Ballet/USA; 2019, The Czech National Ballet/ The National Theatre in Prague), poppea//poppea to the music by C. Monteverdi, M. Donner and others (2010, the Stuttgart company Gauthier Dance, the Dance Europe magazine included this piece into the top ten productions of the 2009-10 season, in 2011 it was commended by Der Faust Theatre Prize and an award from the Italian magazine Danza & Danza), Woyzeck to the music by M. Donner, P. Glass, G. Kurtág and A. Schnittke, based on the play of the same name by G. Büchner (2011, The Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo)

In the 2012-13 season, he was appointed the director of Ballet Zurich.
He realised the following ballets for this company:

Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev (2012)
Sonnet to the music by P. Glass, based on the sonnets by W. Shakespeare (2014)
Anna Karenina to the music by S. Rachmaninov and R. Lutosławski (2014, a co-production with the Norwegian National ballet)
Requiem to the music by G. Verdi (2016, a co-production with The Zurich Opera House)
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King to the music by P. Tchaikovsky (2017)
Winterreise to the music by H. Zender and F. Shubert (2018, Prix Benois de la Danse, 2019)
The Little Match Girl to the music by H. Lachenmann (2019, “a production of the year” according to the German magazine Tanz)
The Sleeping Beauty by P. Tchaikovsky (2020, co-production with the Norwegian National Ballet)

C. Spuck also put on stage at the Zurich Ballet his existing works such as Leonce und Lena, Woyzeck and Der Sandmann.

The ballet Anna Karenina, after the Zurich premiere, was also realised for the Norwegian National Ballet (2016), the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre (2016), the Korean National Ballet (2017, Seoul) and the Bavarian State Ballet (2017, Munich).

C. Spuck also appears as a director of opera productions. Among his works are Orphée et Eurydice by C.W. Gluck (2009, the Stuttgart State Opera), Falstaff by G. Verdi (2010, at The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden), La damnation de Faust by H. Berlioz (2014) and Der fliegende Holländer by R. Wagner (2017, both at The Deutsche Oper Berlin).

In 2017, the ballet The Nutcracker and the Mouse King was shown on the New Stage at the Bolshoi Theatre in the framework of the contemporary dance festival DanceInversion.

In 2021, C. Spuck was invited by the Bolshoi to stage the ballet Orlando to the music by E. Elgar, P. Glass, B. Auerbach and E. Kats-Chernin.


Portrait: photo by Jos Schmid.