Vita
Sonia Santiago was born in Madrid, grew up in Germany and received her ballet training at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, from which she graduated after 13 years in 1985. She started dancing at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken and from 1987 until 1990 was a Demi Soloist at the Staatstheater Hannover. In 1990 she joined the Stuttgart Ballet, where she was promoted to Soloist in 1994 and to Principal Dancer in 1997. Her repertory included leading roles such as Tatiana in Onegin, Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew, Marguerite in The Lady of the Camellias and Queen Isabella in Edward II. She also danced in ballets by famous choreographers such as John Cranko Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Maurice Béjart, Nacho Duato, Glen Tetley, Marcia Haydée, Uwe Scholz and Hans van Manen.
After giving birth to her first son in 2001 Sonia Santiago ended her career at the Stuttgart Ballet and worked freelance as ballet mistress, dance teacher and character artist until 2018. Exemplary for her educational outreach work is the choreographic assistance during the dance project Move the Music by Lior Lev for Stuttgart students in Baden-Württemberg and during MOVE IT!, which was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stuttgart Ballet, as well as the subsequent projects MOVE IT! Krabat and MOVE IT! Strawinsky. She also collaborated on various IMPULS projects with the Junge Oper and the Schauspiel Stuttgart.
In 2011 she also started working at the Stuttgart Noverre Society – after she already danced in their Young Choreographers performances during her active dance career. First she supported the association by assisting Fritz Höver and Rainer Woihsyk, later she became Vice Chair, coordinator and organiser as well as contact person for foreign choreographers showing their creations during the annual Young Choreographers evenings. In the 2017-18 season she was in charge of the project management of the Noverre Society’s 60. anniversary. After the society’s liquidation in 2018, the platform for aspiring choreographers will be continued under the new name Noverre: Young Choreographers under the auspices of the Stuttgart Ballet. It was the heartfelt wish of Artistic Director Tamas Detrich to carry on with this unique project and he is delighted to win Sonia Santiago as the Project Manager.
After giving birth to her first son in 2001 Sonia Santiago ended her career at the Stuttgart Ballet and worked freelance as ballet mistress, dance teacher and character artist until 2018. Exemplary for her educational outreach work is the choreographic assistance during the dance project Move the Music by Lior Lev for Stuttgart students in Baden-Württemberg and during MOVE IT!, which was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stuttgart Ballet, as well as the subsequent projects MOVE IT! Krabat and MOVE IT! Strawinsky. She also collaborated on various IMPULS projects with the Junge Oper and the Schauspiel Stuttgart.
In 2011 she also started working at the Stuttgart Noverre Society – after she already danced in their Young Choreographers performances during her active dance career. First she supported the association by assisting Fritz Höver and Rainer Woihsyk, later she became Vice Chair, coordinator and organiser as well as contact person for foreign choreographers showing their creations during the annual Young Choreographers evenings. In the 2017-18 season she was in charge of the project management of the Noverre Society’s 60. anniversary. After the society’s liquidation in 2018, the platform for aspiring choreographers will be continued under the new name Noverre: Young Choreographers under the auspices of the Stuttgart Ballet. It was the heartfelt wish of Artistic Director Tamas Detrich to carry on with this unique project and he is delighted to win Sonia Santiago as the Project Manager.