about the artist

Demis Volpi is an Argentinian-German choreographer and opera director working internationally across ballet, opera and interdisciplinary music theatre. His work is characterized by an interest in storytelling and the relationship between movement, music and dramatic structure.

Over the past two decades, Volpi has created a broad repertoire ranging from full-length narrative ballets to contemporary dance works and interdisciplinary productions. His creations have been presented by companies and institutions throughout the world, including American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón, Ballet Vlaanderen, Ballet de Santiago de Chile, Ballet Nacional del SODRE, Compañía Nacional de Danza de México, Ballett Dortmund, Korean National Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bundesjugendballett, the Latvian National Ballet, Opéra de Lyon, the John Cranko School and Canada’s National Ballet School.

Born in Buenos Aires, he received his early training at the Fundación Julio Bocca and the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires before continuing his studies at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto and the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 2004, where he danced in both the classical and contemporary repertoire before dedicating himself fully to choreography.

His first full-length ballet, Krabat, became one of the Stuttgart Ballet’s most successful productions of recent decades and led to his appointment as Resident Choreographer. It was followed by further explorations of storytelling through dance in works including Salome, The Nutcracker, The Soldier’s Tale and The Little Match Girl Passion.

Alongside his choreographic career, Volpi has developed a parallel practice as an opera director. His productions include stagings for the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, the Saarländisches Staatstheater and Winter in Schwetzingen.

From 2020 to 2024 he served as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg, where he curated a repertoire spanning a wide aesthetic spectrum. Alongside artistic programming, he placed a strong emphasis on community engagement, audience development and initiatives supporting dancers’ health and well-being. He subsequently led Hamburg Ballet during the 2024/25 season and co-founded the Tanztriennale, a festival dedicated to dance in all its forms and interdisciplinary exchange.

Volpi’s work has been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the Erik Bruhn Prize, the German Dance Prize Future and the Konex Merit Diploma in Argentina. He has been nominated for the Prix Benois de la Danse and the International Opera Awards and has served on the juries of the Prix de Lausanne and the Fedora Awards.

He continues to work across choreography, opera direction, artistic leadership and the development of interdisciplinary cultural projects.