Christiana Stefanou
choreographer
© Ashley Taylor
Christiana Stefanou trained as a dancer at the HMT in Munich and gained her bachelors and two master degrees at Plovdiv University. She danced many leading roles in classic and contemporary repertoire as a soloist with the Bayerische Staatsballet, working with outstanding choreographers and artistic names including John Neumeier, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Maurice Béjart, Twyla Tharp, Jiří Kylián and Lucinda Childs. After her successful career on stage ended she worked as ballet mistress and then director of ballet at Greek National Opera in Athens. She's much sought after as a guest ballet mistress, teacher and coach at leading international companies including the Het Nationale Ballet Amsterdam, Royal Swedish Ballet, English National Ballet, Boston Ballet, the Bayerische Staatsballett, Balletto dell’Opera di Roma, Ballet Theater Basel and Polish National Ballet in Warsaw. She also rehearses grand scale classics including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Giselle for leading international ballet companies, and was Director of the Vienna State Opera's Ballet Academy from 2020 - 2025. She choreographed Gioconda’s Smile, Prisma and the opening of the 2023 & 2024 Opera Balls at the Vienna State Opera, which were followed in 2025 by Mein erstes Dornröschen in the NEST, the Vienna State Opera's new venue, and her own staging of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at the Olympia – »Maria Callas« State Opera in Athens. Christiana Stefanou was awarded the 2024 ARGO Prize in the “Culture and Arts” category by the then-President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, for her outstanding contribution to the art of dance.