Curriculum Vitae

Ralf Jaroschinski was born in Southern Germany in February of 1966 and grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was trained at the University of Music and Theater in Hannover, Germany, and on a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service in New York City, USA. For six seasons he danced as a guest in the Lower Saxonian National Ballet of Hannover, worked as a dancer and choreographic assistant at the Nuremberg City Theater, and as a free-lance choreographer and teacher of contemporary dance techniques in Hannover, Munich, and Vienna, Austria. In 1998, he became the German Hildesheim City Theater Dance Company's artistic director and choreographer, directing its twelve dancers until July of 2002. Jaroschinski currently dances, teaches and choreographs as an independent for various dance companies by commission, primarily in Germany, Sweden, the US, Brazil, and Peru.

As a choreographic assistant, Jaroschinski worked together with Niels-Peter Rudolph and Vivienne Newport, a.o. Ever since choreographing his own works, he enjoys the crossover with other art forms, hence, his collaborations with the mask designer Hans-Ulrich Buchwald, the painter Jacques Gassmann and the actor René Schack. He choreographed multiple pieces for soloists of the Bonn Choreographic Theater, the Leipzig Ballet and the Lower Saxonian National Ballet of Hannover in Germany. In 1997 and 1998, he created the dance concerts "Mutig zu sein bedeutet nicht, keine Angst zu haben" ("To Be Courageous Does Not Mean to Have No Fear"), "Babette", "tantalizing", "Auflösen" ("To Dissolve"), "Soirée russe" ("Russian Night"), and "flux" in Hannover with local, municipal and regional funding and toured with those throughout Germany and Austria.

At the City Theater of Hildesheim, he created several dances for theatrical and musical works and choreographed “South Pacific”, the European premiere. Moreover, he put together a dozen galas and "Tanzwerkstätten" ("Dance Workshops"), which were designed to introduce ideas and aesthetics of contemporary choreography to the audience. With the Hildesheim City Theater Dance Company, Jaroschinski produced and extensively toured the dance concerts: "Tierisches" ("Animalia"), "Gesellschaftsspiele" ("Social Games"), "Karmen" (with live orchestra), "Aus der neuen Welt" ("From the New World"), "Dämonen" ("Demons", with a musician), "Lieben" ("To Love", with two actors), "Jugendsünden" ("Sins of Youth", with live orchestra), "Das Schwanensee-Märchen" ("The Fairy Tale Swan Lake") for children and adults (with a singer), "Am Meer" ("By the Sea", with a musician), "Trash" (with an actor), and "Der Vagabund" ("The Vagabond", with a singer and a musician). In the season of 1999/2000, he also directed the world premiere of Wilfried Hiller's "Schulamit" - with an actress, dancers, singers (both children and adults), large choir (80 singers), live orchestra, and the Klezmer-virtuoso Giora Feidman.

In 1999, Jaroschinski returned to teach his piece from 1995, "Auf der schönen blauen Erde" ("On the Beautiful Blue Earth"), to the dancers of the Lower Saxonian National Ballet of Hannover - this work won a choreography award. The dancers of the company "Stichting EuregioDans" (Heerlen, the Netherlands - Aachen, Germany - Liège, Belgium) staged his "Petite nostalgie nymphale" and the award winning "Intuition Blast" in their 1999/2000 season. In 1999, this piece had also been included in the Bavarian National Ballet’s repertoire. Presented by the former German Foreign Affairs Minister Joschka Fischer in 2000, it was toured throughout Asia, reaching New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Calcutta, India. In the same year, "Intuition Blast" was performed in the “Birgit Keil Dance Foundation Ballet Gala” in Ludwigsburg, Germany. It was also shown in Mehmet Balkan’s “Ballet Gala” (Hannover, 2001) and in Oleg Makhov’s “Benefit Galas for Children with Cancer” (Munich, 2003 and Stuttgart, 2005). In the season of 2001/2002, Jaroschinski was commissioned by Ivan Liška to create a choreography for the Bavarian National Ballet in Munich, the result was "Satchmo Serenades"; and in the season of 2011/2012 the Junor Company of the Bavarian National Ballet is now touring "Intuition Blast".

After his Hildesheim period, Jaroschinski produced the dance concerts "Soirée populaire" ("Popular Night", 2003), “T’embers - Die vier Temperamente” ("T'embers - The Four Temperaments", 2003), "Bizarre Love Triangle" (2004), "Eins" ("One", 2005), “Pool” (2006), and “Postmodern Superheroes” (2007) in Hannover, with municipal, regional and national funding.

In November of 2002, his choreography "U", commissioned for 36 dancers of Konstanze Vernon's Dance Foundation "Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung", premiered in Munich and was followed by “Funny Flowers” in 2005. The dance students of the John Cranko-School Stuttgart premiered his piece “Tag am Meer” (“Day by the Sea”) in May of 2005. Kammertänzerin Prof. Birgit Keil commissioned Jaroschinski to create a dance concert for the National Ballet of Southwest Germany that was designed for children and adults: “Scheherazade" premiered in April of 2004, in Karlsruhe. It also was part of the company’s 2004/2005 season and continued to be part of its 2005/2006 season. In 2011, “Scheherazade" has been part of the National Ballet’s repertoire for the eighth year in a row, totalling more than 50 performances. On top of this, the Karlsruhe National Ballet premiered his creation "Suite sportive" in June of 2009 - stage, lighting installation and costumes were designed by rosalie. And in April of 2010, the Children’s and Youth’s Theater Department (“KJT”) of the Regional Theater in Tübingen, premiered Jaroschinski's "Die Abenteuer des Peer Gynt" ("The Adventures of Peer Gynt") which continues to be part of its 2010/2011 season.

More recently, Jaroschinski also creates dance concerts based entirely on contact improvisation: "Can You Entirely Be?" (2003) premiered in San Francisco, USA, where he also worked with Scott Wells in "Over You" (2006), and "Space Cowboys" (2008) in Hannover, Germany. Produced together with Andrew Wass, “Sci-fi Poetry” (2009) and "Never Felt This Way Before" (2010) were presented in Northern and Southern Germany. Facilitating contact improvisation classes and workshops for ten years, Jaroschinski teaches regularly at the "West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival (WCCIF)" in Berkeley, USA, at the "Encontro internacional de contato improvisação São Paulo" as well as at "Contact in Rio" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Last but not least, he teaches this dance technique at the University of Tübingen in Germany and at the "Goethe-Institut Lima" in Peru. He also trains the dancers of the Gothenburg Ballet and the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, Sweden, in contact improvisation.

In total, Jaroschinski has created over 80 contemporary dance pieces that have been presented in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, the US, Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, India, and Malaysia.

In 1993, Jaroschinski was found among the winners of the "7th International Competition for Choreographers" in Hannover, Germany, with "Ernst ist das Leben, heiter die Kunst" ("Life is Serious, Art is Joy"). 1994 brought him the German Federal Ministry for Education and Science's feature prize for the piece "Wie kann man den Himmel besitzen" ("How to Possess the Sky"). In 1995, he won first prize at the "9th International Competition for Choreographers" in Hannover with "Auf der schönen blauen Erde" ("On the Beautiful Blue Earth"). In the same year, he was granted an entire season to study dance and composition techniques in New York City through a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service (“DAAD”) in Bonn for his piece “Ária“. In 1996, he received an award from the "Dance in Education Fund Inc." in White Plains, New York, USA, for his choreography “Ballroom”, and at the biannual choreographic competition of German Ettlingen's "Days of the Dance" festival he was found among the winners that same year, as well as in 1998. In 1997, Jaroschinski's piece "M" received the special prize "Best Premiere" at the "1st International Solo Dance Theater Festival" in Augsburg. And at the "12th International Competition for Choreographers" in Hannover in 1998, he won the audience's prize for "Intuition Blast".