Ralf Jaroschinski was born in Southern Germany in 1966 and grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He trained in Stuttgart and Hannover, Germany, and in New York City, USA. From 1991 on he danced for six seasons in the Lower Saxonian National Ballet Company of Hannover, Germany, and then he worked as a dancer and choreographic assistant with the Nuremberg Theater Dance Company. Subsequently, Jaroschinski worked as free-lance choreographer and teacher for contemporary dance techniques mainly in Hannover, Munich, and Vienna, Austria. In 1998 he became the Hildesheim City Theater Dance Company's artistic director and choreographer and directed the 12 dancers until summer of 2002. Back in a free-lance situation, he now mainly works in Europe and the Americas as a dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Before becoming the City Theater of Hildesheim's dance company's artistic director he had created the well received dance concerts "Wie kann man den Himmel besitzen" ("How to Possess the Sky", together with René Schack from the National Theater of Oldenburg), "Mutig zu sein bedeutet nicht, keine Angst zu haben" ("To Be Courageous Does Not Mean to Have No Fear"), "Babette", "tantalizing", "Auflösen" ("To Dissolve"), "Soiree russe" ("Russian Night"), and "flux" among others with municipal, regional and national funding and had presented them in Hannover and Vienna - in total it's over 80 contemporary pieces that sum up his creation since 1985, over half of these choreographies are of evening length. So far his work has been seen in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, the United States of America, Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, India, and Malaysia.
At the City Theater of Hildesheim he created several dances not only for musical but also for theatrical works, as well as a dozen galas and "Tanzwerkstätten" (Dance Workshops") - to introduce the audience to ideas and aesthetics in contemporary choreography. In addition to this he choreographed there the dance concerts "Tierisches" ("Animalia"), "Gesellschaftsspiele" ("Social Games"), "Karmen" (with live orchestra), "Aus der neuen Welt" ("From the New World"), the art nouveau-piece "Dämonen" ("Demons", with piano solo), "Lieben" ("To Love", with dancers and actors), "Jugendsünden" ("Sins of Youth", with live orchestra), "Das Schwanensee-Märchen" ("The Fairy Tale Swan Lake" for children), "Am Meer" ("By the Sea", with dancers and a musician), "Trash" (with dancers and an actor) and "Der Vagabund" ("The Vagabond" to live sung English songs). With these productions he toured extensively throughout Germany. In the season of 1999/ 2000 he also directed the world premiere of Wilfried Hiller's "Schulamit" - with dancers, an actress, a child, singers, chorus, orchestra, and the famous Klezmer-clarinettist Giora Feidman.
Back in a free-lance situation Jaroschinski received funding from similar institutions as before and created the dance concerts "Soirée populaire" ("Popular Night"), "T'embers - Die vier Temperamente" ("T'embers - The Four Temperaments"), "Bizarre Love Triangle", "Eins" ("One") and "Pool" in Hannover as well as "Can You Entirely Be?" in San Francisco in 2003. That's also where he danced with Scott Wells in 2006. On stage and also in his teaching Jaroschinski lately aims more and more for the authentic personal dance expression and contact improvisation.
In 1993 Jaroschinski was found first time among the winners of the "7th International Competition for Choreographers" in Hannover (with "Ernst ist das Leben, heiter die Kunst" - "Life is Serious, Art is Joy"), and in 1994 he received 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 a recipient of a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Bonn to study dance and composition techniques in New York City for an entire season. In 1996 he was awarded by the "Dance in Education Fund Inc.", White Plains, New York, and at the biannual choreographic competition of Ettlingen's "Days of the Dance" he was found among the winners in 1996 as well as in 1998. In 1997 Jaroschinski's choreography "M" received the special prize "Best Premiere" at the "1st International Solo Dance Theater Festival" in Augsburg, Germany. And at the "12th International Competition for Choreographers" in Hannover, 1998, he won the audience's prize for his pas de deux "Intuition Blast".
From 1997 to 2001 soloists from the Leipzig Ballet and dancers of the Choreographic Theater in Bonn regularly interpreted pieces by Ralf Jaroschinski. He taught "Petite nostalgie nymphale" ("Petite Nymph-like Nostalgy") and also the duet "Intuition Blast" to the dancers of the Company "Stichting EuregioDans" (Heerlen - Aachen - Liege, the Netherlands - Germany - Belgium) in 1999/ 2000. He also taught the latter piece to the dancers of the Bavarian National Ballet: It's been shown in Munich's "Prinzregententheater" and "Nationaltheater" that successfully that the Bavarian National Ballet included it into its repertoire and also took it to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Calcutta in India during its Asian tour, that had been presented by the German Foreign Affairs Minister Joschka Fischer - along side choreographies by George Balanchine, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, and Jiri Kylian. Prof. Birgit Keil, former Prima Ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, also exhibited "Intuition Blast" in her Dance Foundation's Gala Program of 2000, and the Ballet-Gala at the Hannover Opera House presented it again with big success.
In 1995 and in 1999 Jaroschinski taught his choreography "Auf der schönen blauen Erde" ("On the Beautiful Blue Earth") to the dancers of the Lower Saxonian National Ballet Company of Hannover, where it's been successfully shown over two seasons. In 2001/ 2002 Jaroschinski had been commissioned by Ivan Liska to create the piece "Satchmo Serenades" for the Bavarian National Ballet. And, in November of 2002 his commissioned choreography "U" for 36 dancers of Konstanze Vernon's Dance Foundation "Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung" premiered in the "Nationaltheater" in Munich. In April of 2005 Jaroschinski's second commissioned choreography for the "Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung", "Funny Flowers" was premiered in the "Nationaltheater" in Munich, and in May of 2005 "Tag am Meer" ("Day by the Sea"), his creation for the John Cranko-School Stuttgart, was shown in the "Liederhalle" in Stuttgart. In 2003 Prof. Birgit Keil invited Jaroschinski to create a dance concert for children and adults, thus, in 2004 "Sheherazade" was premiered by the "Badisches Staatsballett" in the National Theater of Karlsruhe. Before the end of the season, the National Ballet of Karlsruhe already scheduled additional shows of the piece, and it also continued to be part of the company's repertoire in the following seasons. In 2009/ 2010 "Sheherazade" is running in its seventh season. In June of 2009 "Suite sportive" was premiered by the "Badisches Staatsballett", this piece is also still playing in the 2009/ 2010 season. And, in April of 2010 Jaroschinski's dance theater piece "Die Abenteuer des Peer Gynt" ("The Adventures of Peer Gynt") has been premiered by the Children's and Youth's Theater Department of the "Landestheater Tübingen", Germany.
