About Gisele Santoro

Born in Brasilia, daughter of composer and conductor Claudio Santoro and choreographer and ballet mistress Gisèle Santoro, she began her dance studies at age seven with her mother in Germany. At the age of 16, she was admitted by competition into the corps de ballet of the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. In 1982 she received a two-year scholarship by the Soviet Government at the State Choreographic School of Ballet of Kiev, where she studied under Galina Kirilova, pupil of A. Vaganova. 

 In 1986 and 1988, she represented Brazil at the First and Second Latin American Dance Galas in Asunción, Paraguay. Received an improvement scholarship of the CNPq to research repertory, as a performer and rehearsal artist, at important world-class centers such as, the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin under the supervision of Prof. Martin Puttke, the Centro di Studi della Danza in Turin under the direction of Susanna Egri and the Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim, where she was subsequently engaged as a ballet teacher for three years and responsible for the repertory classes.

She was a soloist at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (Germany) until 1991 and principal dancer at the Magdeburg Opera and Ballet Teacher at the Magdeburg Opera Ballet School from 1992 to 2005. 

 She was honored by the Magdeburg Opera's Young Artist Award, which was created to recognize the most outstanding personality of the Magdeburg opera house. She has choreographed numerous ballets for the Ballet School and the Magdeburg Theatre Ballet, such as Stabat Mater (Pergolesi), Klavierkonzert (Santoro), Dichterliebe (Schumann), among others.

She took part as ballet teacher, soloist and assistant director of the International Dance Seminar of Brasília from 1991 to 2016. 

 Her dancing career includes different characters from the classical repertoire, such as Giselle (Giselle and Myrtha), Don Quixote (Kitri and Mercedes), The Nutcracker (Marie), Sleeping Beauty (Lilac Fairy), Paquita, various Grand Pas de Deux from the traditional classical repertoire, Pas de Deux by creators such as Uwe Scholz and MacMillan and also many creations made specially for her by Irene Schneider, Joachim Gerster and Carlos Vilán, among others. In 1998, she had exceptional success performing Alma at the world premiere of Claudio Santoro's opera "Alma" at the II Opera Festival of Manaus. 

 Ms Santoro was also founder, director and organizer of the International Festival of Dance Schools, held from 2000 to 2004 in the city of Magdeburg (Germany), which resulted in being nominated as Magdeburg's Citizen of the Year 2002, for her contribution to the field of dance.

 In 2004 she was invited in collaboration with Irene Schneider, to stage "Swan Lake" at the Magdeburg Opera House. Also, in 2006, she choreographed "Letters from Mozart", a co-production with Lilian Barreto and André Heller, for the prima ballerina Maya Dumchenko. 

 2007, she staged the 2nd act of "The Nutcracker" for the International Dance Seminar Brasília and the full version by invitation of Dalva Lazaroni, culture secretary of Duque de Caxias, (Rio de Janeiro). 

 Also, in 2008, she was committed with the stage direction of the opera "The Magic Flute”, an invitation of Maestro Silvio Barbato, by the project SESC Sinfonia Brasília.     In 2011, she staged "The Nutcracker" for "Arte.Dança", Florianópolis. 

 Ms Santoro was in 2012, assistant director of Yelena Pankova's version of "Sleeping Beauty" for the Croatian National Theatre, Split and also responsible for the choreography of the opera "Carmen" at the 2nd and 3rd Opera Festival of Brasilia (2012 and 2013). 

 In 2012 she choreographed and staged "The Nutcracker" by invitation of Maestro Claudio Cohen - OSTNCS and 2013, “Swan Lake" for the XXIII International Dance Seminar of Brasília. 

 She was responsible for the dance scenes in M. Ligocki Junior's full-length movie "After you" (2015). 

 Maître de Ballet and guest teacher at the English National Ballet School, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Hannover, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Theater Nordhausen, Balletschule der Wiener Staatsoper and National Theatre of Croatia Split and the 34th Joinville Dance Festival and the Brazilian companies Cisne Negro Companhia de Dança, Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker, Ballet da Cidade de Niterói and the Ballet do Teatro Municipal Rio de Janeiro, where she was, in 2007, 2008, 2013 and 2016 responsible for the staging of "Swan Lake" in Yelena Pankova's version.

 She created several ballets for the Magdeburg Opera, Magdeburg Opera Ballet School and the Youth Ballet of Brasilia, where she worked as director and ballet teacher from 2012-2016. 

Always seeking excellence in the professional and academic training of students, preparing them for competitions and national and international auditions, she collaborated with community and social projects in Brasilia.

 Gisele Santoro has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations with Academic Honors awarded by the Centro Universitário IESB Brasília and a master’s degree in Dance Pedagogy from the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden where she subsequently became Artistic Associate, under the direction of Prof. Jason Beechey, until 2019. 

 Currently she is ballet professor, coordinator of classical dance and repertory of the high school of Ginasiano Escola de Dança, Portugal.