Martin Schlaepfer was born in Altstätten, Switzerland on December 26, 1959. He first trained as an ice skater, but began his dance training in St. Gallen at the age of fifteen. In 1977, he competed at the Prix de Lausanne, which earned him a year of study at the Royal Ballet School in London. He then returned to Switzerland and joined the Basel Ballet. Martin danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as a first soloist during the 1983-1984 season before again returning to the Basel Ballet.
In 1990 Martin founded the Basel Ballet School Dance Place, where he began to teach. He was appointed Director of the Bern Ballet in 1994 and created the Visions of Dance foundation. From 1999 to 2009 he was at the head of his newly formed Ballett Mainz in Germany. In 2009, Martin he accepted the position of Director and Chief Choreographer of Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg. He will become the artistic director and choreographer of the Vienna State Ballet in 2020.
His choreographic works include Concerto Grosso, Sinfonien and Ein Deutsches Requiem, which earned him the German Der Faust theatre prize in 2009 and 2012. Martin Schläpfer was also awarded the Arts Prize of the region of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2002, the Dance Prize of the Spoerli Foundation in 2003, the 2006 Prix Benois de la Danse, and the theatre prize of the Düsseldorfer Volksbühne in 2012. Both the tanz magazine and Die Deutsche Bühne magazine named him Choreographer of the Year in 2010 and 2018, respectively. In October 2018 he was honoured with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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The Martin Schlaepfer fonds includes the following series: biographical information (1983); magazine/newspaper articles (1983); reminisces [1989]; and photographs (1983-1984).
No further accruals are expected.
The records of Martin Schlaepfer came to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as part of a transfer of records from the RWB.
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