Kathryn Bennetts

Artistic Director
Royal Ballet of Flanders

Biographical Info:

Born in Sydney, Australia, Kathryn Bennetts studied at the Scully Borovansky School of Ballet and was accepted into the Australian Ballet School at age 15. She joined the Austral- ian Ballet three years later and toured extensively throughout Australia and Europe. After three years with the company she joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of Marcia Haydee rising to the rank of soloist. During her nine years with the company she worked with Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Hans van Manen, Lar Lubovitch, Heinz Spoerli, John Neu- meier, Maurice Béjart and William Forsythe. With frequent tours to the United States, South America and a historic visit to China in 1979, she experienced an amazing period with this company. She had the opportunity to perform many leading roles and danced with Richard Cragun, Egon Madsen, Reid Anderson and Christopher Boatwright among others. During her nine years with the company she danced alongside such artists as Natalia Makarova, Gelsey Kirkland and Fernando Bujones. She was privileged to dance Bianca in John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew with Marcia Haydée as her sister Kate. She was especially featured in several ballets by William Forsythe who immediately recognized her talent and gave her many opportunities. 

An injury ended her dancing career earlier than expected, but opened other possibilities. After completing a two year teachers’ training course with the ballet master of the Stuttgart Ballet, Alexander Ursuliak, she began teaching in the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. She was then senior teacher at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada, where she stayed for three years. During this time she guest taught for numerous companies worldwide. These include the Stuttgart Ballet, Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Finnish National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Zurich Ballet, Vienna Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Winnepeg Ballet, Ballet West, Houston Ballet, and La Scala, Milan.

In 1989 William Forsythe invited her to return to Europe to join the Frankfurt Ballett as ballet mistress. For the next 15 years she was responsible for the daily running of the company, teaching company classes, running rehearsals and organising scheduling. In the absence of William Forsythe she has been the person in charge, both in Frankfurt and on tour. With Ballett Frankfurt Kathryn Bennetts toured internationally to the USA, to many European capitals, Australia, the Far and Middle East. The company also toured extensively throughout France to smaller cities and various festivals including Avignon and Montpellier.

At the request of the dancers, she gave two teacher’s training courses at the company. Kathryn Bennetts has also set many of Forsythe’s ballets on various companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Compania de Danza (Nacho Duato), Australian Ballet, Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Ballet du Rhin, National Ballet of Canada, Stuttgart Ballett, the Royal Ballet, the Ballet of La Scala, Hungarian State Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Ballet West, American Ballet Theater Studio Company and the Kirov Ballet.

Due to her long international career, Kathryn Bennetts has made friendships with choreographers, artistic directors of ballet companies and administrators of opera houses around the globe. These contacts are invaluable for arranging programming and international touring for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, where she has been in charge as artistic director since June 2005.