Laurel Benedict, a former Primaballerina at Het National Ballet Amsterdam, founded her school in 1991. Her aim is to provide every student with dance education of highest possible quality. While the school started very small, it has now become an established and internationally acclaimed institution for classical and modern dance in Germany where young talents from beginners to graduates are educated in the tradition of the russian Vaganova method.
Many of our students are accepted into state-funded ballet academies (like Munich, Berlin, Leipzig) and continue their education there. In special advanced classes, talented students can prepare for a transfer to a state ballet school. Over the last year, more than six students have successfully passed auditions at various academies (such as Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim, Palucca-Schule Dresden and more). Other graduates are in the middle of their professional career on stage (for instance at the theater of Landeshaupstadt Magdeburg and Atlantic Southwest Ballet Company). The world-renowned school has found international acclaim: We are teaching students from all sorts of different countries and cultures, such as Japan, Russia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, and more.
Regular performances on our in-house studio stage as well as theaters in and around Munich are an essential component of the curriculum. They allow students to gain the necessary and invaluable practical experience performing on stage. Moreover, some of our most talented students take part in local, national, and international competitions, at which BBM consistently ranks very high. Thus students can compare their skills and learn to accurately judge their achievements in relation to others.
The school is a member of International Dance Council.
People working with Benedict Manniegel
Laurel Benedict-Manniegel – Director
Classical ballet, pointe/repertoire, rehearsal director
Laurel Benedict, a former Prima ballerina at Het National Ballet Amsterdam, founded her school in 1991. Her aim is to provide every student with dance education of highest possible quality. While the school started very small, it has now become an established and internationally acclaimed institution for classical and modern dance in Germany where young talents from beginners to graduates are educated in the tradition of the Russian Vaganova method.
Many of our students are accepted into state-funded ballet academies (like Munich, Berlin, Leipzig) and continue their education there. In special advanced classes, talented students can prepare for a transfer to a state ballet school. Over the last year, more than six students have successfully passed auditions at various academies (such as Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim, Palucca-Schule Dresden and more). Other graduates are in the middle of their professional career on stage (for instance at the theater of Landeshaupstadt Magdeburg and Atlantic Southwest Ballet Company). The world-renowned school has found international acclaim: We are teaching students from all sorts of different countries and cultures, such as Japan, Russia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, and more.
Regular performances on our in-house studio stage, as well as theaters in and around Munich, are an essential component of the curriculum. They allow students to gain the necessary and invaluable practical experience performing on stage. Moreover, some of our most talented students take part in local, national, and international competitions, at which BBM consistently ranks very high. Thus students can compare their skills and learn to accurately judge their achievements in relation to others.
The school is a member of International Dance Council.
Prof. Heinz Manniegel
Ballet master and choreographer
Heinz Manniegel started his education in classical ballet and modern dance at the Palucca-School in Dresden. After two years of education, he visited the Mary Wigman School in Berlin, where he then pursued his education and graduated in 1959 receiving his state dance diploma, top in the class. He joined the Opera House Leipzig, followed by the „Deutsche Oper Unter den Linden“ in Berlin. More engagements brought him to Wuppertal, Köln, and Hamburg. He worked together with famous choreographers such as Gret Palucca, Aurel von Milosch, Maurice Béjart, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Peter van Dyck and Erich Walter. In 1966 he was appointed as the director to the „Stadttheater Bremerhaven“ where he created his first full-length choreographies. Soon after he began working with Johann Kresnik at the „Stadttheater Bremen“.
Following was a short intermezzo in Hannover and a few years of international work as a ballet master. He met his wife Laurel Benedict in Hamburg. When she changed companies to Het National Ballet in Amsterdam, Heinz Manniegel followed her, after being recommended by Rudolf Nureyev, to Rudi van Danzig, the director at that time. There he worked as a ballet master, as well as a teacher and supervisor at the ballet academy in Amsterdam for almost 10 years and received the lifetime status of civil servant.
In 1982 Heinz Manniegel was offered a professorship at the „Hochschule für Musik und Theater München“. There he taught the male graduation class and created countless choreographies as house-choreographer of the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung.
Amongst others, works such as “Es gibt zu denken”, “Carmina Burana”, “Hermann” or “Folias” were created during that time, all of which were televised by “Bayerische Fernsehen” and are still being performed today by the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company.
In 2001 Heinz Manniegel became a teacher and choreographer for the Benedict Manniegel Academy and the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company in Munich.
Ada Ramzews – Co-Director, Artistic Director of Benedict Manniegel Dance Company
Classical ballet, modern/contemporary dance, methodology training, dancer, choreography
Born in Munich, she received her dance education at Ballett-Akademie München/Hochschule für Musik und Theater (HMTM), Iwanson International and graduated from the Benedict Manniegel Ballet Academy. At Tanzolymp in Berlin, she won gold, silver and a special prize in the Modern Dance category. Since 2008 she has been dancing as the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company’s first soloist, mostly in choreographies created especially for her by Heinz Manniegel. As his choreographic assistant and rehearsal director, she is significantly involved in the process of transmitting and teaching choreographic repertoire. In 2016, she rehearsed his ballet Lomir Tanzn for performances at the Bavarian State Opera.
Since 2010 she has realized her own choreographic projects, such as Fort:Da for the Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre, Orfeo ed Euridice, MULTIMOVE in the Blackbox/Gasteig or One Charming Night in collaboration with the Vocalconsort Munich 2018. As a solo interpreter of her own choreographies, she performed for example at Tanz Hoch X in Regensburg, Hier&Jetzt Festival Schwere Reiter Theater Munich or Tanzhaus Zürich. Since 2014 she has also dedicated herself to opera direction: with Christoph W. Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice as a concertante version including dance at Carl-Orff-Saal/Gasteig München in 2014, she began her collaboration with the conductor Andreas Schlegel. In 2016, she directed the new production of Orphée et Eurydice for Starnberg Opera and Luigi Cherubini’s Medea in 2018.
After completing the full 8 years methodical program of the Vaganova system with Prof. Heinz Manniegel, she has been teaching classical ballet and her own neo-modern dance style at Benedict Manniegel since 2006. To deepen her skills and knowledge as a dance pedagogue, she absolved a master degree (M.A.) in Dance Pedagogy at the Palucca Universty of Dance Dresden in 2021.
After a B.A. in Literature at the Fernuni Hagen, she completed a master degree (M.A.) in Culture and Media Management at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (HfMT) Hamburg in 2018.
Since 2023 Ada Ramzews is co-director of Benedict Manniegel Ballet and artistic director of Benedict Manniegel Dance Company.
Natalie Bury
Contemporary dance
Born in Switzerland, Natalie Bury received ballet lessons at an early age from her mother Helen Bury, then soloist at the Bavarian State Ballet, among others, and completed a 5-year Kung Fu training as a teenager. In order to broaden her spectrum of artistic means of expression, she studied acting for two basic semesters (Schauspielschule Gmelin Munich) and received classical singing lessons. After graduating from high school, she intensified her training in classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance at the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance and graduated with a diploma from Benedict Manniegel.
Until 2010 she danced with the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company in choreographies such as Lomir Tanzn, Carmina Burana, Bolero or Folias and was also a guest dancer at the Ballet Classique Munich. Since 2010 she has dedicated herself to her own and independent choreographic and dance work in various areas: as a dancer and choreographer she realizes choreographies and projects, which are shown at the Schwere Reiter Theater Munich, e.g. at the Hier=Jetzt Festival, the Blackbox in Gasteig or the Solo Festival in Gdansk. As a producer, she creates her own (dance) film projects and thus creates an extension and new perspective of the pure stage events. In 2014 she made her first dance film In control in cooperation with Khap-la Studios and 3 Shells. She subsumes her artistic work under her label, which elevates her special style and attitude toward life and art to a programme.
Since 2016 Natalie Bury has been teaching the training classes in contemporary dance and creating choreographies for the Company, e.g. Mensch-Maschine for Ars Technica 7.
Angelika Wenzel
Classical ballet remedial classes
Angelika Wenzel completed her dance training at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden, where she went through the entire classic canon of the Russian Waganowa method. She was engaged as a soloist at the Komische Oper in Berlin under Hans Kresnik. Based on her experience as an active dancer and an additional pedagogical-methodical basic education in classical ballet according to the Vaganova method, she teaches children classes at Benedict Manniegel since November 2011.
Furthermore, she is a certified yoga teacher. She studied yoga in the Yoga Institute Munich.
Elena Kröngen
Dancing in early education, children’s dance, classical ballet
Born in Russia, she received her professional training from the age of 10 at the renowned Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. After receiving her diploma, she began her career as a professional dancer in 1990 as a Demi-soloist in Novosibirsk, at the State Theater. In 1994 she was offered a position in the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg where she continued her career dancing in the complete classical ballet repertoire. (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker etc,). She has toured throughout Russia and most major cities in the world. In 2003, while she was still dancing, she was asked to coach the Olympic team of rhythmic sports gymnastics.
After the birth of her son in 2006, she moved to Germany where she began teaching all levels of ballet from pre-ballet to adult classes. Since 2018 she’s part of our team and has been teaching classes for children.
Anja Campos
Classical ballet for children, pre-level
Anja Campos was born in Nuremberg and began her classical dance ballet training at the Ballet School of the Nuremberg State Theater under the direction of ballet master Hildegard Krämer. In 2003 she completed her training as a certified stage dancer and ballet teacher at the Nuremberg Ballet Support Center.
During her training there, Anja danced choreographies by Professor Heinz Manniegel, such as Carmina Burana and Klezmer, under the direction of Raymund Maurin and took part in numerous ballet courses taught by Professor Heinz Manniegel. She has also danced in productions of the Ballet Promotion Center and the Nuremberg State Theater such as Peter and the Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake.
As a ballet teacher Anja was first engaged in Nuremberg at the Ballet Promotion Center for Floor Barre, then at various other ballet schools in and around Nuremberg. From 2013 she taught classical ballet for children, teenagers and adults at various ballet schools in Hamburg.
In 2014 she successfully completed the additional training to become a certified ballet teacher for teaching according to the Waganova system with Viktoria Zaripova (guest lecturer with John Neumeier).
From 2016 to 2017 she was engaged as rehearsal director and pedagogue at the ballet school “Escola de Danca e Arte Alessandra Carvalho” in Rondonopolis (Brazil) together with her husband Jesu Campos. After returning from Brazil in 2017, Anja was and is a ballet teacher at Ballett Gutierres in Langenzenn and at Tanzparkett Engel in Fürth and since April 2022 at Benedict Manniegel Ballet.
Yevgeny Rudenko
Classical ballet open classes
In 1992, Yevgeny Rudenko graduated from Dance Academy Kiev in Ukraine, where he was trained to become a classical ballet dancer. From 1992 to 2006, he was dancing in ballet companies of State Theatres in Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary and the Netherlands.
After his career as a dancer, he started teaching ballet at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg/Netherlands. Since 2016, he is working on a freelance-base mostly in Munich. At Benedict Manniegel Ballet School, he teaches Classical Ballet to adults.
Nathalie Plattner
Classical ballet for children, pre-level
Nathalie started ballet at the age of 5 and continued at private ballet academies. She completed her training as a professional stage dancer at the Benedict Manniegel Academy in 2023, where she learned modern dance and character dance in addition to classical ballet. Since then she has been part of the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company.
Nathalie gained her stage experience through numerous school performances and participation in the “Tanzolymp” in Berlin.
Since 2019 she has been dancing in productions of the Benedict Manniegel Dance Company such as in Ada Ramzews’ “Hansel and Gretel” as well as in choreoraphies by Heinz Manniegel, in whose piece “Lomir Tanzn” she first debuted as a demi soloist in 2023.
Vladimir Stadnik
Character Dance
Vladimir Stadnik was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and received his ballet training at the State Academy of Russian Ballet (Vaganova Academy).
As a professional dancer, he became a soloist and toured troughout Russia, Western Europe and the USA. He later studied dance pedagogy at the University of Culture in St. Petersburg.
Still while continuing his career, he graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from the Choreographic Department of the State Conservatory, Rimsky Korsakov. Later he taught ballet and character dance in Switzerland and was guest teacher in Finland, France and Italy.
In 2004 he was invited to teach in the United States where he was principal of the Tulsa Center for Dance Education and Associate Artistic Director of NDI, New Mexico.
After serving six years as Assistant Professor of Dance at the Ball State University, he moved to Canada to teach for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School.
Presently Vladimir Stadnik is a specialist in Classical Ballet and Character Dance and has been teaching at Benedict Manniegel since 2019.
Bojana Nenadovic
Pointe/ Repertoire
In 2019 she completed her Master’s degree in Slavistics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
Ilia Sarkisov
Modern Dance Essentials
In the 2004/2005 season he started as a volunteer with the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, was then transferred to the corps de ballet, was appointed semi-soloist in 2011/2012 and soloist at the beginning of the 2014/2015 season.
Ilia’s repertoire includes a wide variety of roles from the classical and especially the neoclassical and modern/contemporary repertoire. He danced, among others, the golden idol in La Bayadère , Alain in La Fille mal gardée , Count N. in The Lady of the Camellias) or Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew. In modern/contemporary choreographies he appeared in Gods and Dogs (J. Kylián), For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. A Piece by Pina Bausch (P. Bausch) and interpreted solo roles in Heroes (T. Kohler), The Girl and the Knife Thrower (S. Sandroni), Choreartium (L. Massine). In some choreographies creations were made especially for him, such as in Sandroni’s Cambio d’abito in 2007, in Kylian’s Migratory Birds in 2008, and in Unitxt by Richard Siegal and Adam is by Azure Barton in 2013.
Since the 2016/2017 season, Ilia has been involved in a wide variety of international projects as a freelance dancer.
Anna Villadolid-Mayr
Pilates
Natalia Kloe
Office and accounting
