Stefanou, who comes from Athens, worked for a long time as a dancer at the Bavarian State Ballet and after her active career worked as ballet director of the company of the Greek National Opera. As a ballet master and dance teacher, she was a guest at renowned institutions such as the Ballett am Rhein or the Boston Ballet. She is currently working on her master thesis “Dance Pedagogy and Ballet Direction” at the University of Plovdiv in Bulgaria.
According to Stefanou, her vision is “to offer the world’s leading dance training at the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy,” in order to develop its potential in the best possible way, the students should be able to work in a safe, creative and highly professional environment. “
They also want to invest in the premises such as the dance halls and in digitization. The infrastructure managers estimate the cost of the infrastructure at EUR 882,000, which is spread over five years. However, the increased costs for educational, medical and therapeutic staff are estimated at EUR 862,000. “There will be further talks between those responsible for implementation and financing from the 2020/21 season onwards,” it said in a press release.
“The well-being of the children, the dancer’s health and the best possible preparation for the challenges of the professional dancer profession at an international top level were and are the focus of our considerations,” said Schläpfers, who also thanked the experts who contributed to the development of this concept . “We tried to formulate pragmatic answers to the question and challenge of how to build something new and forward-looking from a difficult situation,” said one of the experts, Samuel Wuersten. This requires “courage, vision, skill and trust”. These values were found in Vienna.
Art and Culture State Secretary Andrea Mayer (Greens) assured that she would soon start discussions with everyone involved regarding the financing of the measures, which she fully supported: “The concept outlines a future vision for the sustainable development of the ballet academy, in which the focus is on children and young people. At the same time, it offers a forward-looking framework to further expand the quality and international reputation of the traditional Viennese ballet training center. “
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