Laura Cazzaniga

Born in Cassado d’Adda/Italy, Laura Cazzaniga received her first dance lessons in Bergamo before studying at the Academie de Danse Princesse Grace in Monte-Carlo from 1978 until 1987. Having joined the School of the Hamburg Ballet, Laura Cazzaniga was contracted with The Hamburg Ballet in 1988. In 1993, she was promoted to and to principal dancer in 1998. 

She dances a soloist part in the film of John Neumeier’s Illusions – like Swan Lake, in St. Matthew Passion and Aschenbach’s assistant, mother and Tadzio’s mother in the film of Death in Venice. In addition, Laura Cazzaniga also made guest appearances in Moscow, Munich and in Italy. 

Laura Cazzaniga’s repertoire includes dance works such as Daphnis and Chloë, The Lady of the Camellias, Sylvia, A Cinderella Story, Don Quixote, Windows on MOZART, Giselle, Peer Gynt, La Bayadère, The Seagull and Odyssey, as well as ballets by Pierre Lacotte (after Filippo Taglioni), John Cranko, August Bournonville / Lloyd Riggins, Kevin Haigen, Petr Zuska, Lar Lubovitch, Jirí Kylián and George Balanchine. 

Since 2008, Laura Cazzaniga has been working as a ballet mistress and has staged John Neumeier’s ballets at the Opéra de Paris, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Pittsburgh Ballet, Het Nationale Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, amongst others. Laura Cazzaniga has also given masterclasses at the Ruth Page Centre for the Arts and the Academy of the Arts in Chicago. In 2008, 2009 and 2017, she worked as a coach at the Prix de Lausanne. 

During the 2026/27 season, Laura Cazzaniga has been guesting with the Vienna State Ballet to stage John Neumeier’s Nijinsky.