Biography
was born on December 31, 1958. At only four years old, he received his first ballet lessons, which he continued two years later at the Landestheater Darmstadt. In 1973, he passed the entrance examination under John Cranko at the ballet school of the Württemberg State Theaters Stuttgart, where he completed his training in 1979. Hired as a member of the Stuttgart Ballet in the same year, Marcia Haydée entrusted him with a series of choreographic tasks and would thus most sustainably influence and shape his further development. In 1980, Uwe Scholz received a permanent choreography contract from Haydée and retired from the stage as a dancer. Two years later, he was appointed the first »Permanent Choreographer« of the Stuttgart Ballet after Cranko's death. At twenty-six years old, Uwe Scholz became Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer of the Zurich Opera House and led the Zurich Ballet for six years until 1991. In his long career as a choreographer, he created an extensive repertoire. The musical range extends, apart from the once-favored composers Mozart, Wagner, and Stravinsky, from Renaissance music to collaboration with contemporary composers such as Udo Zimmermann or Pierre Boulez. As a choreographer, Uwe Scholz was in demand worldwide and created ballets for, among others, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, repeatedly for the Stuttgart Ballet, for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, as well as for Jiri Kylián's Nederlands Dans Theater, for Jerusalem, Stockholm, and Toronto. On many international stages, Scholz's choreographic signature made a name for itself (including New York, Paris, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Florence, Tokyo, Berlin, Munich). For his achievements as a choreographer, Uwe Scholz was awarded the »Ommagio Alla Danza« prize by the organization »Espressione Europa« in Venice in 1987 and received the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from then-Federal President Roman Herzog in 1996. For his choreography »Die Große Messe«, which he premiered with the Leipzig Ballet in February 1998, he received the Theater Prize of the Bavarian State Government for the dance category in 1998. He was honored with the German Dance Prize in 1999 in Essen. Since 1991, Uwe Scholz was Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer of the Leipzig Ballet. On November 21, 2004, Uwe Scholz died after a serious illness at the age of 45. In 2024/25, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death, his symphonic ballets will be performed as part of the evening »Scholz Symphonien«. In the 2025/26 season, further works will follow in the double bill »Mozart/Rachmaninow«.