Elisa Carrillo Cabrera will be new Director of the John Cranko School
After over 27 years, Tadeusz Matacz will step down as Director of the John Cranko School at the end of 2025. Starting in January 2026, Elisa Carrillo Cabrera will assume the position as Director of the John Cranko School and Mikhail Kaniskin will be the Associate Director.
When Stuttgart Ballet founder John Cranko came to Stuttgart from London in 1961, he proposed a ballet school that would be directly linked to the company and the first ballet classes began in 1971. Since 1998, Tadeusz Matacz has directed the school. Approximately 70% of the Stuttgart Ballet’s current dancers are graduates of the John Cranko School, many of whom have risen to the rank of Principal Dancer, including Rocio Aleman, Anna Osadcenko, Agnes Su, Henrik Erikson, Gabriel Figueredo, Martí Paixà, and Adhonay Soares da Silva. Many choreographers, such as Fabio Adorisio, Alessandro Giaquinto, Katarzyna Kozielska, Louis Stiens, Christian Spuck, Xenia Wiest, and Demis Volpi are also graduates of the John Cranko School.
Artistic Director Tamas Detrich, said,
I would like to thank Tadeusz Matacz, who has played a crucial role in training young dancers for 27 years as Director of the John Cranko School. He has been part of the school for half of its history, since its founding… I am delighted that we have found an excellent successor in Elisa Carrillo Cabrera and look forward to working with her in the future.
Elisa Carrillo Cabrera is a former Soloist with the Stuttgart Ballet and a former Principal dancer with the Staatsballett Berlin. She was born in Mexico and completed her ballet training from 1990 to 1997 at the Escuela Nacional de Danza Clásica in Mexico. She then received a scholarship to study at the English National Ballet School in London, where she graduated in 1999. After completing her training, she joined the Stuttgart Ballet as an apprentice, where she joined the corps de ballet in the 2000/2001 season. At the beginning of the 2004/2005 season, Elisa Carrillo Cabrera was promoted to Demi-soloist, followed by her appointment as Soloist in 2006/2007. In the 2007/2008 season, she was engaged by Vladimir Malakhov to join the Staatsballett Berlin, where she was appointed Principal Dancer in 2011. In 2019, Elisa Carrillo Cabrera was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for her role as Juliet in Nacho Duato‘s Romeo and Juliet. She retired from the Staatsballett Berlin at the end of the 2023/24 season. In 2003, she completed a two-year teacher training program at the John Cranko School, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Arts.
With her husband, Mikhail Kaniskin – who also danced with the Staatsballett Berlin – Carrillo Cabrera is committed to promoting culture worldwide and broadening its accessibility, especially in Mexico, with the Elisa Carrillo Cabrera Foundation. In 2010, she was appointed as an ambassador of Mexican culture, and in 2012, the government of the state of Mexico created the “Elisa Carrillo Cabrera Grant,” providing financial support for young dancers’ training. She also serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Compañia Nacional de Danza, Mexico and is a member of UNESCO’s International Dance Council (CID). Along with Kaniskin, she has organised the recurring gala Elisa and Friends since 2012 and the international dance festival Danzatlan since 2018, which present world-class repertoire and dancers to the public free of charge.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
