Rainer Krenstetter

Rainer Krenstetter was born into a dance family in Vienna where he began his ballet training at the Ballet School of the Vienna State Opera. In 1999, he joined the Royal Ballet School in London and continued his training there until 2000 when he became a member with the Vienna State Opera Ballet. In 2002, he joined the Staatsballett Berlin under the direction of Vladimir Malakhov and went through the ranks up to Principal dancer. He joined Miami City Ballet as a Principal dancer in 2014 and gave his last performance in April 2022. In 2020, he was appointed Artistic Director of the company Unblanche in Tokyo and in 2021 he became Associate Artistic Director at The Margot Fonteyn Academy of Ballet in Arizona. Since leaving Miami City Ballet he is dancing as an international guest principal dancer all around the world.

Throughout his training, Krenstetter participated and won medals in various international ballet competitions including in Vienna, Brasilia and Luxembourg, culminating in his first place win at the Prix de Lausanne in 1999.

Throughout his prolific career, Krenstetter has danced principal and leading roles in most ballets in the classical repertoire including Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker, Coppélia, Onegin, Firebird, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphide, Cinderella and La Bayadere. Additionally, he has danced in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Vladimir Malakhov, Kenneth MacMillan, Auguste Bournonville, Michel Fokine, Alexei Ratmansky, Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, Hans van Manen, Uwe Scholz, Clarke Tippet, Jirí Kylián and William Forsythe among others.

Rainer Krenstetter has also performed as a guest artist in various companies and galas internationally in Europe, Australia, North and South America and Asia; been a member of the jury at the International Ballet Competition in Rome and Riga; and guest taught at several dance workshops, schools and companies in many countries.

Rainer received the 2016 Miami Life Award for “Best Classical Dancer” and released a book “Not without tears a life lived on stage”. In 2023, he was awarded with the “Fonteyn Legacy Centenary Award”.