Mehmet Ballkan

Born in Ankara, Turkey, he began his studies at the age of 8 and graduated from the National Conservatory in Ankara, obtaining his diploma with Honours. He received a scholarship to study at the Bolshoi Theatre School, where he worked with S. Messerer, A. Prokofiev and others.

When he turned 18, Mehmet Balkan returned to Ankara to the National Ballet where Dame Ninette de Valois was Artistic Adviser of the company. Once Balkan achieved such high standards in the Vaganova Technique, Dame de Valois proposed that he should continue his studies by learning the English style and offered him a scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London. After that he became a soloist of the National Ballet of Ankara.

During his first season, he danced the lead role in “La Fille Mal Gardée”, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton.

In 1978, Balkan participated in the Varna International Competition winning the Bronze Medal. After the competition he was invited by Constanza Vernon to the 1st Ballet Gala for Heinz Bosel’s Foundation in Munich. And after participating to the Gala, Lynn Seymour, Director of the Munich State Ballet, offered him to join The Munich State Ballet as a Solo artist. He was also a Principal Dancer at the Hannover State Ballet, The National Theatre in Bonn, The Hannover State Ballet, The Pittsburg City Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders in Antwerp.

From 1986, after the invitation from the Artistic Director Mr. Valery Panov, Balkan started teaching and coaching for the members of the company. He danced as a Guest Soloist in several companies such as Calgary Ballet in Canada, Ballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, Tokyo Ballet Theater.

In 1994, Mehmet Balkan was invited to choreograph his ballet Relationships in Japan, originally created for the Soloist of the State Opera in Hannover. For this ballet performance, Balkan was awarded the “Kagawa Ballet Prize” appointed by the Ministry of Culture in Kagawa, Japan.

For the State Opera in Hannover in 1995, he choreographed “Dancing with Bach” and in 1996 created for the company “Sleeping Beauty”.

From 1997 until 2001, Mehmet Balkan was appointed Artistic Director to the Hannover State Ballet and worked with choreographers such as Forsythe, Scholz, North, Ek, Vámos, Schilling and Spöerli.

In 1999, Mehmet Balkan was appointed Artistic Ballet Adviser for the National Opera of Antalya in Turkey and was also invited as Guest Choreographer to the National Opera Izmir, National Opera Istanbul, National Opera Mersin and National Opera Ankara in Turkey.

Since 2001, Mehmet Balkan was invited as Guest Teacher and as Choreographer to the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Germany, Finland, France, Japan, Netherlands and Portugal. The same year Balkan was nominated by Dance Europe Magazine as one of the “10 Best Directors of the year” with the Hannover Ballet, and again in 2003 and 2006 with the National Ballet of Portugal, which he lead as Artistic Director from 2002 to 2007, and choreographed for this company the full length ballets like La Dame aux Camellias, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote and Swan Lake, as well as other pieces such as Fifth Season, Creation Rachmaninov and Bach a L’Orientale. Under his Artistic Direction, the National Ballet of Portugal performed works from choreographers such as George Balanchine, John Cranko, Georges Garcia, Mauro Bigonzetti, Jirí Kylián, Nacho Duato, Heinz Spöerli, Uwe Scholz, Robert North, Hans van Mannen, Renato Zanella, William Forsythe, Olga Roriz, Vasco Wellenkamp, Rui Lopes Graça and others.

Mehmet Balkan received the award as “Best Choreographer” from the Portuguese Ballet Association in 2006.

In 2007, the National Ballet of Portugal was invited to perform at Teatro de Madrid in Spain and in the Bangkok International Ballet Festival in Thailand with Balkan’s version of Swan Lake.

In 2008, Balkan is appointed Artistic adviser for The International Ballet Competition in Istanbul, Turkey, also he has nominated as Intendant of Opera Antalya, Turkey. And in 2009, Balkan received price as best choreographer from the Andante dance and music magazine.

His latest choreographies are in 2013 Premiere of Calgary Ballet in Canada, Le Sacre du Printemps and in 2015 Tokyo National Ballet, Color of Dance.

Since 2009, Mehmet Balkan is Chief Choreographer for The Turkish National Ballet Theater. And from 2014 he is the Artistic Director of Istanbul Ballet Festival Competition.

Parallel to his ballet choreographer career Mr. Balkan starts his opera director career in 1995 at Theater Hof in Germany with Kiss Me Kate (Director and choreographer), and goes on to produce several operas both in Germany and Turkey