Marcos Menha

The Brazilian Marcos Menha first received his training in São Paulo with Valeria Mattos. Winning the silver medal at the International Dance Competition Brasília was accompanied by a scholarship from the Birgit Keil Dance Foundation, which enabled him to continue his studies at the Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim. In 2003/04 he became a member of the Ballet of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where Birgit Keil appointed him soloist in 2004 and first soloist in 2008. Since 2011 he has danced with the Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg, where Martin Schläpfer created numerous roles for him, including Siegfried in »Swan Lake«. Other roles created for Marcos Menha include the Torero in Ray Barra’s »Carmen«, Count Wronsky in Terence Kohler’s »Anna Karenina«, the Tin Soldier in Renato Zanella’s »Der Spielmann« and The Love in Natalia Horecna’s »Wounded Angel« as well as world premieres by Tiago Bordin, Davide Bombana, Nils Christe, Marco Goecke, Ralf Jaroschinski or Christian Spuck. The extensive repertoire of Marcos Menha also includes Siegfried (Christopher Wheeldon »Swan Lake«), Colas (Frederick Ashton »La Fille mal gardée«), José (Ray Barra »Carmen«), the title role in »Tchaikovsky« (Peter Breuer) and Dr Coppélius (Peter Wright »Coppélia«) as well as works by George Balanchine, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Uwe Scholz and Antony Tudor. Guest performances have taken him to Brazil, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Israel, through Europe and to Oman. In 2016 Marcos Menha was awarded the German Dance Prize »Zukunft«.

In the 2020/21 season he joined the Vienna State Ballet as first soloist. Marcos Menhas Viennese repertoire comprises the title role in John Cranko's »Onegin«, Prince Désiré in Martin Schläpfer's »The Sleeping Beauty«, Espada in Rudolf Nureyevʼs »Don Quixote«, Monsieur Duval and Des Grieux in John Neumeierʼs »Lady of the Camellias«, Hans van Manen's »Adagio Hammerklavier« and »Live«, Jiří Kylián's »Symphony of Psalms«, George Balanchine's »Diamonds«-Pas de deux in »Jewels« and »Symphony in Three Movements«, Alexei Ratmansky's »Pictures at an Exhibition« and »24 Préludes«, Jerome Robbins' solo »A Suite of Dances« and »Glass Pieces«,Heinz Spoerli's »Goldberg Variations«, the world premiereʼs of Marco Goecke's »Fly Paper Bird«, Andrey Kaydanovskiy's »lux umbra« and Adi Hananʼs »Eden« as well as works by Martin Schläpfer such as »4«, »Ein Deutsches Requiem«, »Marsch, Walzer, Polka«, »The Seasons« and »Lontano«. Furthermore, he performed for the first time in 2022 in the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert in Martin Schläpfer's choreography. In the critics' survey of the 2022 yearbook of the magazine tanz, he received two nominations as »Dancer of the Year«.