Nanine Linning

After graduating in choreography from the Rotterdam Dance Academy, Nanine Linning (1977) received an encouragement grant from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds to make her first professional production: Tribeca. After that, as a freelancer, she quickly created a series of dance performances for the smaller theaters at home and abroad with her foundation Pipsters.

In addition to her own freelance productions, she was appointed as resident choreographer at Scapino Ballet Rotterdam with effect from the 2001-2002 season. Here she created her overwhelming debut for the big stage, The Neon Lounge followed by the rough piece SCUM (2002). Other major pieces for Scapino were Lighthouse (2002), Bubble Gum Wrapper (2003), Suites of Lux (2004), Karpp XL (2004) and her farewell piece Endless Song of Silence. Her work has also been featured in Twools: Indecision Ensign in 1999, the already existing Mono/Stereo in 2001, No Artificial Sweetener with poet Mustafa Stitou in 2002, Double Helix (2003) and Christal Delight (2004). For the Museum Night 2004, Linning created various dance performances at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam.

Linning was nominated for the NPS Cultuurprijs 2000. In 2002 she received the 'Wim Bary Perspektief prize' for her oeuvre, an incentive prize for young creative artists within the music and theater genre. She also received the Art Prize 2004 for her entire oeuvre. ‘Bacon’ was selected for the Nederlandse Dansdagen and also won the Zwaan (VSCD dance prize) for the best dance production 2004-2005.

International success

At the beginning of 2006, Nanine Linning left Scapino Ballet Rotterdam to further develop herself as a choreographer with her own company Dance Company Nanine Linning and to profile herself at home and abroad with her own productions.

Nanine Linning has gained international recognition over the past twenty years with her large multidisciplinary productions that combine dance and opera, design, fashion and visual art. With her strong visual language and explosive dance, she reaches a wide audience, which also follows her faithfully in the Netherlands. Performances such as Bacon, Requiem and Zero have received international acclaim. Nanine Linning works closely with various internationally renowned artists such as Teodor Currentzis, Alexandros Tsolakis, Yuima Nakazato, Alexey Retinsky and Studio Drift. Her collaborations with Iris van Herpen and Bart Hess led to exhibitions in several museums.

From 2009 to 2018, Linning was artistic director of the dance companies of Theater Osnabrück and Theater und Orchester Heidelberg where she was also co-founder of a production house and a festival.

Since then she has worked with companies such as Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Bavarian State Opera and Ballet and musicaeterna, as well as with the Dutch National Touring Opera and the Netherlands Chamber Choir in collaboration with her own German dance company.

New artistic director

Nanine Linning will be the new artistic director of Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. She succeeds Ed Wubbe who set the artistic course for thirty years. Ed will remain with Scapino as artistic director until December 2024. She will start in August 2024 alongside Ed Wubbeand in the years 2023 and 2024 she will already be intensively involved in, among other things, developing the new four-year policy plan 2025 - 2028.

Nanine Linning becomes the fifth artistic director in the 76-year existence of Scapino, the oldest dance company in the Netherlands.