Rani Luther
Rani Luther was born in Melbourne and attended the National Theatre Ballet School before completing her year 7-12 and VCE education at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.
Rani’s professional career began with the Kiel Ballet Company in Germany in 1995, before moving to The Netherlands where she danced with world renowned Netherlands Dance Theatre 2 and Netherlands Dance Theatre 1, performing and touring all over Europe and internationally.
In 2003 Rani returned home to dance with The Australian Ballet Company for four years before joining the Sydney Dance Company in 2007. Rani was Principal Dancer with the Melbourne Ballet Company from 2009 to 2011.
Rani has had the great pleasure of working with and performing works by choreographers such as Jiri Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Paul Lightfoot, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Patrick Delcroix, Mario Zambrano, Edward Laing, Yohan Inger, Graeme Murphy, Stephan Page, Stephen Baynes, Adrian Burnett, Nicolo Fonte, Rafael Bonachela, Meryl Tankard, Azure Barton and Simon Hoy.
Some highlight performances include dancing the role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for the Kiel Ballet; creating the premiere work Indigo Rose by Jiri Kylián and Dream Fase by Yohan Inger for NDT2, filming De ja vu from Hans Van Manen for his 80th year DVD global release, premiere work Safe as Houses from Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot for NDT1, Relic by Adrian Burnett for the Australian Ballet Company, Bella Figura with The Australian Ballet Company, 360 by Rafael Bonachela, and Infinite Space premiere by Simon Hoy for the Melbourne Ballet Company.
Other highlights include a gold medal in the non-professional category at the Sanlam International Ballet Competition, Pretoria, South Africa, in 1993. Rani was the winner of the outstanding performance award in the City of Sydney Performance Arts Challenge ballet competition in 1994 and received a nomination for best female dancer in the Green Room Award 2006 for her roles in Relic and Jiri programs with The Australian Ballet Company. In May 2009 Rani won the Maurice Lacroix Spirits of the Arts Award and received the Australasian Dance Assessment Sponsorship for Excellence for her seasons with The Melbourne Ballet Company. In July 2010 Rani performed with The Victorian Opera in Julius Caesar, directed and choreographed by Steven Heathcote and conducted by Richard Gill.
In 2010 Rani completed her Certificate IV in Remedial Massage, her Pilates Teaching Course in Mat and Reformer and in 2011 completed her Certificate IV Registered Training and Assessing Course and Small Business Continuing Education Course at the University of NSW.
Following her professional performing career, Rani has taught and choreographed extensively at numerous schools including her current resident positions at Brent Street Performing Arts School on the Diploma of Elite Dance Classical Contemporary Course, Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year and The McDonald College. She is a company ballet teacher to the Sydney Dance Company and has been teacher, choreographer and ballet mistress for the Melbourne Ballet Company. Rani was an adjudicator for the prestigious Sydney Eisteddfod McDonalds Ballet Scholarship in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
Rani’s choreographic creations include two premiere ballets for the Netherlands Dance Theatre Workshop performances. She was assistant to the choreographer for the ballet and opera production Dido and Aeneas by the VCASS, staged and directed two seasons premiered by the Melbourne Ballet Company, choreographed a full evening performance Face the Music for the Carriageworks Theatre Sydney, choreographed Illuminate for the Melbourne Ballet Company Empyrean season and is thrilled to have had the opportunity to create Outside In for the Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year 2017 graduation season.
See Outside In at PPY17 Revealed, 13 – 15 Dec at Carriageworks.