Sophie Melem
dancer
© Liliya Namisnyk
Sophie Melem grew up in a musical family in Graz and started learning to dance in 2004 when she was five, at the local Royal Academy of Dance. She trained further at the Hungarian Dance Academy in Budapest from 2013 - 2015 before joining Theater Basel's ballet school on a scholarship from the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation. After attaining her EFZ diploma in 2018 she started working freelance, with engagements taking her to places including the Theater an der Wien, the Bregenz Festival, Oper Graz, the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden and Erkel Theater in Budapest, appearing in productions directed by people including Stefan Herheim, Philipp Stölzl and Andreas Homoki. She went on tour to Spain with the International Ballet Company led by Cristina Terentiev. During the 2023/24 season she assisted the choreographer for Melk's Summer Festival's Musikrevue, where she returns this season. She's appearing at Oper Frankfurt for the first time, in this magical production of Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve.