Gamal Gouda (GG)

Ballet Master

Gamal Gouda was born in Port Said (Egypt) and trained at the Cairo Academy of Arts, He finished his studies at the Cairo Higher Ballet Institute with teachers from Moscow and St. Petersburg and received his Diploma in 1977. After graduating, he joined the Cairo Ballet Company, where his repertory as a soloist and principal included Basil in Don Quixote, the Pas de deux from Le Corsaire and Solos in The Nutcracker. In 1979 he joined John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet where he remained until 1998, being promoted to Principal as early as in 1983.

John Neumeier created more than a dozen of leading roles for him, such as Mordred in The Saga of King Arthur, The Sea Witch in Ondine, the title role in The blue Garden, The Music in Windows on Mozart, Fenge in the new version of Hamlet, principal roles in St. Mathew Passion and Requiem, Solos in Secrets, Gustav Mahlers Sixth Symphony, Shall we Dance? I got rhythm, Peer Gynt and Last Solo For Gamal.

Gamal’s Hamburg Repertory included Catalabutte, the Blue Bird, and The Wicked Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, Puck, Lysander and Thesus / Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Joseph in Josephslegende, Count Alexander in Illusionen – wie Schwanensee, Gaston and Des Grieux in The Lady of Camellias, Benvolio and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Hilarion and Peasant Pas de deux in Giselle, Oliver in Mozart and themes from as you like it, Dorkon in Daphnis and Chloe, Tristan in the eponymous ballet, Drosselmeier in The Nutcracker, Odysseus in Odyssee, The Moor in Petrushka, Eros, Thyrsis, Orion in Sylvia, Orsino in Vivaldi oder Was ihr Wollt.Gamal danced further solos and leadings roles, as well in ballets by John Neumeier (The age of anxiety, Scenes of Childhood, Don Quixote, Bach Suite 2 and 3, Desir Pas de deux, Le Sacre du Printemps, Precursors, Vaslaw, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Rückert Lieder, Mozart 338, Rondo, Rain Songs) as by other choreographers, such as John Cranko (The Taming Of the Shrew) George Balanchine (The four Temperaments and Stravinsky Violin Concerto), Gigi Georghe Cacileanu (Pedestrians) Leonid Jacobson (Miniatures), Lar Lubovitch (Symphonia Concertante) and Mats Ek (Grass).

Gamal danced the Pas de deux from Sheherazade with Carla Fracci and made guest appearances in Brussels, Vienna, Munich, St . Petersburg, Cairo, Berlin, Dresden, Hannover, Stuttgart, and the World Ballet Festival in Japan.
He was awarded with the Hamburg Dr. Wilhelm Oberdörfer Prize in 1981 and – as first dancer ever – with the Silver Mask of Hamburger Volksbühne in 1991.

From 1999 to 2002, Gamal worked as Guest Ballet Instructor with the following companies: Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein, Ballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett der Staatsoper Hannover and Ballett Nürnberg. From 2002 to 2004 he was engaged as Ballet Master at Ballett Nürnberg.

As a Ballet Instructor and Ballet Master coaching principals and soloists

January 2005 – August 2009 at Bavarian State Ballet
August 2009 at Semperoper Ballet

As Choreographers Assistant with:

Ray Barra
Patrice Bart
David Dawson
Mats Ek
Jacopo Godani
Jiří Kylián
Graeme Murphy
John Neumeier
Martin Schläpfer
Hans van Manen
Peter Wright