Iris Limbarth

Iris Limbarth was born in Niedernhausen and began her training as a young dancer at the Hessian State Theatre of Wiesbaden at the tender age of 14. Her mentors include Clara Gora, Gabriel Sala, Vladimir Kaplun, Andrzej Ziemski, Jeanette Bolding and Ramon Rivera. After completing her school-leaving and dance diploma examinations, she initially worked as dancer and musical performer at various theatres. She subsequently studied German philology, comparative language and literature studies in Mainz and at the same time, in 1995, her career as choreographer took off, with productions at theatres in Stralsund/Greifswald, the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, Theater Osnabrück, Dresden's Staatsoperette, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Theater Zwickau, Theater Augsburg, Theater Regensburg, the State Theatres of Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe, and the United Theatres of Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, amongst others. Since 1999 she has been active predominantly as director at venues such as the Theater Nordhausen, Theater Annaberg, Theater Worms, Landesbühne Wilhelmshaven, Landestheater Schwaben Memmingen, the State Theatre of Wiesbaden, Theater Bielefeld, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Colosseum Theater Essen, Capitol Theater Düsseldorf, Deutsches Theater München and the National Theatre in Windhoek, Namibia. In 2000 she took over the directorship of the Youth State Musical project (Junges Staatsmusical) at the State Theatre of Wiesbaden - since recognised as one of the top talent factories in Germany - where she directs two musicals per season. Her production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" was invited to the Hessische Theatertage (Hessian Theatre Days festival) in 2001 in Kassel. Additionally, she has written several music revues, and her "Sweets for my sweets" was part of the supporting programme of the 2005 Bayerische Theatertage (Bavarian Theatre Days festival). She took over the artistic direction of the Freilichtbühne Meppen in the 2006/2007, where she also directs two musicals per season.

In 2019, Limbarth received the Wiesbaden Lily for her work with the Junges Staatsmusical. In addition, she was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2022 German Musical Theatre Awards in Hamburg.