Franziska Rosenzweig's Bio

Franziska created Holistic Ballet® out of her over 20 years of experience as a professional ballet dancer and dance teacher. Born in Berlin, former East Germany, she began her ballet training at age 6, completed the eight-year ballet education programme at the State Ballet School Berlin, and graduated, at the top of her class, as a professional dancer in 1993.

Her first contract was with the German State Opera Berlin (Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin). She was cast in soloist roles from the beginning of her career and danced the principal role in The Nutcracker in the second year of being with the company. She left Berlin to join the newly founded Peter Schaufuss Ballet in Denmark.

In 1998, Franziska moved to London to become a freelance artist and gradually transitioned from being an active dancer to being a ballet teacher, training as a Gyrotonic and Pilates instructor at the same time.

Franziska Rosenzweig Founder of Holistic Ballet

Being asked by her teacher, Renato Paroni, to cover his classes for him was a stepping stone into teaching, from where she quickly established her own classes for amateurs and semi-professionals and was invited to guest-teach prestigious professional dance companies like Random Dance, Ballet Prejlocaj, State Theatre Kassel (Staatstheater Kassel, Germany) and others.

She assisted James D'Silva in the making of Gaiam's Trudi Styler fitness DVDs of which one is called Sculpt and Tone Ballet.

Since 2014, Franziska practises also as a Hypnotherapist and IFS(Internal Family Systems)-Informed therapist, having trained with the Quest Institute in London under its founder Trevor Silvester, the German Institute for Clinical Hypnosis (Deutsches Institut für Klinische Hypnose) in Germany, with Dr Norbert Preetz, and IFSCA (Internal Family Systems Counseling Association).

Franziska performing Tchaikovsky pas de deux, 1998

Throughout her time as a student, dancer and teacher, Franziska learned, re-learned, dismissed, got confused and intrigued by the various existing ballet training techniques. She witnessed the similarities and opposites, the various ways of dancing styles and the great disagreement people would have over how certain steps should be performed.

During her professional career, she also experienced a great deal of chronic pain from a young age, not just in herself but all around her, her classmates and colleagues. Painkillers were a staple food in most dancers' diets. Although the vigorous training and discipline brought her to a high-class performance level, she is convinced that with her holistic approach, much of the so readily accepted physical wear and tear could have been prevented.

The way Franziska teaches today draws from her training in the Vaganova, French, and Balanchine styles, the Christina Bernal Method, as well as from her extensive training as a Pilates, Gyrotonic®, Yoga and Garuda instructor and therapist. The result of which is Holistic Ballet®.