Samuel Bassler
Corps de ballet member of The Czech National BalletBiography
Samuel Bassler comes from a family of artists from Munich. His father is a writer for cinema and TV, his mother had an international dance career in Germany, in France and in the Netherlands. Inspired by her work, Samuel decided at the age of 7 to visit the ballet academy. He was able to gain his first stage experience in children's dance roles with the Bayerisches Staatsballett including ballets from Alexei Ratmansky, John Neumeier, Christopher Wheeldon, Ivan Liška.
After Samuel took 2nd place in the Classical Ballet Junior category in the final of the European Grand Prix YAGP in Paris in 2017, he began his training as a professional stage dancer at the University of Music and Theatre in 2019 with Jan Broeckx, Kirill Melnikov, Olivier Vercoutere and David Russo. Samuel received a scholarship from the German Study Foundation and was awarded the Barbara Hottner Prize as an outstanding young dancer at the Ballet Academy. He graduated with the Bachelor of Arts.
He joined the junior company of Ballett Dortmund in the summer of 2022, where he performed in works by choreographers including Jean-Christophe Maillot, Alexander Ekman, Douglas Lee, Marco Goecke, David Dawson, Marijn Rademaker, Xin Peng Wang, and Nadav Zelner. During this period, he also created his own choreography, Bitteschön, together with two dancers from the Saarländisches Staatstheater, which was performed at the Künstlercafé Café Luitpold in Munich.
In 2024, Samuel moved to the main company of Ballett Dortmund and quickly took on important leading roles in classical ballet: Solor in La Bayadère, Rotbart in Swan Lake, Franz in Coppélia. He also shone as a soloist in Carmina Burana (Edward Clug) and with the Nightmare pas de deux in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Alexander Ekman). In 2025, Samuel was invited as a guest artist to the New York YAGP gala on the stage of Lincoln Center. He also was invited to Brazil to perform Franz in Coppélia in Teatro Basileu França. Samuel performed with Ballett Dortmund in the opera houses of Barcelona, Seville and at Salzburg Festival.