Martin Meng was educated at the High School of the Arts in his native town Amsterdam by, among others, professor Heinz Manniegel.
While still in school Rudi van Dantzig chose him to dance the leading part in his ballet „Night Island“ and invited him to the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. A year later Erik Bruhn asked him to join the National Ballet of Canada. After Mr. Bruhn passed away Martin returned to Europe to join the ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Martin danced the whole classical repertory from Bournonville to Béjart, performed solo parts in ballets from Balanchine, Petipa, Fokine, Petit, van Dantzig, Panov and Limon and took part in numerous courses, like taking classes with the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet.
He worked with some of ballet‘s finest master-teachers including Vladilen Semionov, Irina Kolpakova, Yevgeny Neff, Gennady Selyutski (Kirov Ballet), Mikhail Lavrovsky (Bolshoi Ballet), John Clifford, Susan Hendl (New York City Ballet), Erik Bruhn (National Ballet of Canada), Brigitte Thom (Deutsche Oper Berlin).
Martin Meng continued his career as a ballet master at the “Grand Theatre” (Teatr Wielki), Warsaw, where besides teaching daily company classes, he was coaching all leading roles in the classical repertoire. In the years after he was working as a guest-teacher with companies such as the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet or the ballet of the Opera na Zamku Szczecin.
In recent years, Martin focused more on teaching at academic schools and was thus invited as a guest-pedagogue by i.a. the European School of Ballet, the National Ballet Academy Amsterdam, the Royal Conservatory The Hague, the Tai Pei National University of the Arts or the Netherlands Dance Theatre (Educational Department) as well as many summercourses, a.o. in Italy, Cyprus, Israel, Poland and the Netherlands.
Nowadays Martin specializes on single-classes at any level, coaching dancers for examinations, auditions and international ballet competitions.
Students prepared for audition by Martin Meng were accepted into the following schools:
Vaganova School St. Petersburg; Bolshoi Academy Moscow; Hungarian State Ballet School Budapest; Kirov Academy Washington; Koninklijke Balletschool Antwerpen (Royal Balletschool Antwerpen); Netherlands Dance Theatre Summercourse; State Ballet School in Gdansk, Academy of Dance at the State High School of the Arts Mannheim; Conservatory Vienna; Escuela Victor Ullate Madrid; Ellison Ballet New York; Centre of Contemporary Dance Highschool Cologne, his students received numerous international scholarships, a.o. European School of Ballet in Amsterdam; Alvin Ailey, Ellison Ballet New York; Lines San Francisco.
Besides Martin is regularly invited as a jury member in international ballet competitions.
Martin has now coached most of the classical repertoire, including productions by Konstantin Sergeyev and Rudolf Nureyev, he has taught every level of classical ballet: from beginners, hobby dancers, professional students up to international stars like Irma Nioradze, Andrei Jakovlev (Mariinsky Ballet), Maria Bylova, Yuri Vasuchenko (Bolshoi Ballet), Irek Mukhamedov (Royal Ballet), Anneli Alhanko, Anders Nordström (Royal Swedish Ballet), Mats and Niklas Ek, Ana Laguna (Cullberg Ballet).
Apart from teaching classical ballet, Martin is highly esteemed as a Personal Trainer http://mobiltraining.com/
