Hyo-Jung KANG
강효정
Principal Dancer, Semperoper Ballett, Semperoper Dresden (since September 2025)
Principal Dancer, Vienna State Ballet, Vienna State Opera (2021–2025)
Principal Dancer, Stuttgart Ballet, State Opera Stuttgart (2011–2021)
Hyo-Jung Kang is a Vienna-based, South Korean-born principal dancer of Semperoper Ballett Dresden, where she has held the rank of Principal Dancer since September 2025. Before joining the company in Dresden, she was Principal Dancer of the Vienna State Ballet at the Vienna State Opera from 2021 to 2025, following a decade as Principal Dancer of Stuttgart Ballet from 2011 to 2021. She has her permanent residence in Vienna since 2021.
She received her early training at Sunhwa Arts School in Seoul and the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., before completing her studies at the renowned John Cranko School in Stuttgart. After graduating in 2003 she joined Stuttgart Ballet, progressing through the company from apprentice to corps de ballet, demi-soloist and soloist, and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2011.
Widely admired for her musicality, dramatic subtlety and sculptural, finely articulated movement quality, Hyo-Jung Kang has interpreted many of the major roles in the classical and narrative repertoire. Her roles include Tatiana and Olga (Onegin), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Giselle, La Sylphide, Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Kitri (Don Quixote), Manon Lescaut (The Lady of the Camellias), Mary Vetsera (Mayerling), Nikiya (La Bayadère) and the Dying Swan, among many others. Her versatility extends across an extensive neo-classical and contemporary repertoire, including works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Uwe Scholz, Heinz Spoerli, Martin Schläpfer, Christian Spuck and numerous other leading choreographers.
In addition to winning the Prix de Lausanne in 2002, she has received the Dance Award of the Friends of Stuttgart Ballet (2006) and the German Dance Prize Zukunft (2011), and has been repeatedly nominated as “Dancer of the Year” by tanz magazine. Alongside her performing career she is active as a teacher, coach and mentor in international training programmes, summer intensives and cultural education initiatives, with a particular commitment to working with young dancers and underrepresented communities.