Stephanie Lake is originally from Canada and grew up in Tasmania. The multi-award-winning choreographer and dancer now lives in Melbourne and is Artistic Director of the Stephanie Lake Company as well as Resident Choreographer of the Australian Ballet. Her major works include "Manifesto", "Colossus", "Replica", "Pile of Bones" and "AORTA", which have been performed internationally at renowned venues such as the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, the Dublin Dance Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Stephanie has received numerous awards, including the Helpmann Award and two Australian Dance Awards. Stephanie is a recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and the Australia Council Fellowship for Dance. She has created works for various companies, including Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move and Queensland Ballet. In addition, she has worked in theatre, film, visual arts and music videos. Recent projects include large-scale public initiatives such as "Moving 100" and "Multiply" in 2020. Stephanie Lake is a member of the advisory board of the Victorian College of the Arts and an ambassador for the youth dance company "Stompin" in Tasmania. Her career as a dancer spanned over twenty years, during which she toured with renowned companies. Since the 2025/26 season, Stephanie Lake has been Artist in Residence for the Semperoper Ballett.

Bregje van Balen was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and trained as a dancer at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam. She was a member of Nederlands Dans Theater for eighteen years. Even during her active career as a dancer, she repeatedly worked as a costume designer, and after retiring from the stage she completed her studies at the Baruch Fashion Academy in Amsterdam. She has created costume designs for dance and theatre, including for Nederlands Dans Theater, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Gothenburg Ballet, Hamburg Ballett, Introdans, Aterballetto, the Győr Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, the Opéra de Lyon, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, the dance company of St. Gallen, Bern Ballett, and the Nationaltheater Mannheim. She has worked with choreographers such as Patrick Delcroix, Jorma Elo, Medhi Walerski, Cathy Marston, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, and Jo Strømgren. At Zurich Opera House she most recently created the costumes for parts of the triple bills "Timekeepers" and "Countertime" as well as for "Atonement" and "Clara".

Martin Gebhardt was lighting designer and Head of Lighting for John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet. From 2002 onward he collaborated with Heinz Spoerli and the Ballett Zürich. Ballet productions of both companies took him to renowned theatres across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. At Zurich Opera House he created the lighting design for productions by Jürgen Flimm, David Alden, Jan Philipp Gloger, Grischa Asagaroff, Matthias Hartmann, David Pountney, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, and Achim Freyer. At the Salzburg Festival he designed the lighting for "La bohème" and for a new version of Spoerli’s "Der Tod und das Mädchen". Since the 2012/13 season Martin Gebhardt has been Head of Lighting at Zurich Opera House. He maintains a close collaboration with choreographer Christian Spuck (including "Winterreise", "Nussknacker und Mausekönig", "Messa da Requiem", "Anna Karenina", "Woyzeck", "Der Sandmann", "Leonce und Lena", "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern"). He has also worked as lighting designer for choreographers Edward Clug (including "Strings", "Le Sacre du printemps" and "Faust" in Zurich), Alexei Ratmansky, Wayne McGregor, Marco Goecke, and Douglas Lee. He collaborated with Christoph Marthaler and Anna Viebrock on Handel’s "Sale" and Rossini’s "Il viaggio a Reims" in Zurich as well as on "Lulu" at the Hamburg State Opera, and with Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito at the Grand Théâtre de Genève for "Les Huguenots". In 2023 he designed the lighting for Spuck’s ballet "Bovary" at the Staatsballett Berlin and in 2024 for Rossini’s "Tancredi" at the Bregenz Festival. He was also the lighting designer for Cathy Marston’s "Atonement" at Zurich Opera House.

Michael Küster is from Germany. After studying German studies, art, and speech science at the University of Halle, he worked as a presenter, author, and speaker at various broadcasting stations in Germany. There, he hosted numerous classical music programs and live broadcasts of major concert events, including those from the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Since 2002, he has been a dramaturg at the Zurich Opera House, working with directors such as Matthias Hartmann, David Alden, Robert Carsen, Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier, Damiano Michieletto, David Pountney, Johannes Schaaf, and Graham Vick.
As dramaturg of Ballett Zürich, Michael Küster has collaborated since 2012 with Cathy Marston, Marco Goecke, Marcos Morau, Kim Brandstrup, Edward Clug, Alexei Ratmansky, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, and Hans van Manen. Together with Christian Spuck, he worked on productions including «Winterreise» («Prix Benois de la Danse»), «Romeo and Juliet», «Messa da Requiem», and «The Sleeping Beauty».
At La Scala in Milan, Michael Küster was dramaturg for Matthias Hartmann’s opera productions of «Der Freischütz», «Idomeneo», and «The Queen of Spades».