Giulia Tonelli completed her dance diploma at the Vienna State Opera Ballet School. After an
engagement as demi-soloist at the Royal Ballet of Flanders, she received a soloist contract at the Zurich
Ballet under Heinz Spoerli in 2009, where she was promoted to First Soloist in 2018 under Christian
Spuck. 2003 she won the Eurocity Competition. 2013 she was awarded the Premio Giuliano-Penzi. 2017
she received the Price of the Friends of Ballet Zurich. In 2018 and 2022 she was nominated best female
dancer of the year by Dance Europe Magazine. In 2023 she was Dancer of the Year in Tanznetz.de. In
2020, in response to the COVID epidemic, she created the virtual ballet gala “Re-Salire”. 2023 she was
the main subject of the documentary “Becoming Giulia” by Laura Kaehr, which won the Audience Award
at the Zurich Film Festival and focused on balancing life as a prima ballerina and a mother. Since 2024
she works as a freelance dancer and international guest principal. In 2026, she joins the WINN Dance
company.
Her repertoire includes Giselle (Giselle, Jean Coralli / Jules Perrot), The Sleeping Beauty (Marcia
Haydee), Apollon Musagete (George Balanchine), Falling Angels, Duo aus 27’52”, and Gods and Dogs
(Jiri Kylián), Und mied den wind (Heinz Spörli), In the night (Jerome Robbins), Leonce und Lena (Lena),
Romeo und Julia (Julia), Messa da Requiem, Nussknacker und Mausekönig (Pirlipatt), Monteverdi
(Christian Spuck), Giselle (Peasant Pas, Patrice Bart), Swan Lake (Pas de Trois, Aleksei Ratmansky), In the
Middle – Somewhat Elevated, Quintett, Second Detail, Approximate Sonata, One flat thing, reproduced
(Forsythe), Kammerballett (Hans van Manen), Emergence, Angel’s Atlas (Chrystal Pite), Faust – das Ballett
(Gretchen, Edward Clug), The Cellist (Jacqueline du Pré, Cathy Marston), The Nutcracker (Sugerplum
Fairy, Peter Darrell and Christopher Hampson) and many others.