Life as a Moving Stage: Finding the Self in Motion and Encounters with Masters of Dance

Life as a Moving Stage

Finding the Self in Motion and Encounters with Masters of Dance

by Simona Noja-Nebyla

From a village in Transylvania to the great opera houses of the world: the autobiographical reflections of a principal ballerina who danced at the Vienna State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

“Each time I was struck by her line: born, not made. I would place her in a category of her own, alongside Sylvie Guillem, Alessandra Ferri and Lucia Lacarra.” — Vivia Săndulescu, Cronica muzicală on-line (cIMeC), 2026

Simona Noja-Nebyla tells her life the way she danced it, as a journey from one stage to the next. She begins with her childhood in Cluj County and her early training as a gymnast on Romania’s Olympic team under Béla Károlyi. Her years at the Choreography High School in Cluj-Napoca follow, and at eighteen, she performs her first Swan Lake. In 1990 she won the silver medal at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, and an international career followed: Atlanta, Düsseldorf, Berlin and, for a decade, Vienna, where she was principal ballerina at the State Opera.

Inside the book:

• Her great roles, from the inside: Giselle, Odette/Odile, Kitri, Manon, Juliet, Tatiana, Mata Hari, Raymonda and many more
• Working with the masters of dance: William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Heinz Spoerli, Roland Petit, Renato Zanella, Vladimir Malakhov, Manuel Legris
• Encounters with legends such as Carla Fracci in Rome and Alicia Alonso in Havana
• Guest performances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, in Santiago de Chile, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Beijing, Madrid and Rome
• Ten years at the head of the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy (2010–2020), and the work of the “Simona Noja” Cultural Foundation and the European Ballet Grand Prix
• Press articles and interviews from four decades of her career
• More than 130 photographs, many from her personal and family archive

This book is more than a memoir. It’s a reflection on discipline, vocation, artistic identity and the search for the self through movement. It’s for dancers, teachers, students and anyone who loves ballet and wants to see what happens behind the curtain.

About the author

Simona Noja-Nebyla was a principal ballerina at the Vienna State Opera (1995–2005), the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. She is a former director of the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy and holds a PhD in Theatre and Performing Arts. She teaches dance history, theory and aesthetics at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca. Her honours include the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class, and the National Order “The Star of Romania”.

Format: EPUB ebook, readable on phones, tablets, e-readers and computers (Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo, Kindle app, and others).