Esther Dreesen-Schaback grew up in Schleswig-Holstein (northern Germany) and Hamburg. She studied German Literature and English Literature and Culture at Hamburg University with a final paper on „Danced Narration“ with an analysis of John Neumeier’s ballet „Nijinsky“ and its narrative structures.
During her studies she was introduced into the workfield of a ballet dramaturg by Hamburg Ballet /John Neumeier‘s ballet dramaturg Angela Dauber.
Esther Dreesen-Schaback assisted at Hamburg Ballet for several years before she went to Munic to be the assistant of the ballet dramaturg for the Bavarian State Ballet under the direction of Ivan Liška and Bettina Wagner-Bergelt for one year, where she mostly accompagnied ballets from John Neumeier, Hans van Manen and Jiři Kyliàn. After that she went to Theatre Kiel to be the assistant of the artistic directress of the Opera Kiel before she became a freelance ballet dramaturg.
Since 2006 she worked for Marco Goecke (e.g. „Viciouswishes“ for the Stuttgart Ballet, „Sonett“ for the Leipzig Ballet, in 2010 „Orlando“ also for Stuttgart Ballet and „Nijinski“ for Gauthier Dance).
Together with Christian Spuck she developed „Sleepers Chamber“ for Stuttgart Ballet, „Don Q“ for Egon Madsen and Eric Gauthier at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, and „Leonce und Lena“ for the Ballett of the Aalto Theatre Essen. From 2009 to 2012 she worked for the Ballet of the Baden State Theatre under the direction of Prof. Birgit Keil, after that for the Kevin O‘Day Company in Mannheim and did her first ballet-dramaturgy for the movie „Mackie Messer“ (2018, dir. J. Lang) together with Eric Gauthier.
From 2009 to 2013 she worked for Staatsballet Karlsruhe under the direction of Birgit Keil where she accompagnied works by George Balanchine, Peter Breuer, Heinz Spoerli, Hans van Manen, Demis Volpi, Christopher Wheeldon, Ralf Jaroschinski, young choreographers. Here, she was dramaturg for Tim Plegge’s first full-length ballet „Momo“.
Esther Dreesen-Schaback developed story-telling ballets with Tim Plegge, director and choreographer of Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden/Darmstadt. Here she was dramaturg for a contemporary version of „Aschenputtel“ (Cinderella), „Wintereise“, „Kaspar Hauser“ and the production for teenager „Fake“.
She joined Staatsballett Hannover under the direction of Marco Goecke and Christian Blossfeld where she was dramaturg for „Der Liebhaber“ („The Lover“) as well as „A Wilde Story“, both by Marco Goecke.