Thierry Michel was born in France and received his first ballet training at a private ballet school in Paris. In 1977 he was a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne competition. One year later he was engaged from John Neumeier to his Hamburg Ballet.
In 1981 he came to the Stuttgart Ballet where he danced roles such as Lenski in Onegin, Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, Paris in Romeo and Juliet (all: John Cranko), Allan Grey in A Streetcar named Desire, a child in Medea (Both: John Neumeier) as well as Offenbach in Gaîté Parisienne and the doll in Petruschka (both: Maurice Béjart). Several choreographers created roles on Thierry Michel such as Márcia Haydée, Uwe Scholz, Hans van Manen, David Bintley and Robert North. His repertoire also includes choreographies of Kennet MacMillan, William Forsythe and Jiří Kylián.
In autumn 1996 he led the rehearsals of Robert North’s Troy Game. In January 1997 Thierry Michel was appointed to ballet master. At the end of the season 1997/98 he made his diploma as certified ballet teacher.
Thierry Michel is primarily responsible for the production of works by John Neumeier, Uwe Scholz and Glen Tetley. He also assists choreographers who create new pieces for the Stuttgart Ballet. In this position he worked together amongst others with David Bintley, Mauro Bigonzetti, Douglas Lee, Edward Clug and Marc Spradling.
Together with John Neumeier, Thierry Michel supervised the production of The Lady of the Camellias, A Streetcar named Desire and Othello; with Glen Tetley the revivals of Le sacre du printemps, Voluntaries, Pierrot lunaire and Arena; with David Bintley the production of Edward II.
When Kevin O’Day created his full-length ballet Hamlet for the Stuttgart Ballet, Thierry Michel assisted him as well as Christian Spuck when he choreographed the opera Orphée et Euridice, a coproduction of the Stuttgart Ballet and the State Opera Stuttgart.
At the request of Glen Tetley, Thierry Michel rehearsed Voluntaries in Dresden; in Santiago de Chile he was responsible for the production of John Cranko’s Initials R.B.M.E. At last he rehearsed the first and second act of A Streetcar named Desire (John Neumeier) with the Corps de ballet in Hamburg and was in charge of the revival of Uwe Scholz’s Siebte Sinfonie in Leipzig.