Michael Rissmann received his dance training at the State Balletschool of Berlin. His engagements as dancer and soloist at theaters such as Berlin, Basel, Zurich and Chemnitz brought him together with Maurice Bejart, Roland Petit, Judith Jamison, Youri Vamosz, Heinz Spoerli and Torsten Händler.
He was awarded 3rd prize at the National Ballet Competition in Dessau in 1987. He received the "Lefkowitz Award" at the New York City International Ballet Competition in 1994 and was honored with the "Daphne" Artist Prize by Germany's largest visitor organization, the Theatergemeinde Berlin, in 1998.
His choreographic work "... with Botany-Active-Complex" was awarded the special prize in 2003 at the Leipzig choreography competition "euro scene - the best dance solo".
In 2007 he founded the Balance Center for Dance Schwerin, which he directed until 2011. In 2014, Michael Rissmann completed his Master's Degree Dance Teacher at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden and was invited as a guest teacher at the Ballet School Basel/Theater Basel. The following year he worked as a research assistant at the Chemnitz University of Technology - Institute for Applied Movement Sciences. During this time he worked on a research project on personality-influencing processes in dance education in a school context. At the same time he was engaged with the choreographic direction of the dance project "Moderne" - "von innen nach außen" in cooperation with KulturLeben Chemnitz e.V. and the Annenschule Chemnitz.
Since 2017, Michael Rissmann has been working as a MADT-group leader and coordinator in the field of study management for dance training (Master Dance Teacher study programme) at the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden.. In 2022, he began working as a dance teacher at the Opernballettschule at Chemnitz Opera House.
In 2024, he was (interim) head of the Master Dance Teacher programme at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden.
