Rani was born in Melbourne and attended the National Theatre Ballet School before completing her year 7-12 education at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.
Rani’s professional career began with the Kiel Ballet Company Germany in 1995 before moving to The Netherlands where she danced with world-renowned Netherlands Dance Theatre 2 and Netherlands Dance Theatre 1.
In 2003 Rani returned home to dance with The Australian Ballet Company for four years, joined Sydney Dance Company in 2007 and retired from stage as a principal dancer with Melbourne Ballet Company in 2011.
Rani has had the great pleasure of working with and performing works by choreographers such as Jiri Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Paul Lightfoot, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Jacopo Gordani, Edward Liang, Graeme Murphy, Stephan Page, Stephen Baynes, Adrian Burnett, and Rafael Bonachela.
Rani won the gold medal at the Sanlam International Ballet Competition, South Africa 1993, was winner of the outstanding performance award in the City of Sydney Ballet Scholarship 1994 and received a nomination for best female dancer in the Green Room Award 2006 for her roles in Relic and Jiri with The Australian Ballet Company.
Rani was an adjudicator for the Sydney Eisteddfod Ballet Scholarship 2012, 2014 and 2016. Beyond Rani’s stage career, she went on to coach ballet and contemporary and staged and choreographed works in several schools and companies around Australia. Rani established the classical contemporary course at Brent Street Sydney, taught pilates and worked as a remedial massage therapist and has been rehearsal director and Ballet Mistress for Melbourne Ballet and Queensland Ballet.
Rani’s choreographic creations include two works for NDT Workshop performances 2001/2002, Face the Music for Carriageworks Theatre Sydney 2012, Illuminate for MBC Empyrean season 2016 and Outside In for The Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional season 2017. In 2018 Rani choreographed Lunar for Queensland Ballet’s inaugural season of Synergy and in 2019 Heartstrings for the Australian Ballet Company’s Bodytorque season. In 2020 Rani choreographed From. To. Here for Queensland Ballet’s Bespoke season and in 2022 choreographed Butterfly Effect for the inaugural season of TDC presents Encore season.
In 2019 Rani was appointed Ballet Mistress and Creative Associate for Queensland Ballet and in 2022 Creative Associate for Queensland Ballet and Thomas Dixon Centre.
During her time as Creative Associate for Queensland Ballet and Producer for Thomas Dixon Centre Presents, Rani has curated the Secret Lives of Costumes exhibition in collaboration with Griffith University QAC, produced, curated and choreographed the four Global Fusion series performances in collaboration with Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre and Curated and produced, curated and choreographed the inaugural season of Encore in November 2022,
Rani founded Flourish by Rani Luther in 2022
