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French-Belgian choreographer and dancer Damien Jalet’s work spans major international collaborations and more personal projects. His creations, often collaborative, testify to the power of dance to continually reinvent itself through dialogue with other disciplines such as visual arts, music, cinema, and fashion.
He has worked as both a dancer and choreographer for a wide variety of companies, including les ballets C de la B, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessisches Staatsballett, Paris Opera Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Iceland Dance Company, and GöteborgsOperans Danskompani.
For the stage, he has created: Babel(words) (2010) with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui – which won two Laurence Olivier Awards in 2011, Boléro (2013) and Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) with Cherkaoui and Marina Abramović, Inked (2013), Les Médusés (2013), YAMA (2014), Gravity Fatigue (2015), VESSEL (2015) with Kohei Nawa, Thr(o)ugh (2016), SKID (2017), and Omphalos (2018).
Together with French actor and stage director Arthur Nauzyciel, he has collaborated on several theatrical works, including L’Image (2006), Julius Caesar (2008), Ordet (2008), Red Waters (2011), Jan Karski (2011), La Mouette (2012), Splendid’s (2015), La Dame aux Camélias (2018), Mes frères (2020), and Les Paravents (2023).
On screen, he collaborated with director Gilles Delmas to create The Ferryman in 2016, featuring Marina Abramović and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The film was presented at the Venice Biennale in 2017. In 2018, he choreographed Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria. The following year, he choreographed Paul Thomas Anderson's film Anima, with music composed by Thom Yorke. The work was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Film and won a UK Music Video Award for Best Choreography.
In 2020, he created Brise-lames for the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, in collaboration with visual artist JR, pianist Koki Nakano, and dancer Aimilios Arapoglou. He later reunited with artist Kohei Nawa – his collaborator on VESSEL – to create the film Mist for NDT1, followed by Planet [wanderer] (2021) at Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse, and Kites (2022) for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani.
He also contributed to Madonna’s Madame X tour (2019–2020) and choreographed several songs for her 2023–2024 show The Celebration Tour, for which he was also creative advisor.
In 2023, he choreographed Emilia Perez, Jacques Audiard’s first musical. The film was presented and twice awarded (Jury Prize and Best Actress Award) at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and received multiple Golden Globe awards in 2025. In January 2025, Emilia Perez was nominated in 13 categories at the Academy Awards, and Jalet received a Choreography Award at the 4th Tribute to the Crafts of the American Cinematheque.
In November 2023, he created Chiroptera, in collaboration with JR and composer Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk). This unique performance featured Amandine Albisson, Etoile dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet, and 153 dancers performing on the scaffolding of the Paris Opera façade.
In September 2024, he premiered the live performance Mirage [transitory] at Theater 010 in Fukuoka, Japan – a new collaboration with Kohei Nawa and featuring music by Thomas Bangalter. This piece serves as a prelude to a larger creation for 16 dancers of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, set to premiere in Geneva in May 2025.
In October 2022, Damien Jalet was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.
2025
