Josef Nadj was born in Vojvodina, a region of Yugoslavia. He attended art school and the University of Budapest where he almost accidentally began to take theater classes, without abandoning his training in martial arts. On the advice of his drama teacher, he left Budapest for Paris where he arrived in 1980. Thinking he had come there to do theater, he discovered dance and rapidly came to share the different choreographic worlds of Mark Tompkins, Catherine Diverres and Franois Verret.
In 1986 he founded his company. In 1987, he choreographed Canard Pekinois [Peking Duck], inspired from souvenirs of his home town. This first piece underlined the duality of an approach mixing theater and dance. It became his calling card in preparing the ground for an internationally recognized oeuvre. Since 1995, he has been the director of the Centre Choregraphique National d‘Orléans.
Since then he created a rich oeuvre including 7 peaux de Rhinocéros (7 Rhinoceros Skins , 1988), La mort de l‘empereur (The Death of the Emperor, 1989), Comedia tempio (1990), Woyzeck and L‘anatomie du fauve (1994). Le Cri du camèleon [The Chameleon‘s Scream] in 1995 was made for the Centre National des arts du Cirque [National Center for the Arts of the Circus]. Within the context of Le vif du sujet at the Festival d‘Avignon, in July 1999, Josef Nadj created Petit psaume du matin for Dominique Mercy. In october 1999, he created at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris Les veilleurs, based on the piece by Franz Kafka, and finally, he presented in November 1999 Le temps du repli, trio for two dancers and one percussionist, at the Scène Nationale d‘Orléans. In September 2001, he presented the new version of Petit psaume du matin with Dominique Mercy, at the Festival of Venice. In December 2001, he created Les philosophes, piece for five performers in homage to Bruno Schulz, at the Dance Festival of Cannes. In June 2002, he presented his last creation Journal d‘un inconnu at La Biennale di Venezia that was part of ImPulsTanz 2003.
2003
