Damien Jalet
Damien Jalet is an independent Belgian and French choreographer and dancer whose work has been presented all over the world. Interested in the capacity of dance constantly reinventing itself by conversing with other media such as visual art, music, cinema, theatre and fashion; his works are often collaborative. He worked as a choreographer and dancer for companies such as les ballets C de la B, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessisches Staatsballetts, Paris Opera Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Iceland Dance Company, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and few more.
In 2019, he became artist in residence at Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. He choreographed the entirely danced film Anima directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Thom Yorke who also scored the film. It premiered in June in IMAX theatres and on Netflix. For this work, also nominated Best Musical Film at the 2019 GRAMMY Awards, he won the Best Choreography Award at the UK Music Video Awards. The same year, he created four numbers with Madonna for her first theatrical tour Madame X, including the show opening and a live version of the 1998 song Frozen.
In 2020, he directed the runway show of Jun Takahashi’s Undercover at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris with a collection inspired by Akira Kurosawa ‘s “throne of blood”, that joined later the list of the top runways of all time according to Tim Blanks of B.O.F.
In September 2020, as a reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, he accepted the last-minute offer from the Paris Opera Ballet to create a piece performed on the proscenium of Palais Garnier; he created Brise-lames with visual artist JR, pianist Koki Nakano and dancer Aimilios Arapoglou, Jalet’s artistic partner in all his key projects.
His next projects include the creation Mist for Dutch company NDT1 and Planet [wanderer] that is planned to premiere in Théâtre de Chaillot in September 2021. Both are collaborations with Kohei Nawa.
Damien Jalet was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2013.