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Damien Jalet
Damien Jalet is a French-Belgian choreographer and dancer. His work is often collaborative, creating intricate bounds between dance and other artistic media such as visual arts (a.o. Antony Gormley, Marina Abramović, Nawa Kohei, Jim Hodges), fashion (Jean-Paul Lespagnard, Hussein Chalayan, Riccardo Tisci, Bernhard Willhelm), theatre (Arthur Nauzyciel) and music (a.o. Fennesz, Loscil, Winter Family, Editors, Florence + the Machine). His works include Babel(words) (co-directed with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, winner of 2 Olivier awards), Les Médusés (large scale choreographic installation including 30 artists in the Louvre Museum in Paris), Yama (Scottish Dance Theatre), Boléro (Paris Opera Ballet), Obsidian Piece (Icelandic Dance Company, Griman for best choreography), Inked (Aakash Odedra Company) and Gravity Fatigue (choreography of the first theatrical work of Hussein Chalayan, Sadler’s Wells).
Damien Jalet is laureate of Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto 2015, where he developed Vessel, a collaboration with visual artist Kohei Nawa, which premiered in September 2016 at the new Rhom Theatre Kyoto. The relationship work of Jalet to existing rituals practiced in volcanic islands such as Bali and Japan is at the center of the 70 minutes documentary The Ferryman by Gilles Delmas, narrated by Marina Abramović with the artistic participation of Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Damien Jalet is entitled Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2013. His most recent works include THR(O)UGH (2015, in collaboration with Jim Hodges for the Hessisches Staatsballett) and Babel 7.16 (2016, Festival d'Avignon). He has been named guest artistic director of the UK National Youth Dance Company for the season 2016-2017, where he created Tarantiseismic in April of 2017.