From 5 to 11 July, NDT 2 brings you the programme Up & Coming Choreographers: a programme in collaboration with Korzo in which talented, emerging choreographers create new work for the dancers of NDT 2.
See an overview of choreographers creating work for NDT.
As a house for creation, we value experimentation, collaboration, and the development of dance artists. Every season, NDT invites many choreographers to create groundbreaking works for NDT 1 and NDT 2. Both established names such as Sharon Eyal, Hofesh Shechter and William Forsythe, as well as emerging creators are regular guests of NDT. As associate choreographers, the renowned Marco Goecke and Crystal Pite regularly complement the NDT repertoire with contemporary masterpieces.
In season 2024-2025, the NDT 1 and NDT 2 will perform world premieres and favourites from the NDT repertoire by internationally renowned choreographers in five groundbreaking productions.
Hofesh Shechter (Israel, 1975) is a choreographer, filmmaker, and composer. He is the founder and artistic director of the Hofesh Shechter Company, an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells, and Artist-in-Residence of Gauthier Dance. His works have been staged around the world, by companies like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Paris Opera Ballet. In addition, he has choreographed for theatre, television, and opera.
Shechter’s work has been awarded with numerous prizes, like the British Theatre Institute’s Award for Excellence in International Dance and Best Dance Film at Cannes, and he was also granted an honorary OBE for Services to Dance.
In 2016, Shechter created his first work for NDT with Clowns. Part of the programme Architecture of the Invisible in season 2024-2025, the work holds up a mirror to the audience, revealing the truth of life in the guise of entertainment.
Jiří Kylián (Czechoslovakia, 1947) trained at the Prague Conservatory and the Royal Ballet School in London before joining the Stuttgart Ballett where he made his debut as a choreographer. After having created three ballets for Nederlands Dans Theater, he became its artistic director in 1975 until 1999 and continued choreographing for the company until 2009.
In 1978, Kylián not only put NDT on the international map with Sinfonietta, but founded NDT 2, serving as a bridge between school and professional company life. In 1991, he created NDT 3, the company for dancers over forty until ‘death’. In his life, he has created nearly 100 works – many of which are performed all over the world for which he has garnered wide international acclaim. He has received many prestigious, international awards and honours such as Officer of the Royal Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau, Honorary Medal of the Order for Arts and Science of the House of Orange given to him by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, an honorary doctorate of the Juilliard School in New York and the Honorary Medal from the President of the Czech Republic. In March 2019, Kylián was inaugurated as a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. This highly prestigious recognition was complimented with the Academy’s decision to change its statutes and add a special seat for ‘dance’. Jiří Kylián now creates films, photo and art installations.
With Vanishing Twin, part of the NDT 1 programme Architecture of the Invisible, Kylián lets us once again experience his choreographic illustration of temporariness, suppressed emotions and our efforts to leave a mark on the world.
Christos Papadopoulos (Greece, 1982) studied dance and choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam, theatre at Greece’s National Theatre Drama School, and political sciences in Athens. He has choreographed for numerous directors in Greece and has taught movement and improvisation at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatoire since 2003.
The choreographer’s first works, OPUS and ELVEDON, were well-received, chosen by Aerowaves in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Papadopoulos has since created works for Dance On and the Lyon Opera Ballet, among others. He is currently creating a solo work for Georgios Kotsifakis for the LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura and working on a new creation for his company Onassis Stegi Athens, premiering in May 2025.
For NDT 1’s programme Architecture of the Invisible, Papadopoulos will create a new work exploring subtle everyday connections and the beautiful simplicity of shared moments.
Choreographer and stage director Marcos Morau (Spain, 1982) is trained in photography, movement, and theatre. He has worked with La Veronal for more than ten years now, as director, choreographer and designer of sets, costumes, and lighting. In addition, he has been a guest artist at companies and theatres around the world, always carefully balancing performing arts and dance.
Morau was the youngest National Dance Prize winner in Spain and his creations have been awarded with numerous prizes, both at home and abroad. He is an associate artist at the Staatsballett in Berlin, where he will annually premiere a new creation in one of the largest companies in Europe.
Folkå – created in collaboration with the dancers of NDT 2 – is part of the NDT 2 programme Lucid Variations, bringing back his evocative story about community and its customs and traditions in a pulsating visual and auditory landscape.
Born in Ramla, Israel, Nadav Zelner (1992) discovered his love of dance and listening to music at an early age. In high school, his passion for choreography began. Having trained at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, he has since worked tirelessly to form and develop his own unique dance language and technique.
Zelner has created works for dance companies around the world, like the Staatsoper Hannover, Batsheva Dance Company, Introdans, and Gauthier Dance Company. Besides his love for dance, he is passionate about cinema and has created several short dance films, one of which inspired Israel’s Eurovision director in 2019. Zelner helped choreograph a major part of that year’s concept.
In his second work for NDT 2 which will premiere in the programme Lucid Variations, Zelner examines the fine line between opinion and stigma and celebrates life, while letting the audience experience the rich, percussive language of movement he has developed and honed.
Choreographer and performer Crystal Pite (Canada, 1970) started out as a company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt. After debuting as a professional choreographer in 1990, she has created over 50 works for companies all over the world, like the Paris Opera Ballet and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. Her collaborations include the Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage.
Pite has been an associate choreographer with Nederlands Dans Theater since 2008, is an Associate Dance Artist at Canada’s National Arts Centre and an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London. In 2002, she founded her own company in Vancouver: Kidd Pivot, which tours both nationally and internationally.
Together with Simon McBurney, Crystal Pite has created three works for NDT 1 over a span of four years. The three parts of Figures in Extinction focus on their fears and cautious hopes for our age in a unique cross-disciplinary exchange. In February 2025, the third part will premiere in Manchester and then goes on to tour in the Netherlands.
Simon McBurney (England, 1957) is an actor, writer and theatre director, and co-founder and artistic director of theatre company Complicité. All of his work is based on extensive research, relies on a strong process of collaboration, and is rooted in the firm belief that all aspects of theatre should challenge the theatrical form.
Apart from writing and creating original works, McBurney has staged renowned plays by the likes of Beckett and Shakespeare, produced many operas and adapted numerous literary works. His many awards include the Berlin Konrad Woolf Prize for Europe’s Outstanding Multi-Disciplinary Artists and the prestigious Yomiuri Prize in Japan, of which he was the first foreign recipient.
Together with Crystal Pite, McBurney has created three works for NDT 1 over a span of four years. The Figures in Extinction triptych focuses on their fears and cautious hopes for our age in a unique cross-disciplinary exchange. In February 2025, the third part will premiere in Manchester before going on to tour in the Netherlands.
Choreographer Johan Inger (Sweden, 1967) studied at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and National Ballet School in Canada. After dancing with the Swedish Royal Ballet, he moved on to Nederlands Dans Theater, where he performed from 1990 until 2002. He then left to become the artistic leader at the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm.
Since 2008, Inger has worked as a freelance choreographer, creating works for renowned companies across the globe, such as GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Ballet Basel and Ballets de Monte Carlo. From 2009 to 2016, he was an associate choreographer at NDT. His work has garnered critical acclaim, winning the Benois de la Danse Prize for his Carmen at Compania Nacional de Danza, and for One on One created for NDT 2 in 2015. Since 2022, Inger has also taken on the role of artistic director at Take Off Dance, a training programme for pre-professional dancers in Sevilla.
For the programme Falling Into Shadow, Inger is bringing back Walking Mad, a study of the complicated relationship between men and women and the journey from sanity to madness. Originally created for NDT 1, this is the first time that NDT 2 will perform the work.
Olivier award-winning dance artist, choreographer and director Botis Seva (United Kingdom) was introduced to dance at age 15. He briefly performed with Avant Garde Dance as a dancer, before pursuing a career in choreography at 17 years old, choosing to chart his own path outside of the conventional structure. He founded his own company, Far From The Norm, has created works for Scottish Dance Theatre and Sadler’s Wells, among others, and has won various prizes.
Seva works within the realms of hip hop, physical theatre and contemporary dance. His distinct movement language has placed him at the forefront of hip hop dance theatre, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. He experiments with form, structure and theatrics, continuously recreating his approach to creativity in live as well as digital performances. Seva’s focus is on making a societal difference and using his autobiographical experiences to drive narratives.
For NDT 2, Seva is creating an expressive new work, revolving around the unconscious mind, to be seen in the NDT 2 programme Falling into Shadow.
Marco Goecke (Germany, 1972) trained as a dancer at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Ballet Academy in Munich and at The Hague’s Royal Conservatoire. He created his first choreography in 2000 and has since created over 90 works, many of them performed by companies across the world.
Goecke was a Choreographer in Residence at the Stuttgart Ballet and Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam, Artist in Residence with Gauthier Dance Stuttgart, Artistic Director at the State Ballet Hannover, and has been an associate choreographer at Nederlands Dans Theater since 2013. His works have garnered wide international acclaim, winning Zwaan and Danzadanza awards and the Jiří Kylián Ring, among many others.
His Wir sagen uns Dunkles is part of this year’s NDT 2 programme Falling Into Shadow, a work that exudes a restless vibration and takes the audience on a journey through attraction and disquiet.
Choreographer Sharon Eyal (Israel, 1971) danced with Batsheva Dance Company from 1990 to 2009, served as its Associate Art Director in the 2003-2004 season, and as a house choreographer from 2005 to 2012. Eyal created 12 new works for the company.
Since 2005, Eyal began working together with producer Gai Behar. They have collaborated on her creations and the L-E-V company – founded in 2013 – ever since. Alongside their L-E-V repertoire, Eyal and Behar have created works for other companies, like NDT, the Berlin Staatsballett, the Royal Swedish Ballet and more.
This coming season, Eyal’s L-E-V and NDT have joined forces for an expanded interpretation of Into the Hairy. The extended cast of more than 20 dancers investigates a new perspective on the powerful work’s idiosyncratic universe.
Dancer and choreographer Anat Oz (Israel, 1990) studied ballet and furthered her education at the Maslool Dance Program for professional contemporary dancers. She has performed for renowned Israeli dance companies throughout her career, like the Israel Ballet and Roy Assaf Dance. Oz transitioned to choreography in 2019 and founded ANA dance company the following year.
Her choreographic works have received critical acclaim with prizes from, among others, the International 24th Solo Tanz Theater Stuttgart 2020, 35th Hannover International Choreography Competition, and RIDCC 2022. Oz also shares her passion for the moving body through teaching repertoire and movement skills workshops and is certified in holistic reflexology.
For the 2024-2025 NDT season, she is part of the Up & Coming Lab programme. Her work is an exploration of the function of the human eye, examining both its physical and symbolic significance.
Since 2022, Sarah Baltzinger teamed up with fellow choreographer Isaiah Wilson. They have co-directed several projects since and have been awarded a number of prizes – chief among which the RIDCC XL Production Award in 2023. It has enabled them to create a production for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, which will start touring in February 2025.
For the 2024-2025 NDT season, they are part of the Up & Coming Lab programme. Their work centres on the manipulation and exploration of the body, revealing its infinite capabilities by testing its limits and extremes.
Eliana Stragapede (1996, Italy) is a freelance performer, choreographer and teacher based in Brussels. Borna Babić (Croatia, 1994), also based in Brussels, is a freelance performer, choreographer and teacher. In 2022, the work AMAE created by the duo won first prize in the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition, before going on to win several more awards.
For the 2024-2025 NDT season, Stragapede and Babić are part of the Up & Coming Lab programme. Together they are creating a short work grounded in physical theatre that explores the contradiction between our expectations and their unexpected outcomes.
Choreographers who have worked with NDT in previous seasons can be found below:
