Damien Jalet

Damien Jalet (born 17 August 1976) is a Belgian-French choreographer, dancer and performer.

Life and career Damien Jalet was born on 17 August 1976, in Uccle, Belgium. He worked as choreographer and performer for Companies like Ballet C. de la B., Sasha Waltz et Invités, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessiches Staatballet, l’Opéra de Paris, Scottish Dance Theater, and Iceland Dance Company.

Jalet began to study theater at the National Institute of the Performing Art of Brussels, before moving to modern dance and completed his training in New York City.

Since 2000, Jalet has been working as a collaborator of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, within Les ballets C. de la B. As a result of this collaboration, he created his own shows, firstly as a dancer, and later also on staging and music.

In May 2013, he created in collaboration with Cherkaoui and performance artist Marina Abramović, a new version of Ravel's Bolero for the Paris Opera Ballet. Costumes were designed by Givenchy's artistic director Riccardo Tisci and the 11 dancer cast included Aurélie Dupont, Marie Agnès Gillot, and Jérémie Bélingard.

Jalet was awarded with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2013. In 2014, he signed Yama’s choreography, a play written for the Scottish Dance Theater, with the American stage designer Jim Hodges and the original composition made by the Winter Family group. He also imagined the solo “inked” for the Kathak Aakash Ordera's dancer.

Jalet is laureate of Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto 2015, where he developed Vessel, a six months work collaboration with the visual artist Kohei Nawa, 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.

Jalet's show Skid (2017) for the Opera's Dance Company of Gothenburg in Sweden, presented 17 performers and dancers on a 10 meters scene sloping at 34 degrees over approximately 40 minutes. He choreographed for Emilia Pérez.

In April 2026, Jalet choreographed the music video for Storm, a double-single by Gener8ion, featuring and starring Yung Lean and directed by Romain Gavras. He was also the main choreographer for Madonna's musical short film Confessions II, whom he had previously worked with on the Madame X tour.

Personal life Jalet identifies as gay.

Main choreographies Creations

2002: D’Avant in collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Juan Kruz diaz de Garaio Esnaola et Luc Dunberry 2005: The Unclear Age with Erna Omarsdottir (video dance) 2005: Ofætt (Unborn) with Erna Omarsdottir and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir 2006: L'Image from Samuel Beckett's play with and Anne Brochet 2008: Three Spells with Christian Fennesz 2009: Transaquania-Out of the Blue in collaboration with Erna Omarsdottir and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir for the Iceland Dance Company 2009: Black Marrow in collaboration with Erna Omarsdottir for the Company Chunky Move 2010: Transaquania into Thin Air in collaboration with Erna Omarsdottir and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir 2013: Les Médusés, choreography in the Louvre Museum in Paris 2014: Yama for the Scottish Dance Theatre 2015: Gravity Fatigue with Hussein Chalayan at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London 2016: Thr(o)ugh for the Hessiches Staatballet 2016: Babel 7.16, a duo with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, dans la cour d'honneur du Palais des Papes, Avignon 2016: Vessel, in collaboration with Kohei Nawa, at the Theatre Rhom, Kyoto 2017: Tarantiseismic for the National Youth Dance Company at the Sadler's Wells, London 2017: Skid for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Gothenburg 2018: Suspiria, directed by Luca Guadagnino 2019: Anima, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson 2023: Chiroptera, in collaboration with JR and Thomas Bangalter 2024: Mirage, in collaboration with Kohei Nawa; features music from Thomas Bangalter

Collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

2010: BABEL (words), a collaboration with Antony Gormley 2013: Boléro, a collaboration with Marina Abramović, Opera Garnier, Paris 2018: Pelléas et Mélisande, a collaboration with Marina Abramović, Anvers

Theater and opera 2006: L'Image from Samuel Beckett's play, staging by Arthur Nauzyciel, Dublin, National Theater of Icelande Reykjavik and Festival "Les Grandes Traversées" in Bordeaux (France) in 2007 2006: Il cielo sulla terra 2008: Julius Caesar 2008: Ordet (The Word), from the text written by Kaj Munk 2009: The Sea Museum, from the text written by Marie Darrieussecq 2011: Jan Karski (mon nom est une fiction), stagging by Arthur Nauzyciel 2014: Splendid's of Jean Genet, staging by Arthur Nauzyciel

Awards 2011: Laurence Olivier awards (United Kingdom) with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for Babel (words) 2011: Benois de la danse (Russia) with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for Babel (words) 2013: Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government 2014: United Humans Award (with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) 2015: Grimman awards, Iceland. Choreography of the year for Les medusées 2017: Nomination for the Faust Awards (Germany) with Thr(o)ugh