Damien Jalet

Damien Jalet is a choreographer, dancer and associate artist at the Théâtre National de Bretagne (TNB). He has been awarded the rank of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Jalet has worked with companies including les ballets C de la B, Sasha Waltz, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessisches Staatsballett, Paris Opera Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre and Iceland Dance Company. He also collaborated with Madonna on parts of the Madame X Tour (2019/20) and several songs featured in The Celebration Tour (2023/24).

As a choreographer at TNB, he presented YAMA (2017); VESSEL, in collaboration with Kohei Nawa, and Omphalos (2019); as well as Thr(o)ugh and Skid, which premiered as a double bill in 2023. In 2026, the two works were presented as Onbashira Diptych by the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. They were followed by Planet [wanderer] and Mist (both created in collaboration with Kohei Nawa, 2024).

In 2023, he created Chiroptera in collaboration with artist JR and composer Thomas Bangalter, a unique performance featuring the prima ballerina of Opéra de Paris ballet Amandine Albisson and 153 dancers on the scaffolding of the façade of the Opéra de Paris. 

In September 2024, he worked once again with Kohei Nawa, creating Mirage [transitory] at Theater 010 in Fukuoka, Japan. Building on this work, they created Mirage, the fourth chapter of their long-standing collaboration, continuing their exploration of the ever-changing processes of transformation and metamorphosis. Following performances at KAMPNAGEL in Hamburg and the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2025, the work was presented in 2026 at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon and at LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura in Lugano.

In film, Jalet collaborated with director Gilles Delmas to create The Ferryman (2016), with the participation of Marina Abramović and Ryuichi Sakamoto (2017, Venice Biennale). Later, he created the film Mist for NDT 1 (2021). Jalet choreographed Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018), Paul Thomas Anderson’s Anima (2019, Best Choreography at the ukmva) with Thom Yorke, and Jacques Audiard’s film Emilia Perez (2024, Jury Prize and Best Actress Award at the Festival de Cannes 2024).

Jalet’s choreography for the widely viewed music video Storm (Gener8ion feat. Yung Lean) was selected as the “Online Event of the Year” in tanz magazine’s 2026 international critics’ survey.