Ihsan Rustem is a British

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...

living in Switzerland

Early career

Ihsan Rustem was a student at the

Thomas Tallis School Thomas Tallis School is a large mixed comprehensive school for pupils aged 11–19, located in Kidbrooke in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London, England. It opened in 1971, and was named after the composer Thomas Tallis, who lived in Greenwich ...

in his hometown of London before commencing his formal dance training at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, becoming a member of the National Youth Dance Company from 1997–1999. The following year, at the age of 17, Rustem was invited by Matthew Bourne to join his

Adventures in Motion Pictures New Adventures is a British dance-theatre company. Founded by choreographer Matthew Bourne in 2001, the company developed from an earlier company Adventures in Motion Pictures, now dissolved. History Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) was es ...

for the creation of ‘ The Car Man’. From 2001–2004 he was a soloist with Philip Taylor's Ballett Theater München (

Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz The Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz (''State Theatre at Gärtnerplatz''), commonly called the Gärtnerplatztheater, is an opera house and opera company in Munich. (The "Gärtnerplatz" is an urban square in the borough Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt.) ...

) before moving to the Netherlands, where he danced for three seasons as a member of

Introdans Introdans is a dance company based in the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands, established in 1971 by Hans Focking and Ton Wiggers. In 2009 the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science designated Introdans part of the basic national infrastructur ...

. Since 2007 Rustem has lived and worked in Switzerland, initially as a soloist with Cathy Marston's Stadttheater Bern Ballet, then at the Tanz Luzerner Theater. Rustem has worked with such well-known choreographers as

Mats Ek Mats Ek (born 18 April 1945) is a Swedish dance and ballet choreographer, dancer and stage director. He was the manager of the Cullberg Ballet from 1985 to 1993. Life and career Ek was born in Malmö in 1945, the son of the Royal Dramatic Theatr ...

Jiri Kylian Jiri ( ne, जिरी) is a municipality in Dolakha District in the Bagmati Province of central Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had a population of 13,638 people.. Jiri, which lies about 190 kilometers from Kathmandu, is the m ...

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

Lightfoot / Sol Leon,

Hans van Manen Hans Arthur Gerard van Manen (; born 11 July 1932) is a Dutch ballet dancer, choreographer and photographer. He studied under Sonia Gaskell and Françoise Adret. Van Manen wrote many ballets. He worked for the Dutch National Ballet from 1973 ...

. He originated roles in creations by

Karole Armitage Karole Armitage (born March 3, 1954) is an American dancer and choreographer currently based in New York City. She is artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a contemporary dance company that performs several times annually in New York City as ...

, Matthew Bourne,

Alexander Ekman Karl Wilhelm Alexander Ekman (born 1984) is a Swedish ballet dancer and choreographer. His choreographies have been performed by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, the Boston Ballet, the Semperoper Ballett, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Norwegian N ...

Wayne McGregor Wayne McGregor, CBE (born 12 March 1970) is a multi award-winning British choreographer and director. He is the Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. McGregor was appointed Commander of t ...

Hofesh Shechter Hofesh Shechter (born 3 May 1975) is an Israeli choreographer, dancer and composer based in London. He is best known for being the founder and artistic director of the Hofesh Shechter Company. Shechter was nominated for the Tony Award for Best ...

Stijn Celis Stijn Celis is a Belgian choreographer and set designer. He danced in companies such as the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the Zürich Ballet, Contemporary Dance Zurich, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Cullberg Ballet. In a survey o ...

, Cayetano Soto, Ken Ossola, Georg Reischl and danced further works by

Maurice Béjart Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast th ...

, William Forsythe, David Parsons and

Twyla Tharp Twyla Tharp (; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music. Fr ...

, amongst others. He works extensively with and regularly assists the choreographer Patrick Delcroix. In 2014 he left the theatre to focus his attention to choreography.

Choreographer

Rustem was encouraged to choreograph whilst at the Rambert School, creating 10 pieces for the academy. His work 'Twist of Fate', made for the Bern Ballet's 'Dance: Made in Bern' series, was nominated for the 24th

International Choreographic Competition Hannover Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Germany, and for the 2010 Sadler's Wells Global Dance Competition, becoming a finalist in the competitions. The following year he went on to win both the

Sadler's Wells Theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-sea ...

's Global Dance Contest and the Audience Choice Award ('Publikumspreis') at the 25th International Competition for Choreographers in Hannover He was the 2014 recipient of

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a contemporary dance company based in Chicago. Hubbard Street performs in downtown Chicago at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and at the Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Hubb ...

's International Commissioning Project and in 2017 Ihsan's production of Carmen, created for the NW Dance Project, won

Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' has multiple sister publications, including '' Point ...

's 2017 Readers' Choice Award for Best Collaboration. Rustem is the Resident Choreographer for the Northwest Dance Project. He is the former Artistic Director of the Dance Art Studio Ballettschule Luzern and currently serves as their Artistic Advisor.

Creations

To date, Rustem has created works for Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal,

, Northwest Dance Project (USA), Istanbul State Ballet MDT (Turkey), Tanz Luzerner Theater, Würzburg Ballett (DE), Kazan State Opera and Ballet (RU), Koblenz Ballet (DE), National Youth Dance Company (UK), Aksanat Istanbul, Cinevox Junior Company (CH), BYU Contemporary Dance Theater (USA), BYU Theatre Ballet (USA), Interdans (BE),

Palucca School of Dance The Palucca University of Dance Dresden (german: Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden), formerly the Palucca School Dresden, is a dance school in Dresden, Germany, founded in 1925 by the dancer and pedagogue Gret Palucca who taught until 1990. ...

(DE),

ArtEz ArtEZ University of Arts ( nl, ArtEZ hogeschool voor de kunsten) is an art academy in Netherlands. ArtEZ combines several art institutes and art disciplines with branches in Arnhem, Enschede, and Zwolle. In its name the A stands for Arnhem, the ...

Dansacademie Arnhem (Highschool for the Arts Arnhem, NL), ZHdK – Zurich University of the Arts, Codarts (NL), Introdans (NL) and the Dance Art Studio Luzern. His work ''Reminiscence'' appeared on Russia's popular TV competition, The Bolshoi Ballet, where Rustem was a featured choreographer.

Awards

* Dance Magazine's 2017 Readers' Choice Award for 'Carmen' – Best Collaboration *

's Global Dance Contest 2011 Winner * 2011 Audience Choice Award Hannover International Choreography Competition * Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's International Commissioning Project winner 2014 * Fewster Cecchetti Scholarship 2nd Prize 2000

Press

* "Bright and witty…rescued from the graveyard of pop-culture banality and restored affectionately to its pedestal of seductively oddball expressionism" – Oregon Arts Watch on Bolero * "Ihsan Rustem’s "The Road to Here" is a veritable powerhouse" – Seattle Times * "The most memorable sequence was choreographed by London-born Ihsan Rustem in his duet to 'Suzanne'" – Boston Globe * "Rustem’s creations of such graceful energies were much appreciated by everyone" – Calgary Herald * "NW Dance jumps from great to even better: The addition of choreographer Ihsan Rustem raises the standard" – Phil Busse * "It’s hard to look away from such breathless abandon." – Oregon Arts Watch on Yidam * "Rustem has worked for companies around the world; lucky for us that livierWevers has brought him to Seattle twice (so far)." – Marcie Cillman * "Rustem's "Mother Tongue" seems a model of contemporary choreography—a piece very much of its own time but also fiercely focused and sure of itself. It doesn't meander, it doesn't settle for the first idea. Like all good dances, it cuts through space with a conviction that this is the only possible way this particular piece could be." – Bob Hicks

References

External links

Website Ihsan Rustem

YouTube page for Ihsan Rustem

Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest

Luzerner Theater

IMDb.com entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustem, Ihsan English choreographers Living people British male ballet dancers 1982 births