IHSAN RUSTEM

British / Swiss choreographer, Ihsan Rustem was born in London, where he trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

Ihsan is the Artistic Director of the Swiss dance company Cie. La Ronde founded in 2020 with choreographer Cathy Marston, and the Resident Choreographer for the NW Dance Project in Portland, Oregon, where he has created twelve works to date.

Further collaborations include the Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Ballets Jazz Montréal, Sao Paulo City Ballet, National Ballet of Chile, Ballet Moscow, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2, Istanbul State Ballet MDT, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Bern Ballet, Konzert Theater St Gallen, Whim W’Him Seattle, Ballare Carmel, Ballett Augsburg,  Thüringer Staatsballett, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Tanztheater, Kazan State Opera and Ballet, Koblenz Ballet, Ballet Regensburg, Würzburg Ballet, Siberian State Ballet, Salt Contemporary Dance USA, Arts Umbrella Dance Company Vancouver, Moving Arts Cincinnati, National Youth Dance Company, Palucca Hochschule Dresden, Codarts, ZHdK, Tanzwerk101, Taipei National University of the Arts and the Rambert School. He was a featured choreographer for Russia’s popular TV show The Bolshoi Ballet.

Nederlands Dans Theater named Ihsan as one of their Up & Coming Choreographers for the 2018/19 season.

His work for the NW Dance Project has been recognized with numerous accolades. State of Matter won the 2012 Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest, as well as the Public Prize at the 25th International Competition for Choreographers Hannover, and Carmen received Dance Magazine’s 2017 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Collaboration. Rustem was also the 2014 recipient of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s International Commissioning Project.

Rustem is the former Director of the Ballettschule Luzern, and, in 2021, he joined the jury of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne.

From 2000-2014 Ihsan Rustem was a dancer with the Ballet Theater Munich, Introdans, Bern Ballet, Tanz Luzerner Theater, and Adventures in Motion Pictures. He originated roles in creations by Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Matthew Bourne, Stijn Celis, Patrick Delcroix, Cayetano Soto, Felix Landerer, and Cathy Marston. He has also worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiri Kylián, Paul Lightfoot / Sol Leon, Hans van Manen, and William Forsythe, amongst others.

Ihsan lives in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Photo: Aline Paley / Prix de Lausanne