1 Jan 2003

Kristina de Châtel

choreographer

Krisztina de Châtel started her own dance company in 1976 after her studies with Kurt Jooss and Koert Stuyf. Under her leadership the Krisztina de Châtel Dance Company has developed into an internationally operating modern dance company with a completely unique oeuvre and an exquisite list of dancers.

Krisztina de Châtel created more than 40 choreographies and 2 television films in the past twenty-five years. Most of De Châtel's choreographies are full-length productions bringing together dance, music and visual arts and confronting these with one another. Over the last years her interest has shifted more and more to computers, video and new technologies. In her work she tries to determine the place of moving humans in today's hectic, western world with its fast developments. While De Châtel's point of departure is and remains minimal dance, her productions can differ greatly in character.

Her work can be very sober and compelling, but it can also be expressive. Her oeuvre actually forms one grand statement about how this artist experiences life: her work reveals themes such as struggle, isolation, anger and sexual relations, even though the choreographer puts them into an abstract form. This form is always clear, controlled à la Mondriaan. This evokes friction with her Hungarian temperament, her expressionism, with which she tries to break through the strict form. That dualism makes her productions very formal, but their nature can also be dramatic. The performance is always in balance, somewhere on this scale of extremes.

Krisztina de Châtel has been awarded several times for her work. She was given the Sonia Gaskellprize, the choreographyprize of the association of directors of theatres and concerthalls and in October 2000 the Prize of the Netherlands Dance Days.

Her work is performed in theatres, (outdoor) locations and on television. The company has toured in Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America, The Middle-East and Asia.

source: www.dechatel.nl/main_e.html