Tilman O'Donnell

Tilman O’Donnell (German/U.S.) received his training at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. He joined The Göteborg Ballet in 2001 Staatstheater Saarbrücken (2002) Cullberg Ballet (2003-2007) The Forsythe Company (2007-2012, guest artist 2012- 2015). He has been freelancing as a choreographer, dancer and teacher since 2010.

From 2023 - 2025 he is serving as Associate Artistic Director for Ballett Basel, at Theater Basel, Switzerland.

Tilman made his debut as a choreographer in 2002 with Del A, receiving first prize in two major international choreographic competitions. In 2005 he was nominated both “Dancer To Watch” and ”Choreographer To Watch” by the magazine Ballet Tanz, and as “Hoffnungsträger” in 2015 by the same publication. In 2017 he was once again named “Dancer to Watch” for Whatever Singularity #453.

He has made works for Cullberg, SPIRA Jönköping/Cullberg To Come, Staatstheater Graz, The Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, University of Dance Stockholm, Corpus, The Danish University of Dance, Weld Theater Stockholm, and Skånes Dansteater as well as producing his own works. Recent works include: This Is (2010), August did not have what is commonly considered good taste as far as furniture is concerned.. (2012) The Disambiguation Project (2013), Whatever Singularity #453: Solo For Maxime / Dancing With Alain (2014), In Life & Love & So On (2015), These & Those & Upon Us (2016) In Some Sense (2016-2018 with Mikkel Ploug), Corpus Dogme: On The One Hand (2019) & History Was Written By The Losers: Hoedown / Showdown (2020), The View From Here (2021), The Progression of Things I & II (2022), and Etudes I & II (2023)

In 2024 a new work, Der Fall (The Fall) will be premiered with Ballett Basel.

His work has been presented among others by Radial System (Berlin), Theater Der Welt (Düsseldorf), Festspielhaus Hellerau (Dresden), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Dansens Hus (Stockholm), and Weld (Stockholm).

In recent years he has worked as a dancer in projects by Fabrice Mazliah (In Act & Thought, The Manufactured Series #2: Made in China, Telling Stories) Deborah Hay (Solo Commissioning Project, Figure A Sea, Animals On The Beach) and Laurent Chetouene (Duett Für Hörende Körper) and toured internationally with these works. Most recently, he has collaborated with William Forsythe on the exhibition format Acquisition Körperschaft, opened at the Folkwang Musuem in Essen, Germany, as well as working with Anne Imhoff on Natures Mortes at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

From 2015 - 2018 Tilman was a member of the multidisciplinary artist group HOOD as part of a fellowship program at PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany. In addition, Tilman was a SITE Stipendium holder in 2019 & 2020.

In addition, he teaches extensively, includingThe University of Roehampton (London) University of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), Batsheva Dance Company, Cullberg, The Freedom Theater (Ramallah, West Bank) Mark Morris Dance Center (New York), University of Dance Copenhagen, Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, Esklan Art Factory (Rome) P.A.R.T.S (Brussels) Gypsy Project (Los Angeles), Dans Alliansen, Danish Dancers & Actors Foundation, PACT Zollverein / Folkwang Schule, Artists Summit / Tanzplatform PACT Zollverein, Norrdans, Tanztheater Pina Bausch, Freie Universität (Berlin), Transformation Dans (Montreal), CODA Festival (Oslo). In 2023 he served as a guest professor at the Folkwang University in Essen, Germany.