Since September 2018, the Spanish choreographer Iván Pérez is the artistic director of Dance Theatre Heidelberg (DTH) at Theater und Orchester Heidelberg. He is also co-curator of the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg and jury member of the Choreographic Center Heidelberg. At the beginning of 2022, he became a member of the board of directors of TanzSzene BW.
Pérez is a former member of the Netherlands Dance Theater, where he had his professional choreographic debut in 2011 with »Flesh«. Since then, he has made new works for companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, Balletboyz, Ballet Moscow, Compañía Nacional de Danza and Dance Forum Taipei amongst others. In 2018, his creation for the Paris Opera Ballet, »The Male Dancer«, part of a shared evening with Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter and James Thiérrée, was broadcasted by Arte as well as reaching cinemas around the globe. Before starting his position with DTH, he also created »Flutter« for Natalia Osipova and Jonathan Goddard at Sadler’s Wells in London, co-produced by the New York City Center, which is still touring worldwide. In 2016, the feature film »Young Men«, based on the stage work created for Balletboyz at Sadler’s Wells, premiered on BBC2/Arte and won a Rose d’Or and a Golden Prague awards.
As an associate choreographer of the Dutch production house Korzo, he made »Kick the Bucket« (2011), »Hide And Seek« (2013), »Exhausting Space« (2015), and »Waiting for the Barbarians« with director Michiel de Regt (2016). From this latest work, he fostered the first written documentation of his practice: »moving thinking capture, Iván Pérez | A Choreographic Toolbox« by Hannah Shakti Bühler. In the same year, he founded his own company INNE in the Netherlands, where he developed his entrepreneurial and leadership skills. With this company, he created his first site-specific work »The Inhabitants« commissioned by Operaestate Festival, Italy. He also choreographed »ISLAND« in collaboration with director Grzegorz Bral and Song of the Goat Theater in Poland. »Becoming« was the last work made with INNE in co-production with Dance Forum Taipei and was presented at the National Theatre of Taipei during TIFA, Taiwan International Festival for the Arts.
Within Dance Theatre Heidelberg, Pérez creates big scale works, promotes new choreographic voices and develops communities around dance. Currently, his trilogy of works examining the millennial generation through dance, visual arts and music, continues to unfold with »Impression«, »Dimension« and »Oscillation«. »Oscillation«, the last part of his trilogy examining the millennial generation through dance, visual arts, and music, can still be seen on stage. Furthermore, through his newest creation, »Firebird & Rite of Spring«, he questions the origin of violence in human nature.
