Thierry Smits

For about 25 years, Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits has asserted an artistic approach that is well off the beaten path in many respects, one that is frequently controversial and often goes against the tide. Alternating pure dance productions with more performative pieces, his work explores our relationship to the body – as an object of desire, pleasure and finiteness – which Smits considers, today more than ever, as a political space, « the only free territory left to us ».

Since the setting-up of his company in 1990, Thierry Smits has created over thirty dance performances. Among them Eros délétère (1991), Red Rubber Balls (1999), D’ORIENT (2005), V.-Nightmares (2007) and To the Ones I Love (2010). His creations, while characterized by an acute visual sense, oscillate between sober contemporary lines on the one hand, and pop, queer and often provocative aesthetics on the other hand. But, whatever the form, Thierry Smits’ performances constantly bear witness of a high technical rigour and gestural inventiveness, of an undisputable frankness and generosity.

Over the years, Thierry Smits has evolved into one of the mainstays of the Belgian dance scene. Compagnie Thor, with its outstanding group of performing artists drawn from around the globe, has garnered itself an international reputation, touring extensively in Belgium and abroad, throughout Europe (France, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Hungary, Croatia…), the USA, the Middle East and Northern Africa, in venues and festivals including the Barbican in London, Trafó in Budapest, the Schriittmacher Festival in Aachen, the Opéra de Rouen, the BIPOD Festival in Beirut, the Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico and the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.