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Michael Kliën

Michael Kliën is a choreographer and artist whose work has been situated
around the world. Widely considered as one of Europe’s most notable thinkers in contemporary choreography
today, he has been commissioned by leading institutions such
as Ballett Frankfurt, Martha Graham Dance Company, New Museum, PS122,
Volksoper Wien, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Hayward Gallery, and ZKM. As
Artistic Director/CEO of Daghdha (2003—2011, Ireland), he developed a distinct
movement aesthetic as well as influential concepts of politically engaged
choreography, performance, and dance. He received a PhD from the Edinburgh
College of Art in 2009 and, as a committed teacher, has been lecturing about his
findings at leading academic and non-academic institutions. After living in Greece
for five years, he became Associate Professor at Duke University (North Carolina)
in 2017 and inaugural director of the MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary
Praxis in 2018. In 2019 he founded the Laboratory for Social Choreography.

Kliën’s artistic practice encompasses interdisciplinary thinking,
critical writing, curatorial projects, and, centrally, choreographic works
equally at home in the Performing as well as the Fine Arts. Michael Kliën’s
choreographies are predominantly dance-based works of art, situated in on
stage, galleries or alternative spaces. Increasingly, visual artworks form part of
his choreographic output, yet other creations may act directly upon the social
sphere (Social Choreography). His choreographies for dance are marked by a
highly sophisticated improvisation methodology and the subsequent movement
aesthetic.

Amongst a considerable body of work, Michael Kliën’s seminal
choreographies include Einem for Ballett Frankfurt, Sediments of an Ordinary
Mind for Daghdha Dance Company (Limerick), Choreography for Blackboards for
Hayward Gallery (London), Slattery’s Lamp for IMMA’s (Irish Museum of Modern
Art) permanent collection and State of the Union for New Museum/Martha
Graham Dance Company (New York). Solo-exhibitions include IMMA (Dublin) and
Benaki Museum (Athens).