About Me

MY NAME IS IVÁN PÉREZ AVILÉS AND I AM A SPANISH CHOREOGRAPHER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CURATOR, AND COACH IN THE MAKING.

SINCE SEPTEMBER 2018, I HAVE BEEN THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE DANCE THEATRE HEIDELBERG (DTH) AT THEATER UND ORCHESTER HEIDELBERG, AS WELL AS A CO-CURATOR OF THE TANZBIENNALE HEIDELBERG AND A JURY MEMBER OF THE CHOREOGRAPHIC CENTER HEIDELBERG.

FROM SEPTEMBER 2026, FOLLOWING MY DEPARTURE FROM DTH, I LOOK FORWARD TO FOCUSING ON CHOREOGRAPHIC COMMISSION WORK, WHILE REMAINING OPEN FOR NEW CURATORIAL AND LEADERSHIP ROLES IN DANCE.

Currently, I am enrolled in the Master on “Executive Coaching and Leadership” at OBS Business School, partner of the University of Barcelona.

As a former member of the world-renowned Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT), I had the honor of working with top-class choreographers such as Jirî Kylian, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor, Pau Lightfoot and Sol León, Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Marina Mascarell, and many more. In 2004, my performance in Jiří Kylián's "Indigo Rose" earned me a Swan Award nomination for Best Performance. Prior to NDT, I danced with IT Dansa in Barcelona, Spain, where I worked with choreographers such as Stijn Celis and Ramón Oller. Once graduated in “Choreography and Interpretation” at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid (Alicia Alonso´s Institute), I won several prices in international choreographic competitions such as the Burgos & New York International Choreographic Competition (With Maruxa Salas, “Minube”) and the Madrid Choreographic Competition, to mention some. I then continued my choreographic path in NDT, where I was invited to create two works as an upcoming choreographer in NDT1 (2008,2010).

In 2011, I had my professional choreographic debut with “Flesh” created for NDT2, which has been re-staged at the River North Dance Chicago, the Leipziger Ballett, and the Lithuanian National Ballet. Since then, I have made new works for prestigious companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, BalletBoyz, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Ballet Moscow, Dance Forum Taipei, ZfinMalta National Dance Company, Lava Compañía de Danza, Ballet of the State Theatre at Gärtnerplatz, Tanzensemble Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, TANZ Bielefeld, and the Dance Theatre Heidelberg, amongst others.

Thanks to the European Commission's "Pivot Dance" project (2016), I acquired management and leadership skills. During the "Rural Retreat for New Dance Leaders" organized by DanceEast, UK (2019), I learned about leadership from the CEOs of major companies in various fields. I furthered my knowledge through leadership training at Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and at the Summer Berlin University of the Arts with the course: "It´s All About…Talking: Curation and Communication in the Performing Arts."

In 2016, the feature film “Young Men”, based on the stage work created for BalletBoyz at Sadler´s Wells Theatre in London, premiered on BBC2/Arte and won a Rose D’Or and a Golden Prague award. Later on, the Groupe et Compagnie Grenade - Josette Baïz toured 12 French cities with an excerpt from "Young Men," including four performances at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. In 2018, my creation for the Paris Opera Ballet, “The Male Dancer”, was broadcast by Arte and in cinemas worldwide. In that same year, I created “Flutter” for Natalia Osipova and Jonathan Coddard, produced by Sadler´s Well Theatre and co-produced with the New York City Center, which was presented at the Sydney Opera House and featured in “Force Of Nature”, a documentary on Natalia Osipova´s career.

As an associate choreographer of the Dutch production house Korzo (2021-2016), I created “Kick the Bucket”, “Hide and Seek”, “Exhausting Space”, and “Waiting for the Barbarians” with director Michiel de Regt. From this latest work, I forstered the first written documentation of my practice: “ Moving thinking capture, Iván Pérez / A choreographic toolbox” by Hannah Shakti Bühler. In 2016. “Waiting for the Barbarians” was later staged with the Dance Theatre Heidelbrg and actos of Theater und Orchester heidelberg at the Schloossfestspiele Heidelberg (2022).

In 2016, I founded my own company INNE / Iván Pérez in the Netherlands, where I developed my entrepreneurial and leadership skills. With this company, I created my first site-specific work “The Inhabitants” commissioned by Operaestate Festival, Italy. I also choreographed “Island” in collaboration with director Grzegorz Bral and Song of the Goat Theater in Poland, which later was staged with the Dance Theatre Heidelberg and the choir of Theater und Orchester Heidelberg (2023). “Becoming” was the last work made with INNE in co-production with the Dance Forum Taipei and was presented at the National Theater & Concert Hall of Taipei as part of TIFA, Taiwan International Festival of the Arts.

Since 2018, within Dance Theatre Heidelberg, I created big scale works, often in collaboration with the Philharmonic Orchestra Heidelberg and other departments, I promoted choreographic voices through commissions to choreographers such as Renan Martins, Astrid Boons, Melanie Lane, Ioana Paraskevopoulou, Panzetti/Ticconi, and Tamara Cubas. My focus has also been the developments of communities around dance with participative projects (for example: Tamara Cuba’s “Multitud” with 70 amateurs, and others personally guided), workshops, film screenings. It was my pleasure to collaborate with local institutions such as EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Queer Festival Heidelberg and the University of Heidelberg. With the company, I have develop international partnerships such as the cooperation with Dance Forum Taipei (DFT), where 20 dancers from DTH and DFT performed together at the National Theater & Concert Hall of Taipei and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, as part fo TIFA, Taiwan International Festival of the Arts (2023). In 2025, my work, “Silk”, was presented with DTH at the Principal Theater of Alicante, Spain, as part of the Abril en Danza Festival. And in July 2026, my most recent work, “Bodies of Water”, will be shown at the Tenerife Auditorium, Spain.

My creations for DTH are the Millennium trilogy consisting of »Impression« (2018), »Dimension« (2019), and »Oscillation« (2021), »Exhausting Space« (2019), »Zusammen« (2020), a two-part evening with the duets »Flutter« and »Kick the Bucket«, »Waiting for the Barbarians« (2016/2022) in cooperation with the drama department of Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, »Avatars and Antiheroes« (2021), »Island« (2022) in cooperation with the choir of Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, »Reality and the Cosmos« (2023), »Silk« (2024), »Pollock« (2024), and »Bodies of Water«, which premiered on January 30, 2026.

Under the umbrella of the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg, I have had the honor to co-curate the program of three editions with Jai Gonzalez, Berhard Fauser and Holger Schultze, showcasing dance in all its forms, a diversity of abilities, and for all ages. The festivals presented choreographers and comapnies such as Lia Rodrigues, NDT2, Kor´sia, Mathild Monnier, Rocio Molina, Maguy Marin, Christor Papadopoulos/Dance On Ensemble, Damaged Good/Meg Stuart, Marina Mascarell/Dance Forum Taipei, and many more. And, since 2022, I have been a member of the board of directors of the TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg.

Overall, my works have been performed at venues such as Sadler's Wells, New York City Center, Sydney Opera House, Palais Garnier, Chaillot - Théâtre National de la Danse, Lucent Dans Theater, National Theater & Concert Hall of Taipei, as well as at international festivals, such as Holland Dance Festival, Operaestate Festival, Taiwan International Festival of the Arts, Dansa Valencia, Temps d´aimer la danse, schrit_tmacher festival, amongst others.

As an educator, I had the pleasure of creating and re-staging works for Universities such as Julliard (U.S.A.), Codarts (NL), the Conservatory of Valencia (ES), Conservatory Marienma of Madrid (ES), Artez (NL), HfMDK (DE), Conservatory of Alicante (ES), the George Mason University (U.S.A.), the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (BE), and l’Ecole Nationale de Danse de Marseille (ENDM). I have guided workshops in courses in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Russia, and Germany.

Lastly, it has been a true privilege to participate as a mentor in the mentoring program, “Stepping Stones”, organized by the Tanzfestival Rhein-Main, and as a Jury member in the International Solo Tanz Theater Festival Stuttgart, the Dutch Dance Days Prize, and most recently, at the Tantriennale in Hamburg for its residency program.