Michael Kliën

Choreographer and artist Michael Kliën’s work has been situated around the world. Widely considered one of Europe’s foremost thinkers in the field of contemporary choreography, he has been commissioned by leading institutions such as the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the Ballett Frankfurt, Martha Graham Dance Company, the New Museum, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Benaki Museum, and Hayward Gallery. As Artistic Director/CEO of Daghdha (2003–2011, Ireland) and co-founder of R.I.C.E. on the island of Hydra, he and his collaborators have developed notions of an extended, socio-politically engaged choreography often referred to as ‘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 fine arts. He holds a PhD from Edinburgh College of Art and in 2017, Kliën was appointed Professor at Duke University. He was the inaugural director of the MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis and has founded and directed the Laboratory for Social Choreography at the Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke since 2021.

Michael Kliën is an Onassis AiR Fellow for 2024/25 through the Dramaturgy Fellowship.