Planet [Wanderer] | Damien Jalet

Eight creatures, eight wanderers. Like nomads condemned by the law of gravity, they constantly drift on the same celestial body. Damien Jalet exposes eight dancers to a ceaseless confrontation with the natural elements—wind, water, dirt, smoke, fog, light, and darkness. On stage, a cosmogony begins to take place.

An iconoclastic choreographer and dancer, Damien Jalet (Belgium/France) is internationally revered for his monumental choreographies that can be perceived as art installations, such as the iconic "Chiroptera" (2023) staged on the façade of the Opéra Garnier in Paris with the participation of 153 dancers. Moreover, he has helmed choreographic work for Madonna ("Madame X" and "Celebration" tours) and the films "Suspiria" by Luca Guadagnino, "Anima" by Paul Thomas Anderson, and "Emilia Pérez" by Jacques Audiard. He has also collaborated with artists such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Marina Abramović, Iris van Herpen, Thom Yorke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Thomas Bangalter, and JR.

For his first staging at Onassis Stegi, he wishes to present the work he began creating in Japan in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011. It is a work that he eventually titled "Planet [wanderer]", based on the double meaning of the ancient Greek verb ‘planáōmai/ planōmai,’ which is “to wander about, to stray.”

Because maybe this is what we are. Wanderers. On the same celestial body, which, equally, drifts amid the universe.