Choreography Trailer
KING ARTHUR
Premiere: June 2025_Hessisches Staatsballett + Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Cross-genre production with dance, drama, and music theater
“(…) a loud, colorful and highly contemporary production (…), showing how important and right it is to keep rethinking existing repertoire.” (Irem Cati, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ)
“Captivating ambivalence” (Katja Sturm, Frankfurter Neue Presse)
With King Arthur, German choreographer Chris Jäger reimagines Henry Purcell’s baroque semi-opera in a contemporary, fictional village setting. Originally premiered in 1691 with a libretto by John Dryden as a patriotic epic glorifying England, Jäger transforms the work into a symbol of a fractured community. Against the backdrop of rising right-wing currents and crumbling village traditions, the piece explores belonging, self-determination, and visions for society. While Arthur embodies stability and convention, Oswald, Emmeline, and the airy spirits represent a progressive counterforce resisting rigid gender roles and patriarchal claims of ownership.
Jäger fuses dance, drama, and music theater into a cross-genre Gesamtkunstwerk that breaks open the classical form of the semi-opera. Tobias Schwencke’s adaptation of Purcell’s baroque sound world collides with modern songs and electronic compositions by Paul Frick — performed live and powerfully interwoven into a multi-voiced soundtrack of the present.
Direction, Choreography & Stage Design: Chris Jäger / Musical Direction & Harpsichord: Tim Hawken / Composition: Tobias Schwencke + Paul Frick / Costumes: Sophie Peters / Co-Stage Design: Alexandra Hoh /Dramaturgy: Lucas Herrmann /Assistant Director: Marvin Mohrhardt / Rehearsal Director: Jaione Zabala / Musical Preparation: Tim Hawken + Waldemar Martynel / Costume Assistant: Dea Bejleri / Lighting: Steffen Hilbricht /Actors: Tabea Buser + Jonas Grundner-Culemann + Felix Strüven /Singers: Sarah Yang + Luisa Sagliano + Sascha Zarrabi + Sam Park / Dancers: Peng Chen + Alessio Pirrone + Kenedy Kallas + Rita Winder
MOBB
Premiere: October 2024_Theater der jungen Welt Leipzig
Sofiia Stasiv has received the German Theatre Award Der Faust 2025 for her performance in MOBB.
A mobile dance solo in the classroom. 10+
Not too strong. But definitely not too weak. Don’t stand out! Because if you stand out, you become a target. And if you’re the target, you’re screwed.
Does body language decide within seconds who bullies and who gets bullied? What do the way we walk, enter a room, or choose a seat have to do with power dynamics in a classroom? What happens to these movements when someone is bullied? And how, on the other hand, could self-empowerment begin to take shape in the body?
Through research in Leipzig schools, Cordelia Lange and Chris Jäger developed a dance solo for the classroom that examines bullying from a physical perspective. What does bullying do to the body — of the bullied and the bully? And how is it inscribed into everyday movements?
After the 45-minute dance performance, each showing is followed by a discussion with the students in the classroom.
Choreography + Stage Design: Chris Jäger / Choreography + Costumes: Cordelia Lange / Music: Hördur Bjarnason / Dramaturgy: Justus Rothlaender + Ulrike Carl / Theater Education: Theresa Kawalek / Cast: Sofiia Stasiv
MIDNIGHT SWINGING
Premiere: November 2023_Landesbühnen Sachsen Radebeul
Stadttheater Gießen
„A clearly inspired trio (…) that acts calmly and with intense ease. No wonder that this event was so memorable in the end.“ – (Grabiele Gorgas, Dresdener Neuste Nachrichten)
„theatrical excellence“ (Yu Bai, writer)
MIDNIGHT SWINGING is Chris Jägers first commissioned work for the dance company at Landesbühnen Sachsen in Radebeul under the artistic direction of Natalie Wagner. „Set in a barn with a swing as the central piece. The performance featured (…) (a) trio, entering the stage with a playful display of human emotions. Adorned in well-paired costumes, the dancers interacted with props like a dead mouse and sacks of hay, exploring different perspectives on life and death.“ says writer Yu Bai. In MIDNIGHT SWINGING, Chris Jäger explores society’s struggle for proximity. Is society currently in a dissociative relationship with each other, unable to be close? In their desire for proximity, three dancers explore the discomfort of their bodies and approach physical boundaries in order to rediscover tenderness and overcome personal and social traumas.
A production by Landesbühnen Sachsen in Radebeul (artistic direction: Natalie Wagner) | Choreography, Concept: Chris Jäger | dance, creation: Lorenzo Giovanetti / Gavin Law, Christian Senatore / Anna Jirmanova, Ema Jankovič / Isabelle Nelson | Costume: Greta Wilhelm | Assistance, Rehearsal director, Inspizient: Karolina Dieter | Dramaturgy: Gisela Zürner | Sound: Frank Striegler | Technical direction: Albrecht Löser | Light: René Birndt, Dieter Krause | Make up: Andrea Billan | Props: Daniela Seffer
DADDY SHOT MY RABBIT
Premiere: May 2023_Uferstudios Berlin
LOT-Theater Braunschweig, Theaterhaus Hildesheim, Eisfabrik Hannover, Staatstheater Darmstadt / Tanzplattform Rhein-Main
„Clever play, originally told, sensitive and differentiated … with a truly bizarre eccentricity.“ (rbb Kultur)
„Chris Jäger doesn’t shy away from the drastic, the stuff that still hurts to watch. Nevertheless, he doesn’t end up with clichés. Many a theater director could still learn from him.“ (Frankfurter Rundschau)
„A visual bang.“ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ)
„Very skillful in concealing the real, the perhaps unspeakable, the indivisible, he demonstrates a talent for seeing the comic in the tragic, staging some tipping moments in which both appear.“ (tanz Magazin)
„The piece also has wit and its very own strange beauty.“ (SUBWAY)
DADDY SHOT MY RABBIT is dedicated to bleeding souls and trembling rabbits. Equipped with furs and weapons, a community tries to survive alone. Unable to be close to each other, yet dependent on one another, four dancers stand in a dysfunctional network of relationships. Their traumatized coexistence manifests itself in their tense and restless bodies. In an atmosphere of latent violence, opaque actions testify to dissociative behavior. The cause of their suffering, which is to be guessed, only takes shape through the appearance of a rabbit. Shaking and twerking, they try to free themselves from the pressure of post-traumatic stress in order to finally be able to take the past in their arms and caress it.
The performance aims to raise awareness about the important issue of mental health, especially intergenerational trauma. The experience of traumatic events can lead to long-lasting behavioral changes that also affect subsequent generations. This makes it all the more important to deal transparently with mental wounding in order to minimize its impact. It should be possible for those affected to address their psychological injuries openly and without stigmatization. DADDY SHOT MY RABBIT therefore focuses on a community whose interpersonal behavior is burdened by trauma. Together with the dancers, Chris Jäger explores the effects of emotional shock on the body and its natural coping strategies that allow us to shake off shocking experiences.
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, Die Stiftung Niedersachsen, Die Braunschweigische Stiftung, the City of Hanover and the City of Braunschweig.
With the kind support of Kulturinitiative Förderband gGmbH and Landesverband Freier Theater Niedersachsen e.V.
A production by Chris Jäger in co-production with LOT-Theater Braunschweig | Concept/Choreography: Chris Jäger | Dramaturgy: Nicholas Zöckler | Lighting Design: Raquel Rosildete | Sound: Hördur Már Bjarnason | Dance/Creation: Anna Mahalia Rose, Laura Garcia Aguilera, Linus Jansner / Kilian Löderbusch, Francesca Sacchi | Stage/Costume: Chris Jäger | Graphic Design: Edouard Duvernay
SEX MIT MADONNA
Premiere: March 2021 _ LOT-Theater Braunschweig
Theater im Delphi Berlin, QUARTIER Theater Hannover, LOT-Theater Braunschweig, TANZ! Heilbronn Festival, Uferstudios Berlin, Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden / Staatstheater Wiesbaden
„Dagegen helfen nur manische Musik von Madonna und manische Sprünge (…) in einem nicht enden wollenden Schneefall von Konfetti.“ Arnd Wesemann in TANZ magazine
„Traumwandlerisch poetisch.„ Claudia Ihlefeld in STIMME Heilbronn
„Unter permanenter Hochspannung“ Manuel Wenda in Wiesbadener Kurier
As if struck by lightning, they dance euphorically, long deprived of their strength. Their bodies beg for relaxation but they find no peace. In this contemporary dance trio Chris Jäger takes on the socially tabooed bipolar disorder in its physicality. Also called manic-depressive illness, bipolar disorder is one of the most common mental illnesses in Germany and often puts those affected in precarious situations. How does a manic body move and how does a depressive one move? The tension between mania and depression in a single person, which sheerly tears body and mind apart, is the core of this choreographic confrontation.
„When I had sex with Madonna I felt good for a moment (…) she had been singing about me all her life.“ Thomas Melle – bipolar playwright
Supported by the Stiftung für Seelische Gesundheit, the Braunschweigische Stiftung, the Stiftung Niedersachsen, the Pankow District Office of Berlin and by the Fonds Darstellende Künste from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media #TakeAction. With the kind support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Bipolare Störung e.V., the Kulturinitiative Förderband gGmbH and the Landesverband Freier Theater Niedersachsen e.V..
A production by Chris Jäger and MIFRUSH Production in co-production with LOT-Theater Braunschweig | An event in the framework of Tanzstelle Braunschweig | Concept and choreography: Chris Jäger | Dramaturgy: Julia Heinrichs | Lighting design: Raquel Rosildete | Graphic designer: Edouard Duvernay | Production management: MIFRUSH Production Micaela Trigo, Urszula Heuwinkel | Dancers: Louis Partridge, Justyna Kalbarczyk, Maya Milet / Cordelia Eleonore Lange
PLÜSCH
Premiere: November 2021 _ LOT-Theater Braunschweig / TanZzeit Festival
In PLÜSCH Chris Jäger spins an intimate and at the same time grotesque trio about helplessness, violence and trauma. PLÜSCH places individual dance expression at the center, making dancers victims and perpetrators at the same time. A negotiation of forces within one body and the accompanying physical states of traumatization are the core of this choreographic confrontation. „We don’t know what we don’t know“ (quote Steve Haines) but what about an unexpressed desire for brutality? PLÜSCH is strange. PLÜSCH confuses.
Concept and choreography_Chris Jäger / dance_Anna Mahalia Rose, Cecilia Castellari, Claudia Greco / singing_Anna Mahalia Rose / filmmaking_Giacomo Corvaia / make up_Maya Milet / costume_Chris Jäger / props_Gesa Heichel / assistence_Antonia Gersch
TAIFUN
Premiere: September 2019 _ Seoul Dance Center (South Korea)
TAIFUN (English: typhoon) is the result of a 5 week choreographic research at Seoul Dance Center in the city of Seoul in South Korea. In this choreographic research Chris Jäger is focussing on the topic of mental health in collaboration with local dance artist Yejin Kwon. In this choreographic residency, Chris Jäger transfers the bodily effects of a mental health condition to performing bodies. In exchange with the local dance community and the kind support of the Seoul Dance Center and the Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture he presented a 30 minute duet focussing on empathy and care within peoples approach on depression and mania in Korean society.
MOODY AND THE HELPER
Premiere: December 2016 _ LOT-Theater Braunschweig / TanZzeit Festival / „A whole LOT of dance“ Festival Braunschweig / The Wall °8 Festival PAUL Studios Berlin
MOODY AND THE HELPER is a short contemporary dance drama on two different ways to cope with loss and grief. One being sensitive and good hearted choosing to cover one’s pain and loss with care for others in order to deny ones own damages and the other choosing to react with anger and frustration. Both manifested in an innocent yet aggressive dance language forming two hilarious characters, Moody and The Helper. Who gets lost and who will be ok? A dance that is silly and authentic, unusual but honest.
Concept and choreography_Chris Jäger / dance_Claudia Greco, Alice Gaspari, Taylor Druri, Lorena Justrybo Marion / costume_Chris Jäger
BE MY BABY
Premiere: June 2014 _ Staatstheater Braunschweig
28th international competition for choreographers Hannover / Staatstheater Braunschweig / HAUT_Scene Festival Copenhagen, Denmark / Zawirowania Choreographic Competition Warsaw, Poland
BE MY BABY is Chris Jägers first professional choreographic work. A boy-meets-girl-story of naivety and desire showing a queer perspective on approaching one another. A story that will break your heart. „Im scared of what’s behind and what’s before (…) And after the storm?“ (Mumford and Sons – After The Storm) BE MY BABY was a finalist at the 28th competition for choreography in Hannover in 2014.
Concept and choreography_Chris Jäger / dance_ Gemma Miro Rocca, Sara Angius, Chris Jäger / / costume_Chris Jäger
