Performances Main Stage

23.07 | 21:00 | 60'

Kalamata Dance Megaron / Main Stage

NAGELHUS SCHIA PRODUCTIONS | DAMIEN JALET

Thrice

About the performance

Nagelhus Schia Productions (NSP) performs Thrice by renowned French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet at the Kalamata International Dance Festival 2025.

The production marks a new chapter in the collaboration between Damien Jalet and Nagelhus Schia Productions (NSP), following their critically acclaimed 2020 project DuEls at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo. That performance was later adapted into a film by director Jonas Åkerlund, which is currently being screened at film festivals around the world.

This piece, like its name suggests, is a triptych. The number three is an important one, both in the work of Damien Jalet and in the references he cites, from Greek tragedy to Japanese theatre, mathematics to religion; past, present and future, body, mind and soul; matter, time and space. This number also and above all recalls the elements that Octavio Paz summons in his poem Wind, Water, Stone. These fundamental, complementary components are gathered here in three sequences—Gusts, Médusés and Brise-lames — around a literal common ground. Indeed, during each new chapter, the performers roll out carpets, on the sides then in the back of the stage, thus building a decor, or rather a portal to another dimension. The wind, the sea and the water thus become the main characters that together hold the timeless and evolving language of this piece: that of bodies attempting not to solidify.

Gusts, the first section, is about air—breath and movement—and pays homage to the force that carries us. With live music by acclaimed Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Giske, performing a newly commissioned original composition, Gusts becomes a dialogue between body and sound, highlighting the tension between gravity and centripetal force.

Médusés, the second chapter, takes its cue from the myth of Medusa and the idea of being petrified by a gaze. Here, bodies resist—between rigidity and fluidity, the individual and the collective. The piece is an evolution of one of Jalet’s early iconic works, previously featured in DuEls.

Brise-lames, the final part, transports us underwater. Created in collaboration with visual artist JR and featuring live music composed and performed by renowned Japanese pianist Koki Nakano, the piece was first conceived during the pandemic in 2020 for nine dancers of the Paris Opera. Until now, it had only been accessible to the public as a film directed by Louise Narboni in close collaboration with Damien Jalet. In this, its first live performance, the movements are slow—like a ship approaching shore, or waves reaching land.

Thrice is a work in constant motion—a story of bodies attempting not to solidify. This project has allowed Damien Jalet to return to the founding principles of his work: a minimalist exploration of movement. His more recent creations have operated on a very grand scale, with ambitious scenography and apparatus. In Thrice, complexity lies elsewhere: in the movements, lights and sound, and in the search of how combination, association and repetition might generate new emotions.

Gusts

  • Choreographer: Damien Jalet
  • Rehearsal Director: Astrid Sweeney
  • Dancers: Even Eileraas, Christina Guieb, Aimilios Arapoglou
  • Lighting Design: Jan Maertens
  • Composer and live music: Bendik Giske
  • Costume Design: Craig Green
  • Scenography: Jim Hodges and Carlos Marques da Cruz

 

Medusés

  • Choreographer: Damien Jalet
  • Dancers: Vebjørn Sundby, Shintaro Oue, Guro Nagelhus Schia, Christina Guieb, Karima El Amrani, Leo Merrien
  • Lighting Design: Jan Maertens
  • Costumes: Line Maher, Bernhard Willhelm
  • Scenography: Jim Hodges and Carlos Marques da Cruz
  • Music: Winter Family
  • Rhythmic composition: Gabriele Miracle

 

Brise-lames

  • Choreographer: Damien Jalet
  • Associate Choreographer: Aimilios Arapoglou
  • Dancers: Guro Nagelhus Schia, Christina Guieb, Karima El Amrani, Nora Svendsgaard, Vebjørn Sundby, Shintaro Oue, Aimilios Arapoglou, Even Eileraas, Leo Merrien
  • Image, Set Design & Costumes: JR
  • Live Music & Original Composition: Koki Nakano
  • Lighting Designer: Fabiana Piccioli
  • Associate Lighting Designer: Sander Loonen

A production of the Paris National Opera

 

Nagelhus Schia Productions

  • Artistic Director: Guro Nagelhus Schia
  • Assisting Artistic Director: Vebjørn Sundby
  • Rehearsal Director: Kristin Hjort Inao
  • Producer: Tara Ishizuka Hassel
  • Sound Technician: Terje Wessel Øverland
  • Light Technician: Jan Harald Øvrum
  • Stage Manager: Tomasz Jerzy Kujawski
  • Text: Theo Casciani
  • Assistant to Damien Jalet: Jamila Hessaïne
  • Produced by: Nagelhus Schia Productions

 

NAGELHUS SCHIA PRODUCTIONS

Nagelhus Schia Productions (NSP) is an award-winning Norwegian contemporary dance company founded in 2018. The company is co-led by Founder and Artistic Director Guro Nagelhus Schia and Assistant Artistic Director Vebjørn Sundby. Both have long-standing careers in contemporary dance—as dancers, choreographers, and actors—on national and international stages. Their shared ambition is to create and present a diverse dance program that takes both the audience and the company on a memorable aesthetic, physical, emotional, and intellectual journey. They are driven by curiosity about what inspires people and moves them—personally, socially, and politically. NSP invites both national and international choreographers, as well as emerging innovative artists, to create new works. Additionally, the company is committed to talent development on multiple levels.

Nagelhus Schia Productions is one of only three Norwegian dance companies with permanent public funding. It is supported by Akershus County, Talent Norway, the Savings Bank Foundation DNB, and Bærum Municipality.

 

DAMIEN JALET

Damien Jalet is one of the world’s most sought-after choreographers, known for working across disciplines including visual art, music, film, theatre, and fashion, in a constant pursuit of redefining dance as an art form. This approach has led to groundbreaking collaborations with artists such as Marina Abramović, Kohei Nawa, Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jim Hodges, Madonna, Jacques Audiard, JR, Thomas Bangalter, and Jonas Åkerlund, among others. He has created works for companies such as Les Ballets C de la B, Eastman, the Paris Opera Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and Nagelhus Schia Productions. Jalet has also garnered attention for his choreography in films such as Suspiria, directed by Luca Guadagnino, and most recently in Jacques Audiard’s multi-award-winning musical Emilia Perez. In recognition of his contributions to the arts, Jalet was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2022.