LILLIAN STILLWELL has danced and choreographed in Europe since 2007. Her work has been seen at Theater Basel in Switzerland, Opera Graz in Austria, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Royal Danish Opera, the National Theater of Mannheim and State Theaters in Lübeck, Saarbrücken, Heidelberg, Bremen and Kassel in Germany, as well as in the USA.
She grew up in the USA and received her classical training at Ballet Arts Minnesota and the Milwaukee Ballet before completing a BA in Dance at the University of Minnesota. A 15-year career in Minneapolis, New York City and Germany followed, lastly from 2005 – 2012 with Johannes Wieland in NYC and at the State Theater in Kassel, Germany.
Since 2013 she has created dance, opera, musical, theater and interdisciplinary productions throughout Europe, collaborating closely with directors, designers, conductors and performers across the disciplines. Her work includes Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (Theater Lübeck) with 150 singers, classical dancers and actors, SILBERLICHT (Philharmonie Luxembourg), a dance piece conceived and created for two dancers and the baroque Ensemble Diderot from Paris, and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Theater Basel) for which she was nominated for Best Choreography by Musicals Magazine.
Her choreography aims to reveal the structural and emotional content of music through movement using a humanistic, rhythmic and character-driven movement language. An additional focus is integrating lay people into choreography with professional dancers as a way to connect dance to the greater community and question established notions about who dances and what dance looks like. Teaching provides the research field for physical investigation. She has recently taught at the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College and TU Dance Company and School (USA), Choreolab Basel and the Braswell Art Center (Switzerland) and initiated Dance Jam Berlin (Germany).
She lives in Basel, Switzerland where she is currently developing AFTERLIFE, a virtuosic duet with live DJs that takes its inspiration from club culture and the longing for immortality. It is the first production of her company SNOW, founded in 2020. www.lillianstillwell.com
