Engagement

Dance Director

Mentorship & Engagement

Leadership

Choreography

Dancer

Dance Director

Lillian’s directorship at Theater Münster began in Season 2022/23 where she has aimed to build on the theater’s rich dance tradition while establishing Tanz Münster as a place for sustainability and innovation in dance.
Under her direction, Tanz Münster has diversified and increased audiences through new outreach formats, initiated interdepartmental collaborations, built institutional partnerships in the city and region, and received widespread recognition for its artistic output, strong ensemble and sustainability measures.

Following the critically acclaimed, sold-out run of her opening production, FURIEN, Lillian Stillwell premiered SILBERLICHT, for babies and parents, THE FOUR SEASONS (Antonio Vivaldi) with orchestra, excerpts of which toured to Tanzplattform Bern in Switzerland after being enthusiastically received

in Münster, and AFTERLIFE with live DJ*anes.

The 2023/24 Season will feature her new quartett OSLO based on the Oslo Peace Process and a work for 14 dancers to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

Mentorship & Engagement

Lillian is a Mentor in the German Cultural Council’s Initiative for Women in Leadership in Culture & Media, was a panelist at the Dance Congress in Mainz in 2022, was on the Jury of the Tanzplattform Bern 2023 and will award a prize at the 38th International Choreography Competition Hannover, 2024. At Theater Münster, Lillian actively nurtures the talents of the dancers to help them develop skills beyond dancing and encourages opportunities for leadership growth in her team. With the support of the theater leadership, she initiated the “Sustainable Dance Stage Competition” in order to find new talent, level the playing field and inspire cross-departmental collaboration in a project based on sustainable practices in dance. The winning set design can be seen in all dance productions over the first two seasons under Lillian’s direction.

A TV-Spot about her work in the context of womens’ underrepresentation in European institutional dance leadership can be found here:

Leadership

Lillian is completing an Executive Master in Arts Administration at the University of Zurich. She is engaged in bringing new voices and methods to dance leadership, inspired by her experiences both as a dancer and a mother.

An interview about Leadership, Dance and Motherhood can be found here:

FreelanceChoreographer

While still a dancer at the State Theater in Kassel, Lillian received her first choreographic commissions in all departments. Her work has been seen at Theater Basel, Opera Graz, Opera Zurich, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Royal Opera Copenhagen and the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, as well as at numerous city and state theaters in Germany. Her work includes dance evenings, interdisciplinary productions and operas as well as experimental projects which she realized with her company SNOW productions in Basel, Switzerland. Her signature choreographic language unites physical and emotional virtuosity with precise musicality. She works closely with the musical score and the individual and collective potential of the dancers to tell stories in which we recognize ourselves.

FreelanceChoreographer

While still a dancer at the State Theater in Kassel, Lillian received her first choreographic commissions in all departments. Her work has been seen at Theater Basel, Opera Graz, Opera Zurich, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Royal Opera Copenhagen and the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, as well as at numerous city and state theaters in Germany. Her work includes dance evenings, interdisciplinary productions and operas as well as experimental projects which she realized with her company SNOW productions in Basel, Switzerland from 2019 – 2022. Her signature choreographic language unites physical and emotional virtuosity with precise musicality. She works closely with the musical score and the individual and collective potential of the dancers to tell stories in which we recognize ourselves.

Dancer

Lillian completed her classical ballet training at Ballet Arts Minnesota before graduating with a BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her dance career began with a traineeship at the Milwaukee Ballet and ended at Staatstheater Kassel in Germany as a long-time dancer with Johannes Wieland. She also worked with choreographers including Pam Tanowitz, Rootless Root, Yossi Berg / Oded Graf, Alexandra Beller, Shapiro & Smith, Gerald Casel and Emily Johnson in Minneapolis, New York City, on tour in the USA and in Germany