About

Dance is connection

Lillian Stillwell works internationally as a freelance choreographer and is Dance Director and Chief Choreographer at Theater Münster in Germany.

Following a 15-year dance career in the USA and Germany, Lillian became a freelance choreographer in 2013. She has choreographed dance evenings, interdisciplinary productions and operas throughout Europe as well as experimental projects with her company SNOW productions in Basel, Switzerland.

Lillian’s movement language is grounded in classical technique while relying on the individuality and humanity of the dancers to tell stories in which we recognize ourselves. She works closely with the musical score and the collective potential of the group to create works that are physically and emotionality challenging. Since 2022, she has created numerous dance evenings with the company of 14 dancers she directs at Theater Münster. FURIEN and THE FOUR SEASONS, her first new productions as Chief Choreographer, were acclaimed by critics and enthusiastically received by audiences.

She is completing an Executive Masters in Arts Administration at Universität Zürich, is a Mentor in the German Cultural Council’s Initiative for Women in Leadership in Culture & Media, and has been a panelist and jury member for various institutions. Her interest in innovative dance leadership has driven her to establish new outreach formats, initiate interdepartmental collaboration, build institutional partnerships and raise awareness about sustainability in dance at Theater Münster.

This season, her work has been seen at
Theater Münster | Germany
the Royal Danish Opera | Denmark
the Dutch National Opera | Netherlands
Les Arts | Spain
Teatro san Carlo | Italy and
Bühnen Bern | Switzerland.

Milestones

September 2022 - present

Dance Director & Chief Choreographer

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.

September 2022 - present

2022 - present

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, and is on the Jury of the Tanzplattform Bern 2023. Sustainability in dance is a matter of the heart for her.

2022 - present

2020 - present

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.

2020 - present

2013 - present

Freelance Choreographer

Since 2013, Lillian has worked as a freelance choreographer throughout Europe and in the USA. She has taken selected commissions since becoming Dance Director at Theater Münster.

2013 - present

1998 - 2012

Dancer

Lillian trained in classical and contemporary dance before embarking on a 15-year dance career that took her from her home town of Minneapolis, MN, USA to New York City and later to Germany.

1998 - 2012

Expertise

Dance Director

Mentorship & Engagement

Leadership

Choreography

Dancer

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Lillian dancing ALIVE at Theater Lübek 2020_About_Gallery_900x600

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Furien_GP_Foto_Christina_Iberl_217_HeraNorin_About_Gallery_600x900

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4 MASS c. Olaf Malzahn 5_About_Gallery_900x600

3 Die vier Jahreszeiten_Choreografie LillianStillwell193_Tanz Münster_c. Bettina Stoess für Theater Münster_About_Gallery_900x600

MASS_Choreografie Lillian Stillwell_Photo c. Bettina Stoess_800x530

About

Dance is connection

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Milestones

Dance Director & Chief Choreographer

Mentorship & Engagement

Leadership

Freelance Choreographer

Dancer

Expertise

Dance Director

Mentorship & Engagement

Leadership

Choreography

Dancer

Gallery

Bettina Trouwborst

Furien [is] rightly tumultuously cheered at the end... With the turn from individual revenge to the administration of justice by a court, the movement loses its harsh tension, it becomes gentle and light. With arms spread wide, the dancers turn to the audience. It seems like an invitation.

Andrea Kutzendörfer

Lillian Stillwell has developed for the archaic greatness of the feelings, for the wild determination of the group, a movement spectrum of bursting power… it is admirable how Stillwell choreographs the group, how she lets this massive movement chorus structure the space.

Harald Suerland

Choreographer Lillian Stillwell has put an exclamation mark on her enthusiastically received opening, creating a striking contrast to [her] predecessors, who were as independent as they were successful.

Harald Suerland

Bettina Trouwborst

In time to the electronic music of the sound designer Randomhype, the eleven-member international ensemble shows how variable its movement language is. Swinging, soft arms, elongated, high legs, classical pirouettes can be seen.

Isabell Steinböck

Stillwell immerses herself in the structure of the music with all its contrasts… The sold-out theater was filled with cheers.

Harald Suerland

"SEXES" is dedicated to women's sexuality, power and liberation. The sexes collide, egos begin to dissolve...the ensemble shows...an impressive physical performance.

Andrea Kutzendörfer

Stillwell shows how music becomes visible energy through the dancing body..., lots of cheers, also for an ensemble that faces challenges and masters them with commitment and energy.

Edda Breski

Dance director Lillian Stillwell has created an exciting double dance evening "Eroica/Sacre" with orchestra at Theater Münster. "SEXES" is all about power and sexuality.

Hanns Butterhoff

"SEXES" is a work of art consisting of dance, music, costumes and scenery. A remarkable evening.

Bettina Trouwborst

A mix of aggression and closeness.... showing how intimacy can turn into violence at any time. The result is full of fascinatingly poetic images... a brilliantly conceived and danced piece.

Ralf Döring

No one could have foreseen that the contribution by Münster's dance director Lillian Stillwell, "Oslo," would hit the mark so precisely... On stage, (the dancers) translate the hardened positions of negotiation with fantastic, brilliant movement sequences to throbbing sounds.

Andrea Kutzendörfer

Of European ranking… here in Copenhagen they sing with tendness and grace, effortlessly choreographed by Lillian Stillwell to fit the singers like a glove.

The music feels eternal in the company of Jetske Mijnssen’s impelling staging, which a reviewer in 2020 described as “hypnotically beautiful.” The performance deals with the healing processing of loss and grief, employing a simple stage set and dreamlike choreography.

Louise Pederson

Anna Bolena | 2022

Maria Stuarda | 2022

The exhausting final scene […] a beautiful white scene is revealed, a surreal ballet around the newlyweds playing in Anna's head. The choral scenes […] embellished with refined choreography, are a feast for the eyes in this production.

...the dancers, artfully choreographed by Lillian Stillwell, function sometimes as multiplied alter egos of Maria, sometimes as revenants of her adversary.

Jürgen Otten

Lillian Stillwell has developed choreography that could be described as classical ballet with modern elements, to wonderful effect. The four dancers could be described most accurately as God’s Ideas.

Martin Freitag

Lillian Stillwell choreographically brings the masses into a dramatic back-and-forth and uses the cool musical and rock quality of the street ensemble…The idea of assigning three dancing messengers of God to the priest is touching, (who) at the end they are also lying on the ground destroyed.

Claus-Ulrich Heinke

Praise is also due to choreographer Lillian Stillwell, whose dancers blend harmoniously into the often very turbulent action on stage.

J. Gahre

A completely new music theater experience has been created by Jochen Biganzoli, Milo Pablo Momm, Tom Ryser and Lillian Stillwell, each of them an alpha director. The differences between the individual signatures harmonize wonderfully.

Shy or high-spirited, intimate or euphoric - what love can offer in terms of emotions is explored here in an exciting mixture of party and contemporary dance… A successful performance, which despite all tragedy still comes up with a ray of hope at the end… The dead are dead, life goes on.

Helmut Jasny

Hans Butterhof

Isabell Steinböck

Melanie Suchy

When professional dancers like those at Theater Münster transform "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi into movement, it puts the crown on what is probably Vivaldi's most famous work. The audience felt it: they were entralled.

Andrea Kutzendörfer

Maria Conlan