Trajal Harrell /
Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble

© Reto Schmid

Trajal Harrell is one of the most important contemporary choreographers and in-house director at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. For more than 20 years, Harrell has been creating pieces for international dance- and playhouses as well as museums and art houses on various continents. However, although Trajal Harrell has been working with the same dancers for many years and also maintains long-term partnerships in global art institutions, there has not yet been a single institution until now that has been directly connected to his work and thus, neither has there been a company.

In the meantime, all this has changed. Trajal Harrell has been directing a dance company at the Schauspielhaus Zürich since 2019: The Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble. After Meg Stuart and her company Damaged Goods had already made a brief but very impressive attempt to create a place for dance at the Schauspielhaus Zürich under the directorship of Christoph Marthaler in the early 2000s, the Schauspielhaus now has a dance company again. For the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble, Harrell brought New Kyd, Frances Chiaverini, Seyda Harjo Grahn, Perle Palombe, Songhay Toldon and Ondrej Vidlar to Zurich, where they have been full-time ensemble members since 2019.

The Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble opened the 2020/21 season at the Pfauen with The Köln Concert. In December 2021, Monkey off My Back or the Cat's Meow, with dancers and actors, took place in the Schiffbau Halle. And in March 2022, Harrell presented Deathbed, the final part of his trilogy Porca Miseria at the Kunsthalle Zürich. In the new 2022/23 season, Trajal and the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble will present their new piece The House of Bernarda Alba, which premiered at the Kunstenfestival des Arts in Brussels.

In addition, the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble regularly tours internationally; since autumn 2021 it has been invited to Rome, Brussels and Leipzig, with further stops in Paris, New York, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Venice and many more.

The productions by the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble:

The Köln Concert
Monkey off My Back or the Cat’s Meow
Deathbed
The House of Bernarda Alba
The Romeo