Choreographer

Johan Inger

A headshot of a man with a goatee. There are yellow curtains behind him. He is wearing a black tee.
Photo Bengt Wanselius

Swede Johan Inger joined Nederlands Dans Theater in 1990 and was a high-profile dancer with the company until 2002. His 1995 choreographic debut, also for Nederlands Dans Theater, gained immediate recognition. For his ballets Dream Play and Walking Mad he received the Lucas Hoving Production Award in October 2001. Walking Mad was later also awarded the 2005 Danza & Danza Award. Inger left Nederlands Dans Theater to take on the artistic leadership of Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm in 2003, where he created numerous works. Since 2008, he has worked as a freelance choreographer, creating works for companies around the world including GöteborgsOperan, Ballet Basel, Swedish National Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza, Aterballetto, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Ballet BC, and Nederlands Dans Theater, where he held the position of Associate Choreographer from 2009-2016.

From 2016-2023, Inger also choreographed his own versions of the narrative pieces Petrushka (Ballets de Monte Carlo) and Sleeping Beauty (Aurora’s Nap) (Stuttgart Ballet), and full-length works including Carmen (CND), Peer Gynt (Ballet Basel), Don Juan (Aterballetto), and A Swan Lake (Semperoper Ballett, Dresden).

He was honored with the Benois de la Danse Prize in 2016 and received the Danza & Danza Award for best Italian production in 2016 for Bliss and in 2020 for Don Juan.

In 2022, Inger became Artistic Director of Take Off Dance, a training program for pre-professional dancers ages 18-24 based in Seville, Spain.