Douglas Becker US

Douglas Becker, based in Brussels Belgium, is a performance artist, choreographer and pedagogue working at the boundaries between ballet and contemporary dance. His area of expertise and research engage with the sharing and transmission of embodied knowledge in ballet, and the investigation of new forms and new ways of inclusively thinking about dance and dancing.

A former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in New York City, The National Ballet of Canada, the Dallas Ballet under the direction of Fleming Flindt, and a principal artist with the Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of William Forsythe, for which he has reconstructed numerous works worldwide for professional companies, festivals and institutions. In ballet he studied extensively with Rudolph Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Melissa Hayden, Maggie Black, David Howard, Marjorie Mussman and Fleming Flindt, consequently embodying an expansive knowledge of ballet, composition, repertory and improvisation.

His choreography has been featured on the stages of Belgium's Royal Flemish Theatre, Switzerland's Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Choreographic Centers of Grenoble and Nancy in France, and he is a visiting faculty member of P.A.R.T.S. School Brussels, The Royal Conservatoire of Dance Antwerp, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and The National Conservatories Superior of Paris and Lyon among many others.

Since 2010, Douglas Becker is adjunct professor at The University of the Arts Philadelphia where his responsibilities include teaching, staging, mentoring and advising both at the Bachelor of Fine Arts level and in the Master of Fine Arts program. He is also notably curator and coordinator of the school of dance’s European Abroad winter program on an annual basis.