My 2025

Another year draws to a close. With it one is tempted to look over one’s shoulder, have a glimpse of what these last 365 days have held.

For me, some highs, some lows, yet one deeply fulfilling.

One big Premiere of a full-length ballet in Leipzig,

another creation, shorter but no smaller, in Vienna,

a new collaboration with the students of Gymnasium Essen-Werden,

and a once-every-ten-year collaboration on an opera with Les Arts Florissants.

For each of these opportunities, each so different from one another, in terms of scale, form, and approach, I am very grateful for the artists I got the chance to work with and the people I have met along the way.

First, the dancers, which for obvious reasons I cannot mention singly here but who have all my deepest gratitude, love, and respect.

Thomas Mika (set and costumes for Mondprinzessin), Remy Fichet (artistic director of the Leipzig Ballet and a dear friend), Tanja Rühl (light design for M to M), Aleksandar Noshpal (costume design for M to M), Florian Etti (set design for M to M), Martin Schläpfer (for whom M to M was dedicated), the team and the students of Gymnasium Essen-Werden, and Michaela Classen (artist who lent her work for the evening), Marie Lambert and Stéphane Facco with whom we brought two operas to life for Les Arts Florissants, and William Christie - thank you.

Special mention to the singers involved in the creation for Les Arts Florissants who not only learned the choreography so swiftly but mastered it beyond my expectations.

In a broader scale, 2025 has been shaken by the emergence of AI and the world seems to be drawn irresistibly to it—our minds spaghettified, as if sucked by a black hole.

In this era where digitisation of human creativity and the erosion of human interactions are taking away the very essence of our beings, I cherish even more what this year brought me in human connections, exchanges, laughs, anguishes, and emotional climaxes I experienced at my core.

As this year closes, I carry forward the warmth of these moments— and the thrill of these creations, together.

Onward to 2026!