Jerome Bel (1964) lives in Paris and works worldwide. He studied at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine of Angers (France) and between 1985 and 1991 danced for many choreographers in France and in Italy. In 1992, he was assistant to the director and choreographer Philippe Découflé for the ceremonies of the XVIth Winter Olympic Games of Albertville and Savoie.
His first piece, a choreography of objects, is entitled nom donné par l'auteur (1994). The second one Jerome Bel (1995) is based on the identity and the total nudity of the four performers. The third one, Shirtology (1997) presents an actor wearing many shop-bought T-shirts. In his next works Jerome Bel continued to explore the concept of authorship and identity: The last performance (1998) which quotes several times a solo by the German choreographer Susanne Linke, and also Hamlet or André Agassi. The piece Xavier Le Roy (2000) was claimed by Jérôme Bel as his own, but was actually choreographed by another French choreographer Xavier Le Roy.
In 2001 came The show must go on (2001), which brings toghether a cast of twenty performers, nineteen pop songs and one DJ. In 2004 upon the invitation from the Paris Opera ballet, he created Veronique Doisneau (2004), which became the first piece in the series of of performances questioning the experience and the knowledge of performers. It was followed then by Isabel Torres (2005), Pichet Klunchun & myself (2005) with the Thai traditional dancer Pichet Klunchun, Lutz Förster (2009) and Cédric Andrieux (2009). In 2009 came also A spectator performed by Jerome Bel himself which consists in a one hour monologue in which he recounts to the audience some experiences he had as simple spectator.
Pichet Klunchun (1971) is a Thai classical dance artist who attempts to adapt the traditional works of Thai classical dance to a more contemporary style while still keeping the heart of the tradition. The Thai classical arts society claims he is a most innovative artist, who dares to adjust the dance culture in Thailand from the traditional old style to a newer and more modernized. He trained for the Thai Classical Mask Dance, “Khon,” from the age of 16 with Chaiyot Khummanee, one of the best khon Masters in Thailand.
He achieved his undergraduate major in Classical Thai Dance at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. After graduation, he did a lot of theatre work both as a dancer and choreographer at high-profile occasions. Subsequently he has also worked with contemporary dance.
Pichet Klunchun has participated in several intercultural performing arts programs as a representative for Thai classical dance artists and as an international choreographer.
Recently, he also established his own company called LifeWork Company for the purpose of training talented young dancers with strong Thai classical dance backgrounds. Pichet is the only artist in the country to develop his work from the traditional “Khon” dance, and who is also able to collaborate with other artists on an international level.