Tilman O'Donnell (German/U.S.) received his training at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. He joined The Göteborg Ballet in 2001, Staatstheater Saarbrücken in 2002, Cullberg Ballet from 2003-2007, The Forsythe Company from 2007-2012, and was a guest artist from 2012- 2015. He has been freelancing as a choreographer, dancer and teacher since 2010.
Tilman made his debut as a choreographer in 2002 with Del A, receiving first prize in two major international choreographic competitions. In 2005 he was nominated both ”Dancer To Watch” and “Choreographer To Watch” by the magazine Tanz, and as “Hoffnungsträger” in 2015 by the same publication. In 2017 he was once again named “Dancer to Watch” for his performance of Whatever Singularity #453: Solo for Tilman/Dancing with Alain. He has made works for Cullberg, SPIRA Jönköping/Cullberg To Come, Staatstheater Graz, The Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, University of Dance Stockholm, Corpus Copenhagen/The Royal Danish Opera House, The Danish University of Dance, Weld Theater Stockholm, Skånes Dansteater, as well as producing his own works. Recent works include: This Is (2010), August did not have what is commonly considered good taste as far as furniture is concerned.. (2012), The Disambiguation Project (2013), Whatever Singularity #453: Solo For Maxime/Dancing With Alain (2014), In Life & Love & So On (2015), These & Those & Upon Us (2016), In Some Sense (2016-2018), Corpus Dogme: On The One Hand (2019), History Was Written By The Losers: Hoedown/Showdown (2020), and The View From Here (2021).
In 2022/2023, the work OnBach (working title) will be presented by Dansens Hus, Stockholm, supported by Kulturådet/Swedish Arts Council.
His work has been presented among others by Radial System (Berlin), BoraBora (Århus), Festspielhaus Hellerau (Dresden), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Festspielhaus St. Pölten (Austria), Dansens Hus (Stockholm), and Weld (Stockholm).
In recent years he has worked as a dancer in projects by Fabrice Mazliah (In Act & Thought, The Manufactured Series #2: Made in China, Telling Stories), Deborah Hay (Solo Commissioning Project, Figure A Sea, Animals On The Beach), and Laurent Chetouane (Duett Für Hörende Körper), and toured internationally with these works.
Most recently, he has collaborated with William Forsythe on the exhibition format Acquisition Körperschaft, which opened at the Folkwang Musuem in Essen, Germany, and is slated to tour internationally in the visual arts context. In addition, he has worked with Anne Imhof, most recently in her work Natures Mortes at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
From 2015 - 2018 Tilman was a member of the multidisciplinary artist group HOOD as part of a fellowship program at PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany. In addition, Tilman was a SITE Stipend recipient in 2019 & 2020.
In addition, he teaches extensively, including at The University of Roehampton (London), University of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), Batsheva Dance Company (Tel Aviv), Cullberg (Stockholm), The Freedom Theater (Ramallah, West Bank), Mark Morris Dance Center (New York), UCLA Center for the Art of Performance (Los Angeles), University of Dance Copenhagen, Göteborgs Operans Danskompani (Göteborg), Esklan Art Factory (Rome), P.A.R.T.S (Brussels), Gypsy Project (Los Angeles), Dans Alliansen (Stockholm), Danish Dancers & Actors Foundation (Copenhagen), PACT Zollverein/Folkwang Schule (Essen), Artists Summit/Tanzplatform PACT Zollverein (Essen), Norrdans (Härnosand), Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (Wuppertal), Freie Universität (Berlin), Transformation Dans (Montreal), and at CODA Festival (Oslo).
Finally, he is trained as an osteopath, with an emphasis on biodynamics.
www.tilmanodonnell.com