Choreographer
Patrick Delcroix
Choreographer Patrick Delcroix was educated in at the Centre International de Danse Rosella Hightower in Cannes and the Ecole de Danse Colette Soriano in Orthez, France. In 1982 he joined the Iwanson Dance Company in Munich (director Jessica Iwanson), followed by the Scapino Ballet Amsterdam in 1985 (director Armando Navarro). It was here that he first met Jirí Kylián, when the choreographer came to create Picolo Mondo and cast the young Delcroix. He was subsequently invited by Kylián to join the Nederlands Dans Theater 1, where he danced from 1986 to 2003. In these 17 years with NDT he worked with many celebrated figures, namely William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Edouard Lock, Nacho Duato, Hans van Manen and of course Jirí Kylián.
As a choreographer, Patrick has created 40 works and re-staged numerous others for a variety of companies, including Nederlands Dans Theater 1, 2 & 3, Royal Danish Ballet, Basel Ballet, Ballet du Capitole Toulouse, Cape Town City Ballet, Ballet of the Croatian National Theater, Vienna Staatsoper Ballet, Aalto Ballett Theater Essen, Cisne Negro Sao Paolo, Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Introdans, Prague Chamber Ballet, NW Dance Project, Junior Ballet Genève, It Danza Barcelona, Artscape, New English Contemporary Ballet, Tanztheater am Staatstheater Braunschweig, Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâneo, Royal Conservatory Den Haag, Royal Conservatory Antwerp, Nationale Ballet Academie – Amsterdam and ArtEZ in Arnhem, Netherlands.
His relationship with Jirí Kylián continues to this day as a repetior for the Kylian Foundation. He has re-staged ballets on such companies as the Paris Opéra Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin, Norwegian National Ballet, Bern Ballet, National Theater Ballet Prague, Aalto Ballett Theater Essen, Kobe Ballet, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and the Georgian National Ballet.
In 2001, he was knighted by the French government for services to the arts, being made “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. Patrick’s first creation for NW Dance Project in 2011, Harmonie Défigurée, is a rich exploration of human relationships filled with inventive, breathtaking partnering The Oregonian reviewed as “mesmerizing… gave the dancers the kind of space-eating, tempo- shifting movement — from fast, aggressive unison to lyrical duets — that makes this company such a pleasure to watch.”