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This user has publicly declared that they have a conflict of interest regarding the Wikipedia article Martin Chaix.

Martin Chaix (born 24 October 1980 in Albi, France) is a French ballet choreographer and former dancer. He trained at the École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris and danced with the Paris Opera Ballet (1999–2006), the Leipzig Ballet (2006–2009), and Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg (2009–2015) before establishing himself as a freelance choreographer from 2015. He has created works for more than thirty companies internationally, including the Bolshoi Ballet, the Wiener Staatsballett, and the Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin. His 2023 production of Giselle for the Opéra national du Rhin received a nomination for the Prix Benois de la Danse 2024.

Chaix was born on 24 October 1980 in Albi, in the Tarn department of southern France. He began classical ballet training at the age of six. In 1993 he entered the École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris, completing his studies there in 1999.

In 1999 Chaix joined the Paris Opera Ballet as a company member, a position he held until 2006 under director Brigitte Lefèvre. During this period he performed in works by George Balanchine, Pina Bausch, Carolyn Carlson, John Cranko, Merce Cunningham, Mats Ek, Marco Goecke, Jiří Kylián, Édouard Lock, John Neumeier, Rudolf Nureyev, Roland Petit, Uwe Scholz, and Hans van Manen.^[1] He has cited Pina Bausch as his greatest artistic inspiration, and refers to a choreographic collaboration with her in Paris during this period; Bausch staged her Orpheus and Eurydice on the Paris Opera Ballet in 2005, during which Chaix was a company member.^[2]

In 2006 Chaix left the Paris Opera Ballet to take a soloist position with the Leipzig Ballet.^[1] He remained in Leipzig until 2009, when he joined Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg under artistic director Martin Schläpfer, with whom he danced as a soloist until 2015.^[3]

Chaix began choreographing while still a dancer. His earliest documented works were created for Paris Opera Ballet galas in 2006: Apologie du couple le matin au réveil, for a Soirée Danseurs Chorégraphes, and Pars de l'autre, for a benefit evening for rare diseases.^[4] During his Leipzig years he created Lady and Lob der Tränen (2007) for the Leipzig Ballet's young choreographers programme. In 2008 he co-founded the Leipzig-based company InTanziv with fellow dancer Rémy Fichet; their production Und so weiter..., set to Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni, premiered 4–6 June 2008 at the Moritzbastei in Leipzig.^[5]

In 2010 Chaix was selected for the Noverre-Gesellschaft Junge Choreographen platform in Stuttgart. His contribution, Voices, a pas de deux for Katja Wünsche and Laurent Guilbaud set to Alfred Schnittke's Voices of Nature, was singled out by tanznetz.de critic Angela Reinhardt as having created "movements with meaning" (Bewegungen mit Bedeutung).^[6]

In April 2013 he created We were right here!! for Ballett am Rhein's Soirée b.15 programme in Düsseldorf, set to Schnittke's Concerto for Choir. The work received reviews in Die Welt (Melanie Suchy) and Die Deutsche Bühne (Isabell Steinböck), with Steinböck describing it as translating "the fleetingness of time into aesthetic, virtuosic dance" dealing with a "profoundly human theme."^[7] The same year his short film Promenade was nominated by the One Minute Dance Film Festival in Amsterdam.

Eine Winterreise (A Winter Journey), premiering on 7 February 2014 at the Brotfabrik Bühne in Bonn, was Chaix's first full-evening choreographic work. Set to a score combining Schubert, Nina Simone, and improvised jazz, it attracted coverage in the General-Anzeiger Bonn, Rheinische Post, Westdeutsche Zeitung, and tanzweb.org, where critic Thomas Linden wrote: "Von ihm wird man noch hören" ("We will hear more of him").^[8]

Also in 2015 Chaix created Parlez-moi d'amour, a piece set to French chansons by Piaf, Brel, and Gainsbourg, for the Leipzig Ballet. The piece drew a mixed critical response from Leipziger Volkszeitung critic Peter Korfmacher.^[9] It was subsequently restaged for the Mecklenburg State Theater Ballet (2016) and the Sibiu Theater Ballet in Romania (2018).

Feuervogel (Firebird), premiered on 2 April 2016 at the Ballet National de la Sarre in Saarbrücken alongside works by Jiří Kylián, received a favourable comparison to Kylián from public broadcaster SR3 Saarlandwelle.^[10] Apropos Liebe, premiered in December 2016 in Schwerin, was described as a "Seismograph der Emotionen" ("seismograph of emotions") by Oper und Tanz.^[11]

In 2017 Sinfonietta, set to Krzysztof Penderecki's Sinfonietta per archi, premiered at the Croatian National Theatre Ballet in Split on 25 May — Chaix's first confirmed commission outside the German-language sphere. The Croatian national daily Večernji list and reviewer Robert Aronson both covered the premiere; Aronson wrote that Chaix "clearly understands that gifted dancers can fly."^[12]

In 2018 Tribulations, a piece for seven female dancers on pointe set to Bach's Concerto in D minor (BWV 1052), was created for the Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin. Philippe Noisette, writing in Les Échos, described the piece as "an homage to a certain idea of classical dance — between nostalgia and creativity."^[13]

In 2020 Chaix created Silentium for the Bolshoi Ballet, set to the second movement of Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa. The work opened the Bolshoi's 245th season on 10 September 2020, at the invitation of artistic director Makhar Vaziev, and was performed by a cast including Svetlana Zakharova as the principal protagonist.^[14] It was conceived as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023 Chaix created a new choreographic interpretation of Giselle for the Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin, with performances in Strasbourg, Mulhouse, and Colmar between 14 January and 5 February.^[15] The production transposes the 1841 romantic ballet into a contemporary urban setting; Chaix integrated the symphonies of Louise Farrenc alongside the original Adolphe Adam score. The dramaturgical framework is explicitly feminist, addressing gender violence in the context of the #MeToo movement. ResMusica described the production as "resolutely feminist and largely successful."^[16] Artistikrezo noted some structural repetition in the first act while praising the second as innovative.^[17] France Info / France 3 Alsace covered the premiere with a direct interview with Chaix.^[18] The production was subsequently acquired by the Opéra Nice Côte d'Azur for its repertoire.^[19] The production received a nomination for the Prix Benois de la Danse 2024 in the choreography category, one of five nominated choreographers.^[20] The prize was awarded to Marco Goecke.^[21]

Also in 2023 Chaix created Ma Mère l'Oye for the Paris Opera Ballet School, with performances at the Palais Garnier.^[22]

In 2024 Chaix created QiXi (Magpie Bridge) for the Liaoning Ballet in China, and A Streetcar Named Desire after Tennessee Williams for the Cottbus Ballet in Germany.

In 2025 Chaix provided choreography for La Descente d'Orphée aux enfers / Les Arts Florissants, a semi-staged double bill of Marc-Antoine Charpentier operas presented by Les Arts Florissants and conducted by William Christie, staged by Marie Lambert-Le Bihan and Stéphane Facco.^[23] The production formed the centrepiece of Christie's 80th birthday season and toured internationally from August 2025, with performances at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Philharmonie de Paris, and venues in Spain and Belgium.^[24]

Also in 2025 Chaix created M to M for the Wiener Staatsballett, set to Max Bruch's First Violin Concerto, premiering on 17 June 2025 at the Volksoper Wien as part of the Kreationen programme — the final premiere of Martin Schläpfer's tenure as director of the Vienna State Ballet.^[25] The production was described by tanz.at as bringing Schläpfer's Viennese era to a "pleasurable conclusion."^[26] Costumes were designed by Aleksandar Noshpal.

A third 2025 work, Die Mondprinzessin (Kaguya-Hime), based on Japan's oldest romantic fairy tale, premiered on 12 April 2025 at the Opernhaus Leipzig with the Leipziger Ballett and the Gewandhausorchester.^[27] Set to music by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Koyama Kiyoshige, Sômei Satoh, Arvo Pärt, and Takashi Yoshimatsu, it was reviewed by tanznetz.de.^[28]

In 2026 Chaix created Phase for the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden.^[4]

Chaix's choreography is grounded in close attention to musical structure. tanznetz.de critic Angela Reinhardt identified "movements with meaning" (Bewegungen mit Bedeutung) as a defining quality of his work as early as 2010.^[6] Writing in Les Échos, Philippe Noisette described his choreography as "an homage to a certain idea of classical dance — between nostalgia and creativity."^[13]

He resists the label of neoclassical choreographer, describing the pointe shoe as a tool to be mixed freely with other means. His long-term collaborators include costume designer Catherine Voeffray, set designer Felix Aarts, set and costume designer Thomas Mika and costume designer Aleksandar Noshpal.

• "Martin Chaix". Opéra national de Paris.
• "Martin Chaix". Opéra national du Rhin.
• "Martin Chaix". Volksoper Wien / Wiener Staatsballett.
• "Martin Chaix". Oper Leipzig.
• "La Descente d'Orphée aux enfers — Les Arts Florissants". Les Arts Florissants.
• "Giselle revisitée par Martin Chaix pour le ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin". ResMusica. 19 January 2023.
• "À l'Opéra de Strasbourg, une nouvelle Giselle est née". Artistikrezo. 19 January 2023.
• "L'opéra du Rhin revisite le ballet «Giselle» dans une version contemporaine et féministe". France Info. 14 January 2023.
• "Four Characters in Search of a Plot". Fjord Review. 17 September 2020.
• Landgraf, Ilona (June 2024). "Choreographer Nominees for the Prix Benois 2024".
• Landgraf, Ilona (25 June 2024). "Prix Benois Laureates 2024".
• "Wiener Staatsballett: Kreationen". tanz.at. 22 June 2025.
• Ibs, Torben (20 April 2025). "Die Mondprinzessin von Martin Chaix an der Oper Leipzig". tanznetz.de.

• Official website
• Martin Chaix at the Paris Opera
• Martin Chaix at the Opéra national du Rhin