For various years Thomas Steyaert worked with Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez and danced in Blush (creation 2002), Sonic Boom (creation 2003) and the reprise of Les Porteuses de Mauvaises Nouvelles (touring 2005). Sonic Boom was a cooperation between Ultima Vez and Toneelgroep Amsterdam under the artistic direction of Ivo van Hove. He also played in Puur (2006) and Spiegel (2008). In 2006 he decided to make his own work and founded Ponyhill vzw, a collective of artists active in dance, performance, music, photography, film and visual art. From 2007 until 2011, Thomas Steyaert was part of a cultural exchange program between Belgian artists and artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo, organized by the KVS (Royal Flemish Theater, BE) under the artistic direction of Jan Goossens and in co-operation with Ultima Vez. In this context, he gave several workshops in different cities in the DRC, Rwanda, and Belgium.  Since 2009 Thomas is working with Raul Maia on an ongoing artistic process based on the development of a real-time, non-representational kinetic movement system. Until now the research resulted in four stage performances, ‘The Ballet of Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin’ (2011), ‘The Ballet of Albertina Macchiavello, Johnny McLay and Ignatz van Stereo’ (2014) ,‘The Ballet of Paul Ace and Sunny Lovin’ (2018), and 'The Ballet of laughter in a cloud of smoke' and also in many site specific performances and in several video works. Within the same context he also develops his individual approach and stage works. In 2014 Thomas was invited by WASP (Working Art Space an Production) in Bucharest to create score#21 - Method of Elimination.  In 2015/2016 he was again invited by WASP and l'AGORA in Montpellier to make Solatium. The music was made by the Belgian post-metal band, Amenra. Thomas regularly works as a choreographer with Cirk La Putyka, a contemporary circus company based in Prague CZ, under the artistic direction of Rosta Novak. 

 

Since 2011, Thomas became a collaborator with Haris Pasovic, director of East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo, BIH. Together they worked on Roses for Anne Teresa / Football Stories (2011), The Conquest of Happiness (2013) and A Century of Peace after the Century of Wars (2015). He also works closely together with Nermin Hamzagic - Insurgent M.K. (2014), Welcome (2016), Hedda Gabler (2022) and Selma Spahic - Kokos (2015), Liliom (2016), Moja Fabrika (2017), Romeo I Julija (2018), Seven Fears (2020), two artists based in Sarajevo. He got awarded 'best choreography and stage movement' for Moija Fabrika and Seven Fears. In 2016 he founded the collective 'Moving Island ', in Sarajevo. The collective focuses mainly on socially engaged artistic work. Together they created Whispering dreams (2016), at “Zavod” (institution for juvenile criminals), Zenica 2.0 (2017) at “Dom Porodica” (center for children without parental care) and Playlist #Shuffle (2019) with people with disabilities from the organization ‘Joy of Life’, supported by MESS Theater Festival. In 2017 Thomas created If someone speaks, it gets lighter, at BNP Zenica (Bosnian National Theater), an interactive theater show on loneliness and solitude. In 2018/2019 Thomas was invited by DOT504 dance company in Prague to create score#44 - Methods of Excavation. During the corona pandemic in 2020, he created Score#1: Ten Ballets (of oscillation) in co-operation with MESS Theater Festival, BNP Zenica, the History Museum of Sarajevo and visual artist Daniel Premec. In the same year he choreographed the closing scene for the movie ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ by Jasmila Zbanic. He also got a small role as Dutch soldier. The film was nominated for an Oscar. In 2021, together with SARTR (Sarajevo War Theater) and MESS Theater Festival, Thomas created Sarajevo Feeling, a theater show with the cast of SARTR. Also, in SARTR, in 2022 he created Phantom Leg, a dance performance with freelance actors from Sarajevo in collaboration with visual artist, Daniel Premec and costume designer Irma Saje. Both plays became part of the repertoire of SARTR. Later in 2022, Thomas was part of  'And what can art do about it?',  a collaborative artistic project in Bucharest under the curatorship of Anca Rojoiu, Irina Botea and Jon Dean. In 2023 and 2024 he created 'Hey Earth' with Cirk La Putyka in Prague, CZ and founded, together with Benjamin Bajramović, Station 3, a creative workspace in Sarajevo with the focus on residencies, education and development in different types of art media. 

 

Thomas also gives workshops, paints/ draws and creates soundscapes. In 2018 he had his first exhibition '22 paintings, a history of playful battles' at Jatka78 in Prague, CZ. In 2019 ha had a solo exhibition with paintings, prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2020 he had a solo exposition 'Some Works' at Brodac Gallery in Sarajevo, BIH. In 2022, he exposed a series of drawings at Malpertuis in Tielt, BE and in 2023 he had a solo show 'Playful Battles'  with drawings and paintings at Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo and House Europe, Sarajevo.

 

Thomas' work has been shown in theaters and festival in Europe and abroad.

 

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