News - Jukstapoz

ABOUT
- JUKSTA Company was founded in 2010 by choreographers Christine Gouzelis and Paul Blackman. What began as a creative partnership has since evolved into an internationally recognised company, known for its bold choreographic language and multidisciplinary collaborations.
  Working as both a choreographic duo and stage directors, Christine and Paul are united by a shared philosophy: that juxtaposition is a powerful lens through which to explore the diversity, conflict, and beauty of human experience.
  At the heart of their work are motion-driven states, where body, light, and scenography are not passive backdrops but active, interconnected systems—metaphors for societal, existential, and archetypal themes. These elements generate a sense of urgency and internal transformation, all breathing and performing in sync with the body. They shape behaviour, disrupt habitual patterns, and reflect social and psychological dynamics. Rather than supporting the choreography, these components operate within it, allowing space and movement to evolve together in real time.
  JUKSTA's choreographic worlds live between the visible and the invisible—sensed but not always seen. Their highly physical works provoke subtle yet poignant shifts in perception, confronting both performers and audiences with questions that linger beneath the surface. They ignite direct engagement with the intangible—an emotional force that transcends logic and speaks to vulnerability, catharsis, and collective truth. Paul and Christine are known for crafting multilayered, atmospheric environments where chaos and harmony coexist. Their staging is visually arresting, emotionally resonant, and open to interpretation. Offering audiences infinite ways to perceive their work, yet reaching towards something deeply human—a shared reality, imperfect yet searching.
  As creators, they continually pursue innovation through risk, refinement, and reinvention. Each project is a fresh inquiry, shaped by new strategies, codes, languages or context. Embracing both minimalism and maximalism, they embody the duality of "less is more and more is more."
  Their artistic reach extends beyond dance into opera, theatre, film, fashion and other cross-disciplinary fields— wherever movement holds meaning. As directors, Christine and Paul are adept at bringing together diverse voices, uniting performers and collaborators through a shared physical language and mutual trust.
  JUKSTA's work has been commissioned and presented by many of the world's leading institutions and festivals, including GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Teatro alla Scala, Sadler's Wells, Salzburg Festspiele, Wiener Staatsoper, Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Athens Epidaurus Festival, St. Gallen Theatre, National Theatre Mannheim, among others.
  Christine and Paul are committed to accessibility and the investment in nurturing future generations. Through mentorships, workshops, residencies, and seminars, they share their choreographic practice and support emerging artists across international festivals, academies, and companies. JUKSTA continues to build a lasting foundation for contemporary dance theatre—one that values imperfections, encourages reflection, and invites an ever-evolving exploration of movement and meaning.
PHOTO

LE GRAND MACABRE - WIENER STAATSOPER 2023 NOVEMBER

Ko-Choreographie

Prophesied armageddons generally disappoint. In his only opera, Le Grand Macabre, György Ligeti created a large, discursive world theatre in which the plain, unvarnished human condition with all its drives and weaknesses is the cause of nothing less than an impending apocalypse. Into an imaginary, corrupt land of milk and honey – Breughelland, a vision of gluttony, drunkenness and lechery – Death arrives one day, otherwise known as Nekrotzar or the demonic Grand Macabre, to announce the impending destruction of the world and frivolous humanity. However, seduced by the pleasures of life, which he is unfamiliar with, the only person to die at the end is Nekrotzar himself. Everyone else draws the conclusion that their temporary survival should be used to continue their previous lifestyle.

Amopera

AMOPERA is the first part of a triptych around the idea of 'meta-opera', which aims to reflect on the medium of opera. This first instalment - the love part - is an intense collaboration between Klangforum Wien and Needcompany on opera and music theatre from the past hundred years. Never before has the role and meaning of art been explored so extensively and in such a varied way by applying various (new) techniques such as deconstruction, collage and accumulation but also by coming up with new stories, insights, interpretations and questions as during the 20th century. Jukstapoz (Paul Blackman) will be choreographically working with this project and all those involved.

05 Nov ERL AT Festspielhaus Erl PREMIERE

Otello Opera - Kiel Theater

New production alongside director Alexandra Liedtke returning to Theater Kiel for this epic work.
"I believe that man is the play of an unjust fate ... Death is nothing, and heaven is an old fairy tale." His superior Otello, who, as the happily married hero of the Republic of Venice's victory, is only tormented by the "blemish" of not being a native Venetian, becomes a pawn in his hands, which makes him an outsider. The boundless jealousy that Iago can arouse in Otello, and which causes Otello to murder his innocent wife Desdemona, grows out of the doubts that the world has planted in him.
https://www.theater-kiel.de/

Pique Dame @ Teatro La Scala

It is an honour for the company working in the the largest opera house in the world. As Timur Zangiev conducts a masterpiece of the Russian repertoire. With a libretto by Tchaikovsky’s brother Modest based on Pushkin’s tale, the opera was composed primarily in Florence in 1890 and is one of the composer’s crowning artistic achievements. The obsessive atmospheres of this classic foray into the curse of gambling are entrusted to the director Matthias Hartmann, who has already staged Der Freischütz and Idomeneo at La Scala. Asmik Grigorian returns to Piermarini’s stage as Liza.
https://teatroallascala.org/en/season/2021-2022/opera/pique-dame.html

The Ideal Man - Oscar Wilde

The company will be working choreographically and as movement coach, alongside director Alexandra Liedtke and her new production of Oscar Wilde's 'The ideal husband'.
The worked premiere is on November 25th 2021, and the renowned Theatre in der Josefstadt.
More information can be found here:
https://www.josefstadt.org/programm/stuecke/premieren-2021/22/stueck/der-ideale-mann.html

Continuim Premiere - UNFOLD - Göteborgs Operan

In Continuim, choreographers Paul Blackman and Christine Gouzelis explore life’s circularity, rapidity, fears and how we overcome them. Days gone past and memories of other times flash by at a pace that keeps us riveted to our seats. Continuim was created at the Göteborg Opera in autumn 2020, but its world premiere was cancelled due to the pandemic.

SKYWARD - 2024

LE GRAND MACABRE - WIENER STAATSOPER 2023 NOVEMBER

Amopera

Otello Opera - Kiel Theater

Pique Dame @ Teatro La Scala

NEW CREATION - AEON x NTM

The Ideal Man - Oscar Wilde

Continuim Premiere - UNFOLD - Göteborgs Operan

10th YEAR - Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance

INTOLLERANZA 1960

L'incoronazione di Poppea

Movementors - SEAD