Jean-Marc
Puissant

Benois de la Danse nominee

Jean-Marc Puissant is an award winning set and costume designer working internationally for ballet, contemporary dance, opera, theatre and musicals.

Designing productions of all scales, styles and genres, Jean-Marc’s design practice is rooted in the identity of unique creative collaborations, supporting the nature and craft required by each art form across the performing arts.

Jean-Marc’s career began as a dancer, he graduated from Paris Opera Ballet School before joining Birmingham Royal Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet.

He trained at the celebrated Motley Theatre Design Course in London and studied Art History at La Sorbonne, Paris. A finalist of World Stage Design 2013, he was invited to give talks about his design work at London’s V&A and New York’s Guggenheim museums.

He is on the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella, London’s international contemporary dance festival.

Twelve collaborations with Christopher Wheeldon include designs of The Royal Ballet’s  Aeternum (Olivier Award and National Dance Award), Electric Counterpoint (National Dance Award), DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse (South Bank Show Award, Olivier Award nomination) and Tryst (Olivier Award nomination), New York City Ballet’s Les Carillons and Klavier, American Ballet Theatre’s VIII (also Hamburg Ballet), San Francisco Ballet’s Quaternary, Pennsylvania Ballet’s Swan Lake (also Joffrey Ballet and Karlsruhe) and Dutch National Ballet’s Concerto Concordia.

For The Royal Ballet, Jean-Marc also designed George Balanchine’s Jewels (Olivier Award; South Bank Show Award nomination) and Whelan / Watson: Other Stories, a full length dance evening featuring new works by Javier de Frutos, Arlene Phillips, Annie-B Parson, Danièle Desnoyers and Arthur Pita.

Other dance designs include ballets by David Bintley, Alexandre Whitley, Jose Martinez, Ernst Meisner, Javier de Frutos, Karole Armitage, Shobana Jeyasingh, Arthur Pita, Javier de Frutos, Kevin O’Day, Marcia Haydée, Maina Gielgud, Bridget Breiner, Ken Ossola.

Opera and theatre designs include the Châtelet, Royal Opera House, Valencia, Opera Oslo, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera St Louis, Scottish Opera, Royal Academy Opera, Theatre Royal Stratford East’s,Finborough Theatre.

Future commissions include PhillipGlass’ Les Enfants Terribles – (Royal Ballet at the Barbican, for Phillip Glassat 80).