Jean-Marc Puissant

Designer Jean-Marc Puissant works regularly at the Royal Opera House. For The Royal Ballet he created set and costume designs for Christopher Wheeldon's ballets Aeternum (2013), Electric Counterpoint (2008), DGV: Danse à grande vitesse (2006) and Tryst (2002), and created set designs for the Company's new production of George Balanchine's ballet Jewels (2007). For The Royal Opera he created set designs for David McVicar's production of Aida (2010). His work within the Linbury Studio Theatre includes designs for Arthur Pita's A Dream within a Midsummer Night's Dream for Ballet Black. He has also appeared on the main stage as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Puissant began his career as a dancer, training at the Paris Opera School and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse and dancing professionally with BRB and Stuttgart Ballet. He then studied on the Motley Theatre Design Course and read Art History and Archaeology at the Sorbonne, and now designs sets and costumes for dance, opera and theatre companies around the world. He works regularly with companies including, in dance, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, BRB, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Rambert and Phoenix Dance Theatre; in opera, Santa Fe Opera and Scottish Opera; and in theatre, Menier Chocolate Factory, Edinburgh Festival and Théâtre du Châtelet.

Puissant has given talks about his work at the V&A and Guggenheim museums, tutors theatre design at Central School of Speech and Drama and is on the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella Ltd.