Biography Thomas Mettler

Work in theatre and dance through ongoing research since 1982 (foundation at the school of Marcel Marceau) as mime, clown, actor, improviser and dancer.

Teaching for 40 years – 4 years full-time at professional acting or dance schools in London and Paris, and over 140 intensive-workshops brought him to Columbia, France, England, Italy, Germany, USA, India, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Spain, Israel, Palestine, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Switzerland.

He created numerous pieces and projects where theatre and dance mix - always with parts of improvisation.

Invitation to the festival “Cultural Capital of Europe 97” in Thessaloniki.

To deepen his research and work in dance and dance-improvisation he followed his most important teachers over a dedicated period of 3 years throughout Europe: David Zambrano, Nigel Charnock, Russell Maliphant, Laurie Booth and Kirstie Simson.

In 1995 he co-founded “on.off Werkstatt” in Bern, a centre for research, studies, exchange and creation with international leading guest-teachers and was its Artistic Director during 12 years.

With “6 Men Dance – a night of improv” he realises a long-time dream by founding and bringing together one of Europe’s finest and most daring Dance/Physical-Theatre/Improvisation collective with artists: Adam Benjamin (UK) – Rick Nodine (USA/UK) – Jordi Cortés Molina (ES) – Christian Panouillot (FR) – Dan Watson (UK) – Chris Aiken (USA).

In the fields of Inclusive Dance he choreographed for “StopGAP Dance Company” and “DanseHabile” and worked with “Beweggrund Bern” and “Adam Benjamin & Friends”.

2009 he began a collaboration with Astad Deboo/ India called 'Incontro' ('Encounter'). 2010 he created the evening filling piece "The Sweet Poison LOVE" with 9 dancers from 5 nations, which premiered at the 11th Kemptener Tanzherbst in Germany and toured through Switzerland.

From 2011 to 2013 he was engaged as Artistic Director of the DanceFilmFestival Lucerne.

2012 Co-Founder of the first monthly Contact-Improvisation-Jam in Ticino/ CH (www.ci-ticino.ch). 2013/ 2014 he finished his first dancefilm 'autumn leaves' and worked on two new "Incontro"s with international guests. His dance improv project 'When We Meet' with Zita Pavlistova had its Première in Prag during spring 2014.

2015 he created "Some Men Must Die" with 11 dancers/ actors in Kiev/ Ukraine which premiered at the GOGOL Fest 15. The piece was revised in 2016 for the KMATOS-Fest 2016. In Dnepr (UKR) he created 2017 the piece "Comig Together", leading and brining together 13 Ukrainian artists.

2017 he finished his feature-lenght solo „ – t r a n s i t i o – „ in collaboration/ with sculptures from Swiss sculptor Pascal Murer and with live musicians Vojtà & Irena Havlovi (CZ).

Since 2018 he is leading a new international improvisation ensemble, entitled “truly yours“ and working on a feature-lenght motion picture partly based on his stage play "Some Men Must Die".

2019 he was invited to create a new piece for the 100th anniversary of the „IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL ACADEMIC DRAMA THEATRE“ for its repertoire. "STINA -The Wall" premiered in December 2019.

2020 he started another new improvisation ensemble entitled „EnsembleSOLO - unleashed“