The Choreographer Behind Suspiria's Dancing Has a Body of Work That Will Bend Your Mind
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In the remake of the cult horror classic Suspiria, which takes place at a ballet company in Berlin in the 1970s, the dancing is not an afterthought. Instead, it is inspired, mesmerizing, and central to the plot itself. In fact, it's often the very source of the terror. In one of the film's first gruesome scenes, a frenzied, possessed rehearsal by Susie (played by Dakota Johnson, who did most of her own dancing in the film) is intercut with the supernaturally gross death of one of her fellow dancers.
This is all to say that if you are a dance-lover, Suspiria is one of the rare movies that won't let you down by treating the choreography as set dressing or featuring a cast full of actors who clearly don't know — or didn't bother to learn — the first thing about dance.
Suspiria – Clip: Susie's First Dance | Amazon Studios
Damien Jalet is the mastermind who brought his astronomical dance talents to the unsettling film. The contemporary, modern dance of Jalet's imagination mirrors the brutalist architecture around the post-war city, the push-and-pull manipulations of its female characters, and the frantic terror of the movie's most sinister themes.
That commitment to making the choreography vibrant and the dance company feel real does much to make Suspiria so chilling and effective. Its stars, including Johnson and Mia Goth, trained alongside professional dancers. Johnson — who plays the movie's central character — committed a year to training before the shoot.
Damien Jalet - Les Médusés / Zikhr
Working with Jalet certainly helped pull incredible performances out of Johnson and her costars. After all, he has danced with the Paris Opera Ballet and Scottish Dance Theater, collaborated with famed performance artist Marina Abramovic and fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, and worked around the world from Tokyo to Antwerp.
In 2013, his otherworldly piece "Les Médusés" overtook the Louvre, making for a compelling performance piece that blended classical art and modern dance. It was that very creation that helped him land his job on Suspiria. In a recent interview with Vice alongside Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino, Jalet explained the "quite spooky" coincidence.
"Luca had seen this thing I did at the Louvre Museum in 2013," Jalet said, "and thought it was almost literally the dance described in the script for the film. [Suspiria features a dance based on the Gorgons, of which Medusa was one.] The really spooky thing is that when I brought the three female dancers together to make that dance, I told them, 'Listen, there is this film I want to show you. We are not going to pull anything from it directly, but there's something in its spirit that I would like you to capture.'" That film was 1977's original Suspiria.
Since his pre-"Apesh*t" Louvre takeover, Jalet has continued to produce a stunning body of work. One of his most groundbreaking and downright watchable creations came just last year with "Skid." In the piece, first choreographed for the Gothenburg Dance Company, performers danced on a stage inclined at 34 degrees. The off-kilter results were spellbinding; you can watch parts of the performance in the video above.
You can follow Jalet's choreography on his Instagram page, where he often posts clips and stills from his latest work. (And once you see Suspiria, we have a feeling you'll be clicking "follow" on his account.)