The American choreographer and dancer Meg Stuart moved to New York in 1983 to attend the New York University where she received a BFA in dance and continued her training following classes in release technique and contact improvisation at Movement Research. She was a member of the Randy Warshaw Dance Company from 1986 to 1992, where she was also assistant to the choreographer.
At the invitation of Klapstuk 91, she made her first full-length production “Disfigure Study” (1991). It was the start to an impressive series of productions the choreographer made with her company Damaged Goods, which has been based in Brussels since 1994: “No Longer Readymade” (1993); “Insert Skin #1 – They Live in Our Breath” (1996) with visual artist Lawrence Malstaf; “Splayed Mind Out” (1997; presented at documenta X in Kassel) with video artist Gary Hill; “appetite” (1998) with visual artist Ann Hamilton; “ALIBI” (2001) and “Visitors Only” (2003), both in co-operation with scenographer Anna Viebrock, video artist Chris Kondek and composer Paul Lemp; “FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS” (2004), with choreographer/dancer Benoît Lachambre and composer Hahn Rowe; “It’s not funny” (2006); and in 2007 “BLESSED”, a choreography for the Portuguese dancer and choreographer Francisco Camacho (2007 Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Gent) and “MAYBE FOREVER”, a duet with the Austrian choreographer and dancer Philipp Gehmacher (2007 Kaaitheater in Brussels).
A recurrent feature in the work of Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods is the search for new forms of co-operation, presentation contexts and the ‘crossbreeding’ of theatre, architecture and visual art i.g. in the dance installation for the exhibition “This is the Show and the Show is Many Things” by curator Bart De Baere at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent (1994), the improvisation project “Crash Landing” (1996-99), the site specific sound and video project “Highway 101” in close collaboration with theatre director Stefan Pucher and video artist Jorge Leon (2000-01), “Auf den Tisch!“ (2005), etc. 1997 Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods was one of the artists-in-residence at the Kaaitheater in Brussels. From 2001 until 2004 the company took up residence at the Schauspielhaus Zürich at the invitation of Christoph Marthaler. Since the 2002–03 season Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods also collaborate with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. In 2000 Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods received the Culture Prize K.U.Leuven. In 2006 the Deutsche Theaterpreis DER FAUST for „REPLACEMENT“ (2006) and in autumn 2008 the BESSIE AWARD (New York Dance and Performance Award).
