Set Designer // Jean-Marc Puissant

Jean-Marc Puissant designs set and costumes for opera, theatre, dance and musical theatre.
His productions have been performed across Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia, on stages such as the Royal Opera – Covent Garden,  Sadler’s Wells and the Menier Chocolate Factory, New York’s State Opera – Lincoln Center and City Center, the Mariinsky (Kirov) and Bolshoi theatres and the Sydney Opera House.
Jewels won the 2007 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and received a 2007 South Bank Show Award nomination.  Electric Counterpoint won the 2008 Critics Circle Award.
DGV (Danse à Grande Vitesse) in 2006 and Tryst in 2002 both received Lawrence Olivier Awardsnominations for Best New Dance Production, and DGV alsowon the 2006 South Bank Show Award.  Nopalitos won the 2006 Critics Circle Award and was presented, with Paseillo, at the 2007 Venice Biennale.  A Night at the Chinese Opera received a 2008 TMA Theatre Awardnomination.
Jean-Marc has created original designs for the Menier Chocolate Factory, The Royal Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Royal Academy Opera, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater 2,  Phoenix Dance Theatre,  Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Mannheim National Theater Ballet.
He has collaborated with directors David McVicar, Mitch Sebastian, Lee Blakeley, Walter Meierjohann, Toby Frow, Andrew Neil and William Relton, and choreographers Christopher Wheeldon, David Bintley, Javier de Frutos, Karole Armitage, Dominique Dumais, Kevin O’Day, Arthur Pita, Cathy Marston, Adrian Burnett, Maina Gielgud and Marcia Haydée.
He trained at the Motley Theatre Design Course in London (founder: Margaret Harris; director: Alison Chitty) and previously studied Art History and Archaeology in La Sorbonne, Paris.
Jean-Marc’s career began as a dancer, studying ballet at the School of Paris Opera and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris.  A professional dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet (dir: Sir Peter Wright) and the Stuttgart Ballet (dir: Marcia Haydée), he danced and created roles in classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertoires.
He has been asked to give talks about his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Since September 2008, he Jean-Marc has been a member of the Board of Directors of Dance Umbrella Ltd.