Klevis Elmazaj

The Dutch-Albanian choreographer Klevis Elmazaj grew up in Berat, then emigrated with his family to Italy in the 1990s. He received his first dance training from Ilir Shaqiri and the soloists of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tirana. Thanks to a scholarship he was able to continue his training at the Ateneo Danza dance school in Forlì with Stefania Sansavini. He subsequently graduated from the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London.

As a choreographer he works on dance, opera, musical theatre and spoken theatre productions. In opera he created the chore-     ography for Rusalka at the Teatro Real in Madrid (2020), Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve at the Frankfurt Opera (2021), Salome at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki (2022), Lohengrin at the Dutch National Opera (2023) and The Queen of Spades at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (2024).

He was nominated in the category ‘Best Choreography’ at the Dutch Musical Awards in 2025 for his choreography for a touring production of West Side Story. In 2026 he was the choreographer for the musical Spring Awakening at the Vienna Volksoper.

Alongside his work in opera and musicals, Klevis Elmazaj has created his own dance pieces, which he has presented at international competitions. He received the second prize at the Burgos / New York International Choreography Competition for his choreography Until the Sand (2016), was a finalist in the Youth America Grand Prix for Where the Sun Rises (2018) and won first prize at the competition of the Festival Danza en el Camino for The Silent Way (2019).

In 2021 he founded the production company ImagineWonders, which is dedicated to storytelling through the interplay of dance, theatre, film and music.

Klevis Elmazaj makes his debut as a choreographer at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2026 with Ciao, bella ciao.