Jefta van Dinther (NL/SE) is a choreographer and dancer who was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Sweden. After graduating in dance from the Amsterdam School of the Arts and working in the field since, he now works between Stockholm, Berlin and Amsterdam.

Jefta makes dance performances, both alone and in collaboration with other artists. He is currently working on and touring the new performance GRIND, made in collaboration with lighting designer Minna Tiikkainen and sound designer David Kiers. His other works include The Blanket Dance (2011), which was made in collaboration with Frederic Gies and DD Dorvillier. Kneeding - a choreography for three men - premiered in Amsterdam in 2010 and still tours. In 2009 he made the quintet The Way Things Go - a slowly moving sculpture of cause and effect. The Way Things Go is also included in the repertory of the Cullberg Ballet. Together with Mette Ingvartsen he created the performance IT’S IN THE AIR (2009). And Breeding, Brains and Beauty (2009) was made by the collective COCOs (Bojana Cvejic, Sandra Iche, Mette Ingvartsen, Jan Ritsema and Jefta van Dinther). His work has been presented in theatres and festivals such as Frascati Theater Amsterdam, Kaaitheater Brussels, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Tanzquartier Vienna, Antipodes Brest, TNB Rennes, In-Presentable Madrid, CCN Montpellier, Weld Stockholm, MDT Stockholm, Fabrik Potsdam, PACT Zollverein etc.

Jefta’s works are distinctly physical, and always imply a staged research of movement itself. The subject matter is the conditioning of choreography, i.e. how methods of working create specific bodies with specific organizations, different for every performance. Systems, scores, practices and principles are fed with affect, emotionality and imagination as well as vice versa. Processes exhibited live on stage become performances. They often play with formats of presentation, always creating new dispositifs of staging the relation between performers and audience.

Apart from dancing in his own performances Jefta is also involved in the works of others. He is currently still working and touring with performances by Mette Ingvartsen, Xavier Le Roy and Ivana Muller. He has been engaged as a performer with various other choreographers including Frederic Gies, Keren Levi, Leine/Roebana, Pere Faura, Carolien Hermans, Martin Butler and Inari Salmivaara. He teaches in choreography, sharing his methods of work and his practices. During 2008/2009 he was one of the participants in the project 6 Months 1 Location (6M1L) initiated by Xavier Le Roy and Bojana Cvejic, confronting questions around education, structures of production and artistic exchange. Together with the other participants of 6M1L he co-curated In-Presentable Festival 2009 in Madrid. He also organizes the Living Room Festival in Berlin.