Andrew Skeels is a visionary choreographer and director celebrated for creating performances that transcend dance and become immersive worlds of emotion, imagery, and story. His work bridges the boundaries of dance, theatre, fashion, and visual art, transporting audiences into experiences that resonate long after the curtain falls.
Internationally acclaimed, Skeels has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading institutions, including the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bavarian State Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, National Theater Mannheim, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. His creation Finding Now for Théâtre de Suresnes won the Grand Prix de la Critique in Paris and went on to a sold-out run at the Opéra Bastille.
Since 2018, Skeels has brought his artistry to Cirque du Soleil, shaping some of its most ambitious productions: acrobatic choreographer for Drawn to Life at Walt Disney World, movement choreographer for the touring spectacle Echo, writer/director/choreographer of the campaign Brightest, and contributor to Joya in Mexico. These projects expanded his choreographic language to a global scale, blending circus and dance into unforgettable experiences for millions of spectators.
Skeels draws on a multifaceted background as a classical and contemporary dancer, film editor, and actor. As a former dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, he performed in masterworks by Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Marco Goecke, Stijn Celis, Didy Veldman, and Stephan Thoss—experiences that continue to inform the depth and rigor of his creations
At the core of his process is collaboration. He builds teams of dancers, musicians, designers, and visual artists—including Sussan Deyhim, Damian Siqueiros, Mindy L’Amour, Marija Djordjević, and David Di Giovanni—to push the boundaries of dance-theatre and reimagine what live performance can be.
Since 2015, Andrew Skeels has directed his own Montreal-based company, Skeels Danse, a platform for bold and immersive creations. Each work is conceived as a world of its own, capturing the intricacies of movement and the emotional breadth of human experience.
The company’s debut production, Rose of Jericho (2017), toured more than 30 cities worldwide and garnered widespread acclaim, establishing Skeels Danse as a rising force on the international stage. In 2023, the company premiered its second major work, Past Rooms, hailed by JEU Magazine as “a little gem of dance-theatre, polished with care.”
Skeels Danse has appeared at leading festivals and venues including Boston Moving Arts, Danse Danse, Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, WestWave Dance Festival in San Francisco, Festival Quartiers Danses, and FIFA International Festival of Films on Art, among others—marking its place as a company that continues to captivate and expand audiences worldwide.
—Culturebox, France
