Tanya Chizhikova (b.1984 Moscow, Russia) is a choreographer and performer whose work is situated at the intersection of dance, performativity and conceptual practice. She trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and later completed a Master’s Degree at GITIS with a thesis on the development of Contemporary Dance in Russia at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her early works already questioned the boundaries of dance, gradually expanding into interdisciplinary and performative fields. Among her key creations are Time to time and City building, where the pursuit of radical decisions itself becomes the narrative. Since 2019, she has collaborated with dance dramaturg Anna Semenova Ganz while continuing to develop her own projects.
Her artistic focus lies in projects that combine choreographic expression more with reflection than with fixed statements, exploring how contemporary dance can respond to reality. Her practice involves hybrid forms at the boundary of dance and other media. Physics, philosophy, and cinema are frequent sources of inspiration, while minimalism and form remain her main artistic pillars.
Her works have been presented in theatres, festivals, and unconventional spaces across Russia, Europe, and the USA and have been presented at Hauptsache Frei in Hamburg, the Movement Research Festival at Judson Church in New York, ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Antigel in Geneva, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts in Dresden, and at Voices in Berlin.
She has been honored with the national Golden Mask Award for her work The Striker in 2020. She is also the winner in the category 8:tension – Young Choreographers’ Series at the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna in 2019 with her work Time to time.
She currently lives and works in Berlin.