Elie Tass

In his youth, Elie Tass - ° 1981, Ghent (BE) - practised various sports, ranging from football to martial arts to strength training. Only later did he start dancing, first ballet and later breakdance. He studied two years of physical education at the University of Ghent and then started a three-year dance course at HID (Higher Institute of Dance) in Lier, Belgium. While still at school, he could be seen in some creations with Thierry Smits and Marc Bogaerts and some of his own work; and took part in Tannhäuser (an opera by Richard Wagner) for Troubleyn / Jan Fabre. In 2006, he started working on vsprs for les ballets C de la B / Alain Platel. This encounter continued in the following years, mainly in the creations, pitie! , Out of context - for Pina, tauberbach and nicht schlafen.

In 2011, Ross McCormack, whom he met at les ballets C de la B while creating vsprs, invited him to Australia to collaborate with him on a short creation for Queensland contemporary dance company Dancenorth. As part of a double bill, they made [SIC].
In 2012, Elie Tass collaborated with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on the creation of Puz/zle.
In 2013, he collaborated with Alain Platel on the end-of-year performance of the drama students at KASK in Ghent and temporarily took over the role of Nicolas Vladyslav in Dans, a production by les ballets C de la B and Het Kip. Together with some fellow dancers, he worked on a three-week brain and body storm in a studio in Seoul in the same year. This resulted in a preview of n(own)ow (working title), which was performed at the LG Arts Centre.
For and with dancer Nicola Leahey, he created the short solo SHINE (VS SHEILA) commissioned by the Laundry Day festival in Paris. He also created IVORY for the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington, as a final-year graduation project.

In 2019, he made entrata di emergenza with final-year students at the Paolo Grassi school in Milan, which was invited to the Festival Morsi and later also to Fondazione Prada in Milan, this time reworked for the much larger Deposito space.

In 2022, he danced at Theatre Malpertuis in Medea (Piet Arfeuille) and at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in A bigger Thing (Lisi Estaras).

In his work, Elie mainly starts from the idea of a fiercely inquisitive body ... dancing but also walking, sitting, breathing, manipulating, sweating and observing. And from desire.

update 2022