Gustavo Gomes (1988) is a choreographer, performance, and film artist based in Cologne, Germany. His work explores new thresholds of performance and its dialogues with other media, investigating the intersections of speech, movement, and theatrical representation. As the creative director of Gustavo Gomes & Co., he collaborates with a multidisciplinary collective, pushing the boundaries of contemporary choreography and visual storytelling.
His choreographic works have been presented at renowned venues and festivals, including Schauspielhaus Köln, Ludwig Museum, Frankfurt Lab, Tanzfaktur, Wallraff-Richartz-Museum, HELLERAU, PiK Deutz, KOLUMBA Museum, VRHAM Festival Hamburg, Atelierfrankfurt, Quartier am Hafen, Radialsystem Berlin, Hombroich Insel Museum.
Gomes has created for and performed with acclaimed dance companies, such as Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company/Jacopo Godani, Ballet of Difference/Richard Siegal, and Osnabrück Tanz Theater. His performance career includes repertoire works and collaborations with celebrated artists like Richard Siegal, Jacopo Godani, Roy Assaf, and William Forsythe. In 2020, he was nominated for Der Faust alongside the ensemble of Ballet of Difference for Best Dancer in Germany.
In film, Gomes’ work establishes a dialogue between framed image, ritual, and the metaphysics of representation. His films have been showcased at prestigious festivals and galleries, including the Brussels Independent Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, Berlin Independent Film Festival, Thessaloniki Cinedance International, Kinesthesia Film Festival, Spring Grove Caledonia Film Festival, Ich. Morgen, InShadow Dance Film Festival, Art Site Festival Turin, Quinzena de Dança de Almada, Video Dance Studies of Valencia, and IMAP – Moving Image Festival São Paulo. He is a three-time recipient of the Tarkovsky Grant.
He has held artist residencies at Forecast Platform Berlin (2023), HELLERAU, TalentLab at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville Luxembourg, WELTKUNSTZIMMER, VRHAM Festival, The EKARD Residency, Quartier am Hafen, and the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. His collaborative work with visual artist Esther Kläs has led to performances and installations at Art Basel - Parcours, Xavier Hufkens, KOLUMBA, Watou Art Festival, M Leuven Museum, Rotterdam Art Week, and other international art spaces.
As an author, Gomes has published I Am Pretty, I Should Be Famous with visual artist Harald Geissler and Variations on the Represented with photographer András Dobi.
In addition to his artistic practice, he is a guest faculty member at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK), the Center for Contemporary Dance (ZZT – HfMT Köln), and the Beijing International Dance Festival, where he teaches improvisation, contact improvisation, intuitive movement, identity, and courage. His pedagogical approach focuses on uncovering responsibilities of the body and mind through movement, emphasizing group dynamics as a foundation for choreography.
Currently, Gomes is developing a series of site-specific performances that merge film, performance, and sculpture to explore masculinity, vulnerability, and the complexities of power and identity. Through his research across different cultural contexts, he collects and reinterprets personal narratives, revealing the tensions between strength and fragility, dominance and tenderness. His work examines how masculinity is shaped by societal expectations, creating spaces for these constructs to be questioned and reimagined.