about

Tony Tran is a Norwegian-Vietnamese choreographer and performer based in Oslo, Norway, graduated from the Oslo National Academy of Arts and the Danish National School of Performing Arts Copenhagen. His work has been concerned with masculine identities and men’s relationship to their body and sexuality, in particular how masculinity is communicated as a bodily language, as well as being a constructed identity with inherited vocabulary, expression and structure. His work has toured in 15 countries within Europe, Middle East, Asia and North America.

In 2019, he premiered Jakob at the Nuuk Nordic Festival, a piece detailing a codependent relationship between two men, exploring power, identity and homoerotic clichés. The performance is a dynamic duo shifting between intimacy and violence, moving from subtle gestures to strenuous physical activities, as the performers negotiate a friendship turned romantic, oppressive, destructive and yet supportive.

His latest work, Brotherly, is a piece for three diverse dancers that explores brotherhood and fellowships with questionable unifying goals. The work draws particular inspiration from the rigid and controlled body in traditional forms of Irish dance, specifically the footwork of Riverdance and its anti-colonial roots. It is a performance where bodies are voluntary participants in their own restriction, a spirited search for the human spirit through struggle and the nurturing core of companionship. It premiered at Bærum Kulturhus, Norway, in January 2022.

Tony´s previous work involves further more collaborations with artists and colleagues, such as choreographer Antero Hein for SCHISMOGENESIS in 2016, and film-maker & visual artist Andreas Daugstad Leonardsen for Encryption in 2018.

He is recipient of a Work grant for younger and newly established artists from Arts Council Norway, from 2021-23. He is also on the committee for performance arts for The Audio and Visual Fund for two periods: 2020-22 and 2022-24. He has been previously been part of the Board of Performance Arts Hub Norway, and is now a Board Member at Scenekunstbruket – The Norwegian Network for Performing Arts. And in 2022, he was the artistic advisor for the cross-aesthetic music festival Lyse Netter, responsible for programming of performance arts. He is also a part of the Artistic Council of Dansens Hus Oslo for the year 2023.

In 2026 Tony will co-organize with Ngo Thanh Phuong and Red Slumber. a new art festival in Nha Trang, Vietnam