Ihsan Rustem was born in London, where he trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.
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In 2015 Ihsan was appointed Resident Choreographer for the NW Dance Project in Portland, Oregon USA, where this season he will create his 10th work for the company. He has created further works for the Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, National Ballet of Chile, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2, Whim W’Him Seattle, Istanbul State Ballet MDT, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Konzert Theater Bern, Ballett Augsburg, Kazan State Opera and Ballet, Koblenz Ballet, Ballet Regensburg, Würzburg Ballet, Siberian State Ballet,  Salt Contemporary Dance USA, Arts Umbrella Dance Company Vancouver, National Youth Dance Company, Palucca Hochschule Dresden and Cinevox Junior Company. He was twice a featured choreographer for Russia’s popular TV show ‘The Bolshoi Ballet’.
In 2018/19, Nederlands Dans Theater named Ihsan as one of their Up & Coming Choreographers.

His work for the NW Dance Project has been recognised with numerous accolades. State of Matter won the 2012 Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest as well as the Public Choice Award at the 25th International Competition for Choreographers Hannover, and Carmen received Dance Magazine’s 2017 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Collaboration. Rustem was also the 2014 recipient of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s International Commissioning Project.

From 2000-2014 Ihsan Rustem was a dancer with the Ballet Theater Munich, Introdans, State Theater Bern Ballet, Tanz Luzerner Theater and Adventures in Motion Pictures. He originated roles in creations by Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Matthew Bourne, Stijn Celis, Patrick Delcroix, Cayetano Soto, Felix Landerer, Cathy Marston and worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Jiri Kylián, Paul Lightfoot / Sol Leon, Hans van Manen and William Forsythe, amongst others.
He is the former Artistic Director of the Dance Art Studio Ballettschule Luzern.
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Ihsan lives in Zurich, Switzerland.