Jan Linkens was born in Maastricht and followed the Dance programme at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In 1977 he was engaged by the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, where he spent 17 years as a dancer and choreographer.
His first choreography was for the Workshop of the Dutch National Ballet in 1979 and he has since created over 60 ballets for numerous companies in the Netherlands and abroad.
His works have been performed in many countries in Europe, as well as in Japan, Israel, Cuba, the Philippines, Turkey and Brazil.
He has won various prizes with his ballets, including 1st Prize at the 14th International Choreography Competition in Cologne (Germany). He was one of the prize winners at the 1st International Choreography Competition in Tokyo (Japan) in 1991. In 1997, his work “Nuevas Cruzes” was nominated for the Benois de la Danse Prize in the category “best choreography”. “Compas”, a piece created for Danza Contemporànea de Cuba, won the Premio Villanueva for “Best Dance Production in Cuba” in 2003 and the prize of the Cuban artists’ organisation UNEAC in 2004.
After his dance career, he worked as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Tanztheater der Komischen Oper in Berlin, together with Marc Jonkers. He has since been a guest lecturer and choreographer with many companies and teaching programmes around the world. From March 2011 until July 2016, Jan was artistic director of the International Dance Theatre in Amsterdam.
Jan has been director of the Dance programme at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague since 1 September 2014.