Thom Willems’ music is predominately created for ballet. He works since 1985 with the choreographer William Forsythe, until 2004 with Ballett Frankfurt and from 2005 on with The Forsythe Company. Together they have created over 65 works.
His music is used for the creation of many of the most celebrated dance theatre works of our time by William Forsythe such as In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated (1987) and The Loss of Small Detail (1991). Other key works include Impressing the Czar (1988), Limb’s Theorem (1990), A L I E / N A(C)TION (1992), Eidos:Telos (1995) One Flat Thing, reproduced (2000), Sider (2011) and Study #3 (2013).
His music in connection with William Forsythe's work, is featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world including The Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Paris Opera Ballet, Teatro alla Scala Milano, Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Semperoper Ballett Dresden and Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon among many others. In total 68 companies in 26 countries.
William Forsythe’s short film Solo, with his music, was presented at the 1997 Whitney Biennial.
His work is used by fashion designers, e.g. Issey Miyake and Versace and was performed at the opening of Tate Modern, London (2000). In 2007 he was involved with Tadao Ando’s research center for design, 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo, and in 2008 with Matthew Ritchie’s installation The Morning Line for Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.