getting interested Choreograher Book
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You can expand on the portraits by doing your own research on choreographic working methods. 

 

On the Internet, you’ll find films, images and texts from a whole host of choreographers, which you can use to develop additional observational and movement assignments for your lessons.

Choreograher Book

What does the work of a choreographer look like? How does their biography impact their work? And which pieces illustrate their working methods most strikingly? Get inspired by the lives and creations of the artists featured here and consider what could potentially catch the interest of your class too.

Pioneers

Isadora Duncan

* 27 May 1877, San Francisco
† 14 September 1927, Nice

Searching for the Soul with the Body

"If I could tell you what it means, it would make no sense to dance it."

Rudolf von Laban

* 15 December 1879, Pressburg (today Bratislava)
† 01 July 1958, Weybridge

The Dancing Researcher

"Every human being is a dancer."

Mary Wigman

* 13 November 1886, Hannover
† 19 September 1973, Berlin

The Ecstatic in Art

"Dance begins where knowledge about things stops, where experience is the only law."

20th century

Pina Bausch

* 27 July 1940, Solingen
† 30 June 2009, Wuppertal

Dance, Dance, Otherwise We Are Lost…

"I’m not interested in how people move, I’m interested in what moves them."

Trisha Brown

* 25 November 1936, Aberdeen (Washington)
† 18 March 2017, San Antonio

The Pioneer – Experimenting with Gravity

"Are my movements and my thinking closely connected? Above all I don’t think that my body doesn’t think."

Merce Cunningham

* 16 April 1919, Centralia
† 26 June 2009, New York

Master of Chance

"I didn’t become a dancer, I’ve always danced."

William Forsythe

* 30 December 1949, New York

Thought in Motion

"Of all categories, my favourite is amazement, astonishment, the not-knowing-exactly. My working motto is: cultivate unknowing. That’s where my idea of perfect theatre comes from. It looks like this: When I go to the theatre, I don’t have any answers. And when I come out, I know even less."

Current

Jérôme Bel

* 14 October 1964, Montpellier

Disturbing is a Quality

 "What does one do in a theatre? One pays to watch. The essence of theatre is seeing something other than one’s self. But my performers seem so alien that it challenges the audience to withstand the view. We are raised to turn away from that which is different, unfamiliar, crooked or disfigured. However, I force the viewers not to turn their gazes, in order that they may become aware of themselves as observers."

Anne Teresa
De Keersmaeker

* 11 June 1960, Mechelen

In Dialogue with a Score and Space

"I like the idea of singing things that I can’t say, and dancing things that I can’t sing."

Akram Khan

* 29 July 1974, London

Spinning – or How Time Passes Through Repetition

"I also want to make art for people who otherwise prefer watching football. The form is not the most crucial element. For me it’s about telling stories, and I do that with the body."

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

* 10 March 1976, Antwerp

He Who Stands on His Head Sees Things Differently

"Fractures, sharp breaks are necessary for us to think independently. We have to defend ourselves against political attempts to manipulate and control the media. We have so much information, way too much, but we can’t use it. Chomsky’s plea for freedom of expression spoke to me. As an artist, I need this freedom to continuously reinvent my identity."

Ohad Naharin

* 22 June 1952, Mizra kibbutz

Mr. Gaga

"Don’t dance your soul out of your body. Don’t try to find your head or your foot, try to find yourself."

Alain Platel

* 09 April 1959, Ghent

Humankind, a Miracle of Imperfection

"I don’t want to present any marginal groups or people who have problems. Instead I want to show that we all share these problems. For me the stage is only a metaphor for the situation in which we all live."

Meg Stuart

* 1965, New Orleans

Ritual, Improvisation and Ecstasy

"Here I am, what now?"

Sasha Waltz

* 8 March 1963, Karlsruhe

Architecture and Flowing Movement

"Theatre, dance, dance theatre? I don’t think in those kinds of categories... Everything can be theatre and the only thing that counts is quality."