Life
Résumé
After studying as one of the "Regensburger Choirboys", I initially trained as a farmer and travelled the world as a sailor. It was whilst travelling at this time that I met the choreographer James Saunders and discovered my passion for dance. During, and after my training as a stage dancer in Cologne and New York (scholarship with the Nikolais-Murray Louis Dance Company), I travelled throughout Europe, driven by the need to explore dance, and experiment with as many genres as possible: Ballet, Modern Dance, Contemporary Dance, Contact Improvisation and Holistic Body Trainings such as Pilates, Alexander Technique and Yoga.
As a dancer I was involved in many dance theatre productions in the independent scene, as well as at various opera houses. I have worked with directors such as Johann Kresnik, Giancarlo del Monaco and Juri Ljubimow. In 1997 I founded the company "Tanztheater Zwiefach", and my first choreography "Bayerwald-Passion", was awarded Cologne’s "Dance Theatre Prize", which led to an invitation to the first international Dance Fair in Essen in 1998. In the same year, the director Jens Greuner created a dance-film version of the piece.
Since 2000 I have also worked as an actor in theatre and television productions, for example a TV series by Franz Xaver Bogner, and in well-known formats such as "Rosenheim Cops" and "Tatort".
In addition to my artistic work, I also trained and qualified as a theatre pedagogue (BuT), and as a certified KRPG trainer (Kreativ Rituelle Prozess-Gestaltung) at "planoalto" in Switzerland.
The inclusion of a solution- and process-oriented, systemic attitude had a lasting influence on my artistic and pedagogical work.
As a lecturer and teaching instructor I have worked internationally for over 25 years giving workshops and seminars with dancers, actors, musicians, teachers and amateurs. The wide-ranging seminar concept "Body-as-Voice", which has been continually developed over the years, is also used in adapted form, for further training seminars with leading business enterprises (SAG/Spie, LBS, Story Dealer, etc.).
In 2003 I had a formative encounter with Royston Maldoom, the founder of community dance, who became world renowned through the documentary film "Rhythm is it". Due to the collaboration with Maldoom, which involved many grand scale community dance projects throughout the world, a major focus of my artistic work has been involved in dance projects with children, young people and amateurs from all social backgrounds.
At the Staatstheater Saarbrücken we produced a joint choreography "The Firebird" by Igor Stravinsky, which I was subsequently able to stage again in Bucharest, Moscow, and as part of the Dresden Music Festival, and most recently again with Royston Maldoom in Shanghai, as part of the 50-year international friendship.
Other community dance projects have taken me to Switzerland and Turkey as well as to Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Ethiopia and Palestine.
In spring 2012, I accepted an invitation from the NGO "Educo Africa" to conduct various workshops and lectures in the townships of Cape Town, as well as assisting in the "leadership and self-development courses" in the "Groot Winterhoek Mountains".
In 2010 my life was filmed in an episode of the portrait series "Life Lines" by Bavarian Television. The title was named after my first stage play "Bayerwaldpassion".