Project Principals / Artists / Producers
The Project Principals
Airan Berg is the initiator and artistic director of “I like to move it, move it! – The Big Linz09 School Project” as well as its head of theater and puppetry. Berg was born in Tel Aviv. He’s a graduate of the American International School in Vienna and Brown University in Providence, USA. He gained his first experience in professional theater on Broadway in New York as assistant to Harold Prince. In Austria, he has directed at numerous venues including the Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1990, we was in-house director at the Schillertheater in Berlin. He is co-founder of Theater ohne Grenzen and Die Macht des Staunens, an international puppet theater festival. From 2001 to 2007, Berg was CEO and artistic director of Schauspielhaus Wien. Since July 2007, Airan Berg has been Linz09’s artistic director for the performing arts.
Guido Reimitz Guido Reimitz conceived the overall project “I like to move it, move it! – The Big Linz09 School Project.” He is also one of its organizers as well as artistic director in the areas of dance and performance. He studied mathematics and computer science, trained as a film director and directed international dance projects. From 1994 to 2004, he directed the ImPuls.Tanz Festival in Vienna. Since 2004, he has been artistic director of Waldzell Meeting – A Global Dialog for Inspiration. Recent speakers at this annual conference have included Frank Gehry, Paul Nurse, the Dalai Lama and Isabel Allende.
Erwin Dorn is the pedagogical director of the School Project. He is a member of the faculty of Bundesrealgymnasium Traun, where he teaches German language & literature, history and acting. He is a graduate of the University of Graz, and has also taught at a comprehensive school in the south of England. In 1999, he was part of a team at BRG-Traun that developed a musical-creative program with an emphasis on architecture.
Erwin Dorn understands from his own personal experience the extent to which artistic projects can have a sustainable positive impact on school life and become catalysts for articulation and communication.
Marlies Leibitzki is project leader and is responsible for overall organization and coordination. She studied in Bielefeld, Germany and got her start as a theater pedagogue in 1992 at the Badische Landesbühne. She then moved on to Staatsschauspiel Dresden. Since 2001, she has been working as a festival organizer: she was in charge of organization of the Theater im Klassenzimmer Festival in Dresden; headed the Szenenwechsel theater festival for Schauspielhaus Dresden; and in 2007 she took over as project director of the 25th Bayerische Theatertage at Stadttheater Fürth.
Nora Wolloch is Linz09’s production director for the performing arts and has been in charge of the organizational preparations for the School Project.
After studying German language & literature, Nora Wolloch immediately entered the field of event organization. She first worked for Kulturgipfel, a concert promoter in Munich. From 2005 to 2007, she served as production assistant at the Wiener Festwochen. At the New Crowned Hope Festival 2006, she worked together with artistic director Peter Sellars. Most recently, Nora Wolloch was head of production and assistant director of several productions at Schauspielhaus Wien.
Margit Moisl studied German language & literature and theater at the Universities of Vienna and Rennes/Haute Bretagne. From 1998 to 2001, she was active in the indie dance and theater scene as assistant director and head of production, including work with Bilderwerfer, Toxic Dreams, Cie. Willi Dorner, Barbara Kraus and Stefan Kaegi. 2001-2002, she served as production assistant during the opening season of Tanzquartier Wien. From 2003 to 2005, she was head of production at Staatstheater Nürnberg and company manager of Tanztheater Nürnberg. In 2005, she took over as head of production at Tanzquartier Wien. Since 2008, she’s been working together with Linz09 and Guido Reimitz on this school project.
Markus Zeindlinger is an actor, director and theater pedagogue, and is working together with Airan Berg on the project.
Markus Zeindlinger was born in 1973 in Freistadt and lives in Linz. He has been developing his own theater projects and performances since 1990. He studied acting at Anton Bruckner University in Linz, and received his degree in 1997. Markus Zeindlinger is co-director of theaternyx and in 2004-2006 staged location-specific summer projects entitled “Trilogie exzessiver Frauen.” Since 2002, he has taught theater pedagogy at the Federal Pedagogical Institute in Linz.
Selected Participating Artists:
Anne Juren (F/A) was born in 1978 in Grenoble, France, and has lived and worked in Vienna since 2001. She studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Danse in Lyon. Following graduation, she was awarded a state grant that enabled her to study in New York under Trisha Brown. She has been a dancer for several choreographers (Laurent Pichaud, Saskia Hölbling, Jennifer Lacey). In 2001, she created her own solo piece entitled “OSLO.” She followed this up with the solo “A?” and the duet “J’aime” (2004) together with Alice Chauchat, which has been produced at numerous European venues including Buda Kortrijk (Belgium), Tanzquartier Wien, Festival Impulstanz Wien, Sommerszene Salzburg and Maison du Theatre et de la Danse in Paris. In 2005, her solo “Code Series” premiered, and she collaborated with Krõõt Juurak on the creation of “Look look,” which was co-produced by Austrian styling agency Unit F and Tanzquartier Wien and presented in many European cities. For apap V (Advancing Performing Arts Project), she created “Sport und Tanzformen,” a three-part project with professional athletes that was produced in each of the project’s six European partner cities. 2006-07, Anne Juren was artist-in-residence at Tanzquartier Wien. In May 2008, her new group piece entitled “Composition” had its world premiere at Tanzquartier Wien.
Ntsikelelo “Boyzie” Cekwana (SA) was born in Soweto and grew up in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa. He began his dance training with Carly Dibakoane in Meadowlands. As a “would-be collaborator,” he worked mostly with artists from abroad—dancers from Mozambique and Madagascar, American-Belgian artist Davis Freeman, musician Madala Kunene, French light designer Eric Wurtz and Canadians Guglielmo Bernardi and Melanie Demers. Boyzie’s numerous awards include the Standard Bank Young Artist award and the FNBVITA Young Choreographers Grant. He won the Third International Ballet and Choreography Competition in Helsinki. In 1997 and 1998, he was recipient of a danceWEB grant. In 1997, he founded The Floating Outfit Project (FOP) artists’ collective. Boyzie’s works have been performed at Theatre de la Ville, Paris, Festival ImpulsTanz in Vienna, the Montpellier International Festival de Danse and the Lyon Biennale. As a teacher and workshop leader, he has been invited to Brest, Vienna, Glasgow, Lisbon, Maputo, Nancy and Nairobi, as well as South African educational institutions including the University of Cape Town and Pretoria Technikon. Until very recently, he served as artistic director of the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival in Durban, South Africa.
At present, he is working together with artists from Mozambique, Madagascar, La Réunion and Zimbabwe to set up a regional South African collective.
Christine Gaigg was born in 1960 in Linz, and works as a free-lance choreographer in Vienna. She studied philosophy, linguistics and theater at the University of Vienna, and received training in dance and choreography at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. Going under the label “2nd Nature,” she produces contemporary dance works, mostly in collaboration with composers of new music.
Since 2004, she has been working with Bernhard Lang on a “loop-grammar” of movement, music and language: TRIKE spring, summer, winter (2004) as preliminary stages leading up to TRIKE (2005, co-production with Tanzquartier Wien and Theater am Neumarkt Zürich). In 2007, she staged the Swiss premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s text “Über Tiere” (About Animals) at the Zurich Festival as a co-production with Theater am Neumarkt Zurich and Tanzquartier Wien. During the 2007-08 season, Christine Gaigg is artist-in-residence at Tanzquartier Wien. In addition to her choreographic activities, she has been European editor of the magazine Performance Research (1995-2001), a member of the board of directors of T-junction, an association for the advancement of contemporary dance in Austria and an instructor at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam (1991-95). Since 1996, she has been a lecturer in performance theory at the University of Vienna’s Department of Theater.
Gerhard Willert was born in Sünching, Bavaria, and studied German, English and Romance languages & literature. He has staged dramatic works in Cardiff, Wales, Wiesbaden, Bern, Bremen, Lübeck and at the TAT Frankfurt. In 1993, he was engaged as director at Schauspielhaus Wien. His production of Philip Dick’s “Disney Killer” was singled out for recognition with the Kainz Medal. At the Mannheimer Nationaltheater, he has staged works by Chekhov and Botho Strauss. His production of Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen in 1996. Since 1998, he has been production director at Landestheater Linz, where he also directs on a regular basis.
Alito Alessi (USA) is founder and artistic director of the Joint Forces Dance Company (JFDC). He has been teaching and performing DanceAbility and contact improvisation internationally for more than 20 years. JFDC and its DanceAbility project have long been regarded as one of the world’s leading pioneers in the field of “mixed-abilities dance.” This project, which works together with physically handicapped and non-handicapped teachers and performers, has earned high esteem around the world for its artistic vision and unique methods. Alito Alessi is a dancer, choreographer and a trained masseur. He has been the recipient of numerous grants from the US’s National Endowment of the Arts. As one of the pioneers responsible for integrating contact improvisation into choreographic work, he has collaborated with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Andrew Harwood, Karen Nelson et al. Alessi has been named a Fulbright Senior Specialist (2007), received the Hong Kong Choreographer of the Year Award (2006) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005). Under Alessi’s direction, JFDC has been honored with the Fentress Endowment Award (2005) and a National Endowment for the Arts Exemplary Grant (1991) for DanceAbility. Since 1992, JFDC has been based at the University of Oregon’s Department of Dance.
In 1997, Alessi began training DanceAbility teachers. He has conducted one-month DanceAbility teacher training workshops in Eugene (Oregon), Buenos Aires, Milan, Amsterdam, Trier and Vienna (Festival ImpulsTanz). These workshops have been attended by more than 300 people from 18 countries—dancers, handicapped men and women, and those who are interested in working with them. Today, many of them are themselves DanceAbility instructors at their respective facilities. Alessi also teaches pedagogues in many different fields how they can make their instruction more easily accessible by people with handicaps. He works closely together on an ongoing basis with integrative dance companies in several countries, and has also supported them—in some cases since their very inception—as a consultant, co-teacher, and choreographer. Alessi’s tours with JFDC through North, Central and South America, Europe and Asia have received tremendous international attention. Alessi is currently working on a book about DanceAbility methods.
Tanya Hermsen was born in 1969 and studied in Eindhoven (NL) at the School of Theater and at “Das Arts” in Amsterdam. In 2002, she completed her training with a performance entitled “Lost Memories” and the documentary “This fairy tale started on the 28th of February 1965”. Her work as director includes “Kopergietery” at Speeltheater Gent, “Victoria” in Gent, as well as “De Wetten van Kepler” and “Den Bosch.” Here, she also staged Marius von Mayenburg’s play “Parasiten.” She is also co-author of the book “Ik heb tegen jou” that was published by Clavis in 2003.
Tanya Hermsen collaborated closely with author Paul Pouvreur to develop the production “Lilith@online,” which was invited to be performed at the annual Flemish-Danish Theater Festival in 2001. As an actress, Tanya Hermsen has appeared in productions by Theu Boermans and Paul Vermeulen Windtsand. In 2006, she took part in the DE BANK project at Victoria, a residency that enabled her to work closely together with five other artists over the course of two years and to foster her own growth as an actress. Tanya Hermsen has conducted various workshops for Theater Victoria, Contact Theatre Manchester (UK), Teaterhuset Avant Garden Trondheim (N), Sirenos International Festival Vilnius (LIT) and Schlachthaus in Bern (CH). She is currently working on her first theater text, “Bakje Troost,” together with Gerardjan Rijnders from Toneelgroep Amsterdam.
PILOTTANZT (A) was founded in 1993 by Roderich Madl and Doris Ebner.
Doris Ebner was born in 1967 in Steyr, and studied dance and choreography in Linz, Paris and Spain. She worked as a tango dancer and performance artist in Austria and abroad until she and Roderich Madl established the PILOTTANZT group in 1993.
Roderich Madl was born in 1963 in Salzburg. He studied dance and choreography in Brussels and Cannes with Maurice Bejart. He worked in Lubljiana with Nadine Ganase, with Tanztheater Wien and the Esther Linley Compagnie before the founding of PILOTTANZT.
Since 1993, the group has staged numerous productions that have been honored with awards in Austria and abroad. By setting up “Moving Gallery,” a dance installation in the public sphere, the company succeeded in creating a presentation platform in which dance, music, video and lighting play equal roles.
Jacqueline Kornmüller was born in 1961 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and studied art history and modern German literature. She completed the acting program at the Folkwang School of Music, Theater and Dance in Essen, Germany. Her first professional engagement was from 1990 to 1998 in Cologne, where her directorial work included “Himmelwärts” by Ödon von Horvath and “Messer in Hennen” by David Harrover. From 1998 to 2000, she worked as a free-lance director on “Reigen” by Arthur Schnitzler and “Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung” by Ödon von Horvath. From 2000 to 2005, Kornmüller served as in-house director at Staatstheater Stuttgart. She staged 12 productions during this period, the most important of which was “Elektra” by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. From 2005 to 2007, she directed at Schauspielhaus Hamburg, where her work included “Rosi, das hast du gut gemacht,” a project for ladies and gentlemen age 65+. In 2007, she wrote her first screenplay, “Blaubeersommer” based on novel by Polly Horvath. In 2008, she shot her first short film, “Regula Benedicti.” Jacqueline Kornmüller is presently at work on her second screenplay, “Midas.”
Volker Schmidt was born in 1976 in Klosterneuburg. He got his training as an actor at the Vienna Conservatory. Volker Schmidt works as an author, director and actor. His plays have premiered at, among other venues, Theater Phönix in Linz, GRIPS-Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Wien and Landestheater Linz. In 2007 he wrote a multimedia, multi-station play entitled “komA” and staged it at the Rahlgasse College Preparatory School in Vienna. Students and professional actors collaborated on this highly-praised project that dealt with the subject of the “murderous rampage”; the entire school facility served as the play’s setting.
Volker Schmidt’s work as an actor can be seen on stage (e.g. Theater an der Josefstadt in Vienna, Landestheater Salzburg) and on TV (e.g. Soko-Kitzbühel).
The Producers …
… attend to the needs of the artist teams on-site. They make up the interface connecting together Linz09, the artists and the schools. All of them are familiar with the educational system and theatrical work in schools.
Karin Arico, Linz, university instructor and psychotherapist
Pia Dorn, Traun, student at the University of Vienna
Elisabeth Klausner, Rohr, high school teacher
Rudi Neuböck, Pinsdorf, high school teacher
Maria Pree, Kirchschlag/Linz, editor
Hans Schachinger, Andorf, retired school principal
Alexander Schneider, Perg, high school teacher
Konrad Thamm, Linz, high school teacher
Simon Wieser, Traun, student at the University of Linz
Herbert Wiesinger, Peuerbach, high school teacher
We’d especially like to thank the following for their support:
Anton Bruckner University
CCL, choreographiccentrelinz
Schäxpir, International Theater Festival
Theater des Kindes, Linz
U-Hof: theater for young audiences
Zündstoff School Theater Week
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