Heike Hennig (born 8 November 1966) is a German

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...

and director of the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

ensemble "Heike Hennig & Co".

Life

Heike Hennig had her first dance lessons at the age of 5 years in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

, studied

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and Body-Mind Centering (BMC) in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and at Moving on Center – School for Participatory Arts and Research in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

in US with teachers such as

Steve Paxton Steve Paxton (born 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an experimental dancer and choreographer. His early background was in gymnastics while his later training included three years with Merce Cunningham and a year with José Limón. As a founding me ...

, worked in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

. In 1995, she returned to Germany. From 1998 onwards, worked as a freelance choreographer and teacher. She instructed body- and moving-oriented teaching-methods at the ''

Palucca School of Dance The Palucca University of Dance Dresden (german: Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden), formerly the Palucca School Dresden, is a dance school in Dresden, Germany, founded in 1925 by the dancer and pedagogue Gret Palucca who taught until 1990. ...

'', the ''

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

'' and the ''Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig'' as well as in interdisciplinary workshops including

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

and

. In 2000, Heike Hennig founded the FZTM (Forum of

Contemporary Dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

and

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

) in Leipzig, together with Friedrich U. Minkus, and her ensemble Heike Hennig & Co. As director she developed numerous stage pieces and interdisciplinary art projects at many different stages and art institutions in Leipzig, Berlin, Dresden and Weimar, among other places. Her team consists of more than 50 artists working in different genres from

architects An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

video artists Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcastin ...

. At the

Leipzig opera The Leipzig Opera (in German: ) is an opera house and opera company located at the Augustusplatz and the Inner City Ring Road at its east side in Leipzig's district Mitte, Germany. History Performances of opera in Leipzig trace back to Sing ...

, Heike Hennig developed the dance piece ''Zeit – tanzen seit 1927 (Time – dancing since 1927)'' in 2005. This autobiographical

dance theater Concert dance (also known as performance dance or theatre dance in the United Kingdom) is dance performed for an audience. It is frequently performed in a theatre setting, though this is not a requirement, and it is usually choreographed and p ...

was produced in 2007 as the documentary ''Tanz mit der Zeit

Dancing with Time ''Dancing with Time'' ''(Tanz mit der Zeit)'' is a film by about the autobiography Dance Theater ''Zeit – tanzen seit 1927'' by Heike Hennig. Plot Four dancers, nearing their eighties, take up the challenge of Heike Hennig to return to the ...

'' by the film director Trevor Peters from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The film was co-produced with the national German TV-channel

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

and the French-German TV-channel

ARTE Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

. In 2008, the piece was shown in German movie theaters, on TV and in international festivals. Heike Hennig arranged for the former dancers of the Leipzig opera to return on stage.

Ursula Cain Ursula Cain (April 24, 1927 in Dresden – October 16, 2011 in Leipzig) was a German dancer and dance teacher. Biography The dancer and the dance teacher Ursula Cain began her dance education at the age of 12 years in the preparatory class of t ...

, Christa Franze, Siegfried Prölß und Horst Dittmann, who at this time were about 80 years old, told and danced their dance and life stories which were shaped by

Mary Wigman Mary Wigman (born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann; 13 November 1886 – 18 September 1973) was a German dancer and choreographer, notable as the pioneer of expressionist dance, dance therapy, and movement training without pointe shoes. She is con ...

Dore Hoyer Dore Hoyer (12 December 1911 – 31 December 1967) was a German expressionist dancer and choreographer. She is credited as "one of the most important solo dancers of the Ausdruckstanz tradition." Inspired by Mary Wigman, she developed her own s ...

, Gret Palucca and Heike Hennig. During the shooting, the next dance piece ''Zeitsprünge (Leaps in Time)'' was created. here, the protagonists meet up with their younger colleagues in the ensemble ''Heike Hennig & Co'' and DJ cfm. The different generations might be recognized from the various dance-styles from Expressionist dance via Street dance and

Contact improvisation Contact improvisation is a form of improvised partner dancing that has been developing internationally since 1972. It involves the exploration of one's body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movemen ...

to classical

Ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

. In spring 2008, "Dancing with Time" came out as DVD and a book by the author Marion Appelt with a preface by

Renate Schmidt Schmidt in 2014 Renate Schmidt (' Pokorny; born 12 December 1943 in Hanau) is a German Social Democratic politician. Early life Schmidt grew up in Coburg, Fürth, and Nuremberg. Due to a pregnancy at the age of 17, she was forced to leave scho ...

. For the 2007/08 season, Heike Hennig developed the

cross-genre A hybrid genre is a literary genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Works in hybrid genres are often referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre. Hybrid genres are a longstanding element ...

series ''oper unplugged (Opera unplugged)'' with music, dance, theater and new media at the Leipzig opera. At the season 2008/09 the cooperation with the baroque ensemble Lautten Compagney Berlin started. This hybridity of cross-genres, which results in the Tanzoper (dance opera) ''Rituale (Rituals)'' for George Frideric Handel at the Leipzig opera and the production ''Timeless'' at the

Neues Museum The Neues Museum (English: ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, ...

of the Museum Island

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

revealed new dimensions for the European contemporary opera. The highlight in 2010 was “Maria” by Heike Hennig, a dance oratorio for three singers, seven dancers, twelve musicians and one DJ on the stage. All artists are part of the choreography with music by George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

by cfm. ''Heike Hennig & Co'' went on tour through Europe with her cross-genre pieces. They gave guest-performances at

Deutsches Schauspielhaus The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 1901 by the renowned stage actress Franziska Ellmenreich. Theatre managers Notable actors Marco Albrecht, Ingrid ...

Hamburg,

Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar The (DNT) is a German theatre and musical organisation based in Weimar. It is a twin institution, consisting of the theatrical (German National Theatre, now solely based in Weimar) and the symphony orchestra known as the . It has a total of s ...

, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and at theater houses in Athen, Nanjing, Travnik, Goethe-Institut Rom, Copenhagen, Vadstena, Mantua and other cities. On juries and artistic advisory councils, Heike Hennig makes efforts to support contemporary performing

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. In 2009, Heike Hennig was invited to teach at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

in Vancouver and Kelowna as well as at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

in Burnaby,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

as a "Guest Speaker" via film, workshop and lectures.German dancer and choreographer Heike Hennig via film, workshop and lecture

UBC Okanagan The UBC's Okanagan Campus (commonly referred to as UBC Okanagan and UBCO) is University of British Columbia's campus located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The campus is the research and innovation hub in the province's southern interior ...

Since 2010, Heike Hennig has taught at the

Zurich University of the Arts Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, german: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich' ...

(ZHdK).

Sources

Literature / DVD

* Marion Appelt: ''Tanz mit der Zeit (Dancing with Time)'', Leipzig, Plöttner Verlag 2008, * Trevor Peters: ''Tanz mit der Zeit (Dancing with Time)'', Berlin, Good Movies/Ventura 2009, Indigo, DVD 926328 * Sebastian Göschel über "Estha" in: ''Arbeit und Rhythmus'', München, Wilhelm Fink 2009,

External links

Heike Hennig & Co
Homepage de-en-fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Hennig, Heike German female dancers 1966 births German choreographers Ballet choreographers Living people People from Leipzig German women artists Contemporary dancers Academic staff of the Zurich University of the Arts Dancers from Saxony