Lisa Densem (born 1965) is a New Zealand choreographer.

Biography

Densem grew up in

Christchurch, New Zealand Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. Her father, John Densem, was a composer and musician. She trained at

New Zealand School of Dance The New Zealand School of Dance was established in 1967 and is a tertiary educational institute in New Zealand that teaches contemporary dance and ballet. It started as the National School of Ballet, and after contemporary dance was added in 198 ...

in 1985 and 1986. In 1998 she received a

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

scholarship to study in New York and in 1999 she moved to

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

, to work with the German dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests run by

Sasha Waltz Sacha, Sasha, Sascha, or ''variant'' may refer to: People * Sasha (name), includes list of people with the name and the variants Sascha or Sacha Musicians * Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alexander Coe * Sasha (German singer) (born 1972), born Sas ...

. She remained with the company until 2004, when she became a freelance performer and choreographer. In 2013 Densem returned to New Zealand to create a new dance work for

Footnote Dance Footnote New Zealand Dance (founded in 1985) is New Zealand's oldest contemporary dance company. Based in Wellington, it has been described as "New Zealand’s most enduring and influential contemporary dance company." History Footnote was found ...

; she also created ''No Such Place'' for Footnote in 2005. Densem collaborated in 2021 with Miriam Jakob and Jana Unmüßig who are on scholarship with Berlin Artistic Research on the performance ''Meandering nearby Breathing.''

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Densem, Lisa New Zealand choreographers New Zealand School of Dance alumni Living people 1965 births People from Christchurch