My Bio
Heidi Weiss received her BFA in modern dance from the University of the Arts in 1992. She choreographed and performed with Group Motion, a Philadelphia based Company, from 1992-96. In 1997 she moved to Germany and founded Zen in the Basement Co., with Jennifer Mann. They have created many works together which have been presented in theaters and festivals in the EU and abroad. Heidi has been teaching various modern techniques for many years. Together with Jennifer Mann she has developed the weiss-mann technique*, which she continues to teach in workshops, festivals, private schools and at universities. Heidi was a professor at Palucca Schule Dresden from 2004-07.
She has been a guest artist in residence at Virginia Commonwealth University (USA), in addition she has been a guest at Duncan Conservatory in Prague, London Contemporary (the place) in London, SEAD in Salzburg and at the Danceworx in New Delhi and at the National University of Arts in Seoul, Korea, where she spent a semester as a guest professor. Furthermore, she has given training to many companies such as Sasha Waltz and DV8 and is currently a regular teacher for Toula Limnaios Company in Berlin.
Heidi has taught improvisation and contemporary dance in schools for TANZZEIT for over 10 years. She co leads the GROUP MOTION workshop with Jennifer Mann monthly for the past three years in Berlin.
She also gives training for professional dancers at Marameo Berlin, NRW in Düsseldorf and K3 in Hamburg. Heidi is a faculty member of USF Study abroad program Paris, she teaches technique and choreography tools.
From 2019-20 Heidi spent a semester as visiting professor at Folkwang University. Creating a new work on the students which premiered in the Pina Bausch Theater.
She is a regular guest teacher/ choreographer at Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance.
Funding
2022
2020
2014 - 2019
2006
2005
2004
2002
1999 - 2002
1999 - 2002
Hauptstadtkulturfonds
DIS-TANZ-SOLO (Research Stipend)
Chance Tanz - Kultur macht stark
American Embassy
Hauptstadtkulturefonds
Fonds Darstellende Kunst
Potsdamer Sparkasse
Kulturamt der Stadt Potsdam
Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur Land Brandenburg
Dancer
Movement is everywhere. It is what we know and how we learn. It is how we sense and how we respond.
It is what we do without thinking and what we do when we are thinking. It is the source of who we are and the agent of whom we are becoming.
We are making movements and we are registering movements.
And in the relationship between how we move and what we register we find all the information, all the material that we ever have for knowing, thinking, feeling, or doing anything.
We are pattern perceivers, pattern creators, and pattern performers, but not because we are driven by a need to control, master, and understand the matter.
We are so because we exist to move with greater facility and precision.
Because we are rhythms of bodily becoming, participating in a kinetic creativity that exceeds us and sustains us.
Because we are, first and foremost, dancers.
from` Why we dance` by Kimerer L. Lamothe
Teacher
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery" Mark Van Doren
Being a teacher means being an observer of the body.
Being a teacher means having the ability to articulate and convey principles, through images, in order for the student to apply these concepts to their technique.
But mostly I think teaching is about inspiring...
To pass on one's passion... to push and encourage... to bring the dancer into his or her own individual uniqueness...
Teaching is an exchange between teacher and student- it´s a give and take.
Being a dance teacher means being curious.
Curious about the root of a movement...
curious about energy... curious about the body...
curious about timing, form, impulses and space ...
curious about communication and transformation.
It is a huge responsibility and a rewarding job.
Choreographer
I have been an active choreographer for over four decades. My work has spanned lyrical jazz to musical theater but concentrated the past 30 years in contemporary dance.
Since arriving in Germany, I created many evening length works together with Jennifer Mann under our company `Zen in the Basement`- later under the heading `Weiss/Mann Productions`.
My dedication has always been to the moving body and the purity of movement, which I use to explore themes of the human condition, taking inspiration from music, poetry and theories on Quantum physics.
Themes of time, space and energy continue to intrigue me in creating abstract landscapes driven by rhythm, musicality and the transformation of the body.
Gallery
