 photo © anja hitzenberger |
about the
company
= mission
= company bios
= company highlights
mission
Guta Hedewig Dance is an experimental contemporary dance company, based in New York City, under artistic direction of Guta Hedewig. The company was founded in 1992.We are crafting detailed images, unleashed momentum, and piquant stillnesses to create focused dances rich with wit. We perform in venues that range from traditional theaters, intimate spaces, and international festivals, to landmark alleyways, green grassy hillsides, and the streets of Spain. We collaborate with artists of mixed disciplines, bringing dance-based productions to a wide array of audiences.
The company aims to engage audiences with pivotal philosophical questions in subtly comic ways. Our dances explore the quirks and contingencies of life that fall somewhere in between the transcendent and the immanent, the promised and the given. We hope to help our audiences to better see, feel and understand the space of lived experience that is home to our spirited bodies.
It is our goal to reach audiences of all ages and all walks of life.
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company bios
Guta Hedewig
Originally from Germany, Guta Hedewig has been described as a savvy choreographer who "has a gift for delicate movement with an iron core" (Dunning, The New York Times) and who "seduces your eye with smart visual choices and teases you with a gentle kinetic sensibility." (Solomons jr, DanceInsider)
Guta Hedewig moved to New York City after dancing in Berlin and Dusseldorf and graduating from the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. Her work has been presented in New York City (Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, La MaMa, Symphony Space, 92nd Street Y-Harkness Dance Center, Dancing in the Streets, Joyce Soho/New Dance Alliance, Dixon Place, Dancenow/NYC, Long Island University, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and more), elsewhere in the United States (Jacob's Pillow, The Yard, Glenwood Springs, Philadelphia Fringe Festival), and internationally in Germany, Holland, Puerto Rico and Spain. As a dancer, she has been inspired by her work with Yoshiko Chuma, Pooh Kaye, David Dorfman, Nami Yamamoto, Jennifer Lacey, Wendell Beavers, Monica Bill Barnes and Thunder Bay Ensemble, among others. She has also collaborated with an extensive array of artists of various disciplines, such as composers Phillip Johnston, Hearn Gadbois, Edward Ratliff; architect Illya Azaroff; photographer/filmmaker Anja Hitzenberger; and Spanish visual artist Alicia Casadesus.
Hedewig has been supported through Danspace Project by the Jerome Foundation (2002, 2004, 2007) and the New York State Council on the Arts (1998), by the VIA Art Foundation (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), the Donald C. Ausman Family Foundation (2004, 2006, 2007), Live Music for Dance/American Music Center (2004), Meet the Composer (1998, 2004), Fractured Atlas' Organizational and Creative Development Grants (2004, 2006), the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation (2001, 2006), the Carl Duisberg Society (Germany), Prins Bernard Fonds (Holland), and Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). Hedewig is a recipient of the Ineke Sluiter Choreography Prize (Holland) and was featured on Channel Thirteen's City Arts program. She was a guest teacher at the Festival Danz'Aqui in Carolina, Puerto Rico (2006), had a Company Residency at The Yard (2005), and has been an artist-in-residence at the Glenwood Springs Dance Festival (1996) and Movement Research (1998-1999).
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Theresa Duhon (dancer) is originally from Austin, TX, where she danced with the Austin Contemporary Ballet. She received her BFA in dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has performed with various New York choreographers, including Sean Curran, Kathleen Dyer, Carol Fonda, Guta Hedewig and JoAnna Mendl Shaw. She currently teaches BodiBalance and modern dance classes at Dance Forum NY, and her choreography has been shown at Hatch, Dance Forum NY, Red Shoes, Pop Sustainability and Chashama. Her first full-evening concert, "A Sampling for a Small Space," was presented by TIXE in February 2004.
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Rachel Lynch-John (dancer) moved to New York City from England in 1989. She trained at the Royal Ballet School, Ballet Rambert School and the Cunningham Studio, where she taught and understudied the company. Rachel has worked with Rambert Dance Co., Michael Clark, Tal Helevi, Guta Hedewig, Karl Anderson, Irene Hultman, Rachelle Garniez, Molly Rabinowitz and Keely Garfield, among others. She has collaborated with Kathryn Tufano, and has shown her own work in New York and England. In 1999, Rachel received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie).
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Kristi Spessard (dancer) has enjoyed a rich performance career over the past 17 years while working with companies including Claudia Murphey Dance, Susan Hadley and 5 Minds, New Performing Arts Group, Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects, Amy Sue Rosen and Derek Bernstien, Company Amy Cox, and with independent choreographers Laura Staton, Jeanne Travers and Karl Anderson. Her own work has been seen in many New York City theaters as well as in Ohio, North Dakota, Michigan, Vermont, Virginia, New York and Puebla, Mexico. Spessard holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from Ohio State University and is a Certified Movement Analyst. She has enjoyed guest teaching and/or performing at Rutgers, the University of South Florida, Western Michigan State, Virginia School of the Arts, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Kristi has been dancing with Guta Hedewig Dance since 1998.
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Illya Azaroff (set designer) is an award-winning artist who has been successful in dance, design and architecture. As head of the Design Collective Studio, an architecture and design studio based in lower Manhattan, he regularly collaborates with artists, choreographers and architects on a wide variety of projects. Most recently he has worked with choreographer Heather Harrington, Mark Jarecke Dance, David Hurwith and "Barcelona in 48 Hours," a multimedia performance piece by Anja Hitzenberger, Edward Ratliff and David Zambrano. Illya is currently teaching at the New York Institute of Technology. His work was featured in the October 2004 issue of Oculus magazine.
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Anja Hitzenberger (video installation) is a photographer, filmmaker and video artist whose work focuses on the body in motion. She has been commissioned to create video installations for dance performances, live photography on stage, and has been collaborating on site-specific architectually-aware pieces.
Her photography work has been exhibited in both group and one-person shows in New York and throughout Europe, and published internationally in magazines, books and newspapers. Her video installations have been part of dance performances at Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Yard at Martha's Vineyard, Sommerszene Salzburg (Austria), and ImpulsTanz (Vienna, Austria). In the 1990s she was the resident photographer of Movement Research, documenting the emerging and established choreographers presented in the Judson Memorial Church series.
"Barcelona in 48 Hours" — a short film she co-directed with Edward Ratliff — has been shown in over 20 film festivals around the world. A multimedia performance version of the film was commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop, and was also presented in Vienna at the ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival.
In 2006, Anja spent three months in Paris at the Cité International des Arts, supported by a grant from the Austrian government.
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company highlights
- Month-long Company Residency at The Yard, Martha's Vineyard, MA, culminating in performances of the political piece, "Dog Days."
- Multi-media piece "Menagerie" performed at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in New York City, with an original score by Edward Ratliff for string trio performed live, video by Anja Hitzenberger and set design by Illya Azaroff.
- A company season at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in New York City in November 2002 with "Stabat Mater/Mother Stood," presented to full houses and critical acclaim.
- Two European Tours (2000 and 2002) to Spain and Germany, including performances at the 3rd and 4th International Dance Festival Karlsruhe.
- A second engagement at Dances at Wave Hill, produced by Dancing in the Streets, which resulted in the critically acclaimed site-specific dance "Descend/Ascend."
- Performances of an evening of new work, with Nami Yamamoto, at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in 1998.
- The creation of "Track-and-Fields" during a stay as Emerging Choreographer at the Glenwood Springs Dance Festival in Colorado.
- The creation of a piece for children, titled "Red Queen Trapped in a Garden of Live Flowers", performed at Dance Theater Workshop's Family Matters series, the Kids' Café Festival, and at Public Schools.
- A collaboration, "Appear/Disappear", with Nami Yamamoto and Hearn Gadbois at Dances at Wave Hill, produced by Dancing in the Streets.
- An appearance at Jacob's Pillow's Inside/Out series.
- Yearly engagements in Barcelona/Spain, to teach, perform and collaborate with Catalan choreographers, musicians and visual artists.
- Featured on PBS's City Arts program.