Anna Weißenfels
works as a freelance choreographer, dancer and dance teacher in Berlin & NRW. She studied at ARTEZ (formerly EDDC) in Arnhem (NL). There she learnt ballet, Cunningham, Graham and release technique, physical awareness, partnering, improvisation, movement composition and research. She was particularly influenced by her teachers Mary O’Donnell, James Fulkerson, Angus Balbernie and Tony Vezich. In 2007 she graduated with a BA in Choreography & Contemporary Dance.
In addition to her many years of dance training, she has received in-depth musical training in piano, voice and choral work. In 2011 Anna completed further training in “Applied Vocal Anthropology” (UDK) and began an intensive exchange with the singer / vocal pedagogue Ulrike Sowodniok. Since then, they have worked together in various formats, most recently in the choral workshop “Ordo virtutum” in 2015.
In 2011 Anna initiated the Mobile Choir | Initiative VOLK TANZ TRUPPE, a collective continuous research on the interaction of voice, music and movement. She also collaborates with international artists such as Younes Atbane, Frauke Gerhard (Initiative VOLK TANZ TRUPPE), Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez and Akemi Nagao. She recently presented her solo work “the river is everywhere” as part of “60_minutes” impro.per.arts. Here she uses movement and voice to explore the phenomenon of “flow” within a spatial installation.
As a teacher, she teaches the basics of linking voice and movement, perception and body awareness, improvisation, partnering and release technique. She has taught at the somatic academy, tanzfabrik Berlin, exploratorium Berlin, Tatwerk Berlin and Projektraum Drahnsdorf/Spreewald, among others.