Helge Letonja - CHOREOGRAPHER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
About My Work
„With every piece, I search for an individual dance language, for a motive in the stream of questions of our society…“
Choreograph

About
Choreographer based in Bremen
Helge Letonia was born in Leoben, Austria and studied classical dance in Graz and Amsterdam, as well as modern dance under Alvin Ailey and Erick Hawkins in New York. Engagements lead him among others to the Ballet of the Oper Graz, Jan Fabre, Montréal Danse and to the dance theatre in Bremen under Susanne Linke. There, in 1995 he started to create his own pieces. 1996 he founded steptext dance project, which he established as a production house and center for contemporary dance art in 2003 in the Schwankhalle (which he co-conceptualized). He is the Director and Artistic Director there to this day.
In addition to his 50 dance creations, which are often realized in interdisciplinary and transcultural collaboration and presented worldwide, he choreographs for opera productions, including those of the Salzburg Festival, the Zurich Opera
House, the Berlin State Opera, New National Opera Tokyo and Semperoper Dresden. Due to his impressively sensual aesthetic, Helge Letonja creates lively friction surfaces and interesting reflections of social conditions and processes.
In his recent work for the dance company Of Curious Nature, which he leads as artistic director since 2019, he focusses on somatic movement research, expanding his ensemble's artistic expressions to portray the complexity of the contemporary human. His repertoire ranges from dynamic, powerful ensemble pieces to subtle detailed imagery. His works are a wide range of visual associations in organic stage landscapes to choreographies entirely dedicated to the dialogue between dance and music.
In addition, Helge Letonja is an advocate for the interests of dance, both in his chosen home
Bremen and nationwide, as a board member of the Dachverband Tanz (umbrella organization for dance) and is committed to strengthening and communicating the art of dance in a wide range of collaborations. In this way, he opens up dance as a mediator of cultural diversity, social participation, interdisciplinary arts and research.
Latest Productions
Acid - Bolero
2026
In his new production, Helge Letonja explores with the OCN company the possibility of a new physical culture of time. He contrasts this with a life lived under pressure and in a state of constant overload,...
Bodily Me - Bodily Us
2026
Helge Letonja views the body as a vessel and examines forms of expression and action in movement and how they solidify: evolution, social experience, traditional images,...
New Artefacts
2025
Water runs down oversized windows and feeds the agonizing longing for torrent rain to break the ongoing paralysis. In a silent film-like setting, Of Curious Nature plunges into a melancholic daydream...
Skin Deep
2025
The skin: a sensory treasure and the body’s first all-encompassing point of contact with the world. Nothing can replace the profound impact of a single embrace. And the discomfort in a world lacking touch is steadily growing. Who still feels it—the cry for embrace?
Would you like a more poetic or literal version of the translation?...
The Pulse of the Stone
2025
With “The Pulse of the Stone”, the internationally active choreographer Helge Letonja leads the audience into an artistic oasis of music and abstract dance...
Die Fledermaus
2024
The operetta Die Fledermaus, premiered at the Wiener Staatsoper in 1874, is one of the most famous masterpieces by Johann Strauss Jr...
Nomada
2024
“And everything that is perceived, thought, felt and dreamed with the senses exists.” Paul Radin
Nomada is the intangible that has long since folded its tents. The one that makes you struggle for composure....
La mer en moi
2024
Letonja transforms the stage into a space entirely dominated by water. Traces dissolve in the water, and time levels blend together. Flashbacks and flash-forwards interweave into stories...
A Late Summer Night's Dream
October 2023
What would we be without our dreams? They are the engine, driving force, and place for healing and self-discovery (Helge Letonja).
In his detailed and emotionally expressive movement language, Helge Letonja creates a choreographic symbol with “A Late Summer Night’s Dream” that addresses...
Memory of a Future Eruption
February 2023
Helge Letonja creates body images that merge into anthropomorphic transformations, into creative work. His protagonists create art with their bodies, the dance finds its resonance in the counterpart of the audience. Something powerful is set in motion...
Un-Zeit
May 2022
UN‐ZEIT creates hypnotic images in a foggy space. The perception of time seems to fray, the just ordered movements of the group lose their linearity, individuals fall out of form and move radically, disoriented...
Focus
My Expertise
- Dance100%
- Festival90%
- Opera95%

Mein Start
Mit Steptext
Since its foundation in 1996, the artistic director and choreographer Helge Letonja established steptext as a popular festival organizer and co-producer. Steptext creates and develops dance pieces, guest performances and initiates festivals, as well as transdisciplinary projects with artists and institutional partners from all over the world.
Schlafwandler (1999)
Entre Chien et Loup (2002)
M A A T (2004)
Z Ä H (2005)
Solo Solo (2006)
Shaum (2007)
Darkland (2008)
Not not a luv duett (2009)
Je suis tombe sur toi (2010)
Bog Forest (2011)
Porzellan (2011)
Trilogie - displacing future (2011 - 2013)
The Bog Forest (2011)
The Drift (2012)
The Desert (2013)
Boxom (2014)
Es ist was (2017) | Theater St. Gallen(Switzerland)
Zwei Giraffen tanzen Tango (2015/2016)
Out of Joint (2017)
Diging in the Night (2018)
Audition for Life/Art (2018)
Ein Phänomen - Wunderlich (2018) | Oper Graz(Austria)
UNODA (2018)
Turbulence (2019)
On the Shoulders of Giants (2020) | OCN
Préludes (2020) | OCN
Momentum Zero (2020) | OCN
Songs of Love and Bones (2021) |OCN
The Resonance (2021) | OCN
Un-Zeit (2022) | OCN
Moving Mountains (2023) | OCN
A Late Summer Night's Dream (2023) | OCN
La mer en moi (2024)
Nomada (2024) | OCN
Die Fledermaus (2024) | NCPA (Beijing, China)
The Pulse of the Stone (2025) | Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern
Skin Deep (2025) | OCN
White Echo (2025) | Zfin Malta
New Artefacts - Black Rain (2026) | OCN
Bodily Me - Bodily Us (2026) | OCN
Tanzstücke Gesamt
Steptext
Of Curious Nature
Opern

Contact Me
Get In Touch
Do not hesitate to contact me, I will answer with pleasure if I am not busy with the rehearsals, otherwise as soon as possible.
