Helge Letonja – CHOREOGRAPHER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
About Me
„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.
Letzte 10 Produktionen
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…
The Resonance
October 2021
The starting point of the dance piece that Helge Letonja creates with the ensemble are current observations on restlessness, the pressure of acceleration and the loss of people’s ability to resonate…
Songs of Love and Bones
March 2021
With “Songs of Love and Bones”, Helge Letonja leads the audience into an artistic oasis of sensuality. The new choreography reveals complex, surprising and profound facets of love in the intensity of dance and authentic closeness…
Préludes
July 2020
During intimate rehearsals, choreographer Helge Letonja together with the ensemble Of Curious Nature have created dances to Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Préludes. The compositions, considered masterpieces of Chopin, become a crystallization point to reflect and reexamine the poetry of pure dance…
Momentum Zero
October 2020
The world seems to be fragmented into its elements, challenging senses and intuition. Seeking protection and orientation, six people grope their way forward on unsafe terrain, stumble and slide, finding moments of balance and support together…
On the Shoulders of Giants
February 2020
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. (Isaac Newton)
Based on the cultural-historical metaphor of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants, who can look further than the giant himself, Helge Letonja questions our integration into our fellow world with his intense, associative visual and body language…
Turbulance
June 2019
In physics, turbulence is a phenomenon of swirling motion, while in society, it represents upheaval. For Helge Letonja’s latest ensemble piece, both serve as inspiration…
Digging in the Night
May 2018
How do people in South Africa, a country of extreme social contrasts, react to the rapid pace of global change? What toll does the tremendous pressure of change take on them? In ‘DIGGING IN THE NIGHT,’ Letonja digs into buried worlds of longing and intertwines…
Focus
My Expertise
- Dance 100%
- Your Title Goes Here 50%
- Your Title Goes Here 50%
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)
Zwei Giraffen tanzen Tango (2015/2016)
Es ist was (2017)
Out of Joint (2017)
Diging in the Night (2018)
Audition for Life/Art (2018)
Ein Phänomen - Wunderlich (2018)
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
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.
Steptext Dance Project | Of curious Nature
Helge Letonja
Choreographer & Artistic Director
++++ SAVE THE DATE: ORT | UN-ZEIT, Of Curious Nature, 22.02.2024 | Scharoun Theater Wolfsburg & 25.02.2024 | Theater Russelsheim ++++