johannes wieland Germany
we inhabit this body, evolved over seven million years. it hosts us and provide us with a place to exist. to decipher that ancient existence, physical and mental, is a dangerous road: the survival resources we pull from today are hidden far beneath the premise to stay put together, to keep up appearances. and they are wild.
we have no clue what is really going on with us and we are prisoners of our instincts, wanting to see what we want to see, wanting to know what we want to know, wanting to feel what we want to feel. yes, there is an evolution, but there is no escape. we are primal, survival is crucial and reproduction a must. charles was so, so right!
johannes wieland
johannes wieland received his early dance training under ellys gregor in berlin. after earning his bfa at the amsterdam school of the arts, his dance career took him back to germany with the staatstheater of brunswick, followed by the berlin state opera. here he worked with numerous guest choreographers, among them jorma uotinen, roland petit and maurice béjart. he then joined the béjart ballet lausanne as a principle dancer and toured extensively with the company. ready for a radical change, wieland next moved to new york city, where he was awarded a scholarship to nyu's tisch school of the arts, earning his mfa in contemporary dance and choreography in 2002.
his company, johannes wieland, was founded that same year and debuted with 'tomorrow' at the joyce soho theater. reviewed as “a spectacular exploration of relationships”, by anna kisselgoff of the new york times, this was one of the first in the body of startlingly powerful, terse, strange pieces wieland began creating for his company, prompting dance magazine to cite him as one of the 25 to watch in 2003. he and has since attained reputable acclamation and received several prestigious awards.
since 2006, in addition to heading his own company, wieland holds a permanent position as the artistic director and choreographer of the resident dance company of the staatsheater of kassel in germany. he is a guest choreographer and teacher at schools and companies throughout europe and north america, and acted as associate director of paradigm in new york city. wieland is a permanent resident of the united states and divides his time between new york and germany.
“darwintodarwin” is his first independent production as a freelance choreographer in europe, premiering in kaunas.
Johannes Wieland is already known to Lithuanian audience from the performances created with AURA Dance Theatre: “Blindfolded” (2006), project with Kaunas biennial “Box Melancholique” (2011), adaptation to the theater stage „Box Melancholique“ (2013). What is more, already a year the former AURA dancer Gotautė Kalmatavičiūtė is dancing in his troupe in Kassel.
PHOTO: Helena Grebe