Henning Rübsam is a choreographer and dancer based in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He is the artistic director of SENSEDANCE, a resident choreographer for Hartford City Ballet, a Professor at The Juilliard School, and a visiting guest professor at Texas Academy of Ballet (Carolyn Bognar, director).

Early Life and Work

Rübsam was born in Marburg, where he took his first ballet class at the age of five. He studied with André Doutreval in Kassel, at the Hamburg Opera Ballet School and received a B.F.A.

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

 in dance from The Juilliard School. For several summers he studied at the Internationale Sommerakademie des Tanzes in Köln

KOLN

KOLN, digital channel 10, is the CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska. It operates a satellite station, KGIN, on digital channel 11 in Grand Island. KGIN repeats all KOLN programming, but airs separate commercials...

. After moving to New York as a teenager, Rübsam's early mentors included Martha Hill

Martha Hill

Martha Hill was one of the most influential American dance instructors in history. She was the first Director of Dance at the Juilliard School, and held that position for almost 35 years.-Biography:...

 and Elizabeth Keen. While a student at Juilliard, he took Classical Spanish Dance, studied Indian dance with Indrani Rahman

Indrani Rahman

Indrani Rahman was an Indian classical dancer, of Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Odissi, which she popularized in the west, and later settled in New York in 1976....

, took a summer intensive at the School of American Ballet

School of American Ballet

The School of American Ballet is one of the most famous classical ballet schools in the world and is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a leading international ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the...

, performed as the Faun in the Nijinsky

Nijinsky

Nijinsky can refer to:*Vaslav Nijinsky , ballet dancer and choreographer*Bronislava Nijinska , dancer, choreographer and teacher*Nijinksy , starring Alan Bates Harry Saltzman as Vaslav Nijinsky*Nijinsky II, race horse...

/Debussy ballet, starred in a dance film at the Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...

, where he worked with Diane Coburn-Bruning, Michael Kidd

Michael Kidd

Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer.-Life and career:Born Milton Greenwald in New York City on the Lower East Side, the son of Abraham Greenwald, an immigrant barber, and his wife Lillian, Michael Kidd moved to Brooklyn with his family and attended New Utrecht High School there...

 and Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...

, and toured internationally with the Limón Dance Company. Upon graduation he founded his own ensemble SENSEDANCE and continued to dance with other choreographers, namely Duncan Macfarland, Murray Louis

Murray Louis

Murray Louis is an American modern dancer and choreographer. He grew up in Manhattan, not far from Henry Street where his company was to be founded years later. At the same time, his sister took him to many of the early modern dance concerts. After his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Mr...

 and most importantly Alwin Nikolais

Alwin Nikolais

Alwin Nikolais was an American choreographer.Nikolais studied piano at an early age and began his performing career as an organist accompanying silent films. As a young artist, he gained skills in scenic design, acting, puppetry and music composition...

. Rübsam found his next mentor in Beverly Schmidt Blossom

Beverly Schmidt Blossom

Beverly Schmidt Blossom is an American modern dancer, choreographer and teacher. She was an original member and soloist with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre, a modern dance choreographer for Illinois Dance Theatre, Blossom & Co...

, whose work he performed after Nikolais' passing. His interest in early modern dance

Modern dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...

 led to guest appearances with repertory companies in the works of Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...

, Doris Humphrey

Doris Humphrey

Doris Batcheller Humphrey was a dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Humphrey was born in Oak Park, Illinois but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of Horace Buckingham Humphrey and Julia Ellen Wells and was a descendant of pilgrim William Brewster...

 and Anna Sokolow

Anna Sokolow

Anna Sokolow was a Jewish American dancer and choreographer.-Training:...

. His early work Schubert: Lieder (1991) and his epic solo Sand to Chopin (1993) might owe influences to José Limón

José Limón

José Arcadio Limón was a pioneer in the field of modern dance and choreography. In 1928, at age 20, he moved to New York City where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company...

, but an independent signature was visible early on, since Rübsam was able to create melodic lines in movement that conversed with the music rather than mirrored it. Rübsam appeared as a guest dancer with a myriad of contemporary choreographers and used his own company as a laboratory for ideas that ranged from setting biblical stories to live accompaniment of a 27-member choir at St. Mark's Church in Carissimi's "Jephte" (and setting an attendance record for the venue) to visceral movement experimentation in an evolutionary safari named "Dolphins and Antelopes" (1996). For the latter as well as future works "Moonpaths" (1998), "Dinner is West" (2005) and "Tenancy" (2011) he commissioned music scores by fellow Juilliard graduate Beata Moon

Beata Moon

Beata Moon is an acclaimed classical pianist and composer, raised in Indiana, making her debut at age 8 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She trained as a pianist at the Juilliard School with Adele Marcus, and self-taught as a composer...

. In addition to Moon, he has collaborated with numerous composers and musicians, including Ricardo Llorca

Ricardo Llorca

Ricardo Llorca is a Spanish-born composer of classical music and opera. A member of the Juilliard School faculty since 1996, he was a recipient of the Premio Virgen de la Almudena for Composition in 1999 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001.-Biography:Llorca was born in the Spanish city of Alicante...

 and Leslie Wildman

Leslie Wildman

Leslie Wildman is an U.S. American composer, who grew up in Lake Bluff, Illinois.-Biography:Leslie Wildman grew up outside Chicago in Lake Bluff, Illinois She studied piano with Ellen Graff Mehegan. Her first composition teacher was William O. Smith at the University of Washington, Seattle,...

 as well as designers of different disciplines, e.g. Fabio Toblini.

Awards

Among the many awards Rübsam received are a Jerome L. Greene Fellowship, a Lincoln Center Fellowship, a Manhattan Spirit Award as "best male dancer” in 1997, a choreography award from Stephens College

Stephens College

Stephens College is a women's college located in Columbia, Missouri. It is the second oldest female educational establishment that is still a women's college in the United States. It was founded on August 24, 1833 as the Columbia Female Academy. In 1856, David H. Hickman turned it into a college,...

 in 2000, an award for his advocacy from Dancers Responding to AIDS in 2004 and the Distinguished Artist Award from Bergen College in 2009, the first time this award was given to a dance artist.

Stage, Film, Advocacy & Journalism

Rübsam also works for theater and opera as both choreographer and director. He has been a guest choreographer and teacher for ballet, contemporary dance companies and universities throughout the Americas as well as in Australasia and Europe. Rübsam was the first speaker on dance for the Gel conference

Gel conference

Gel is a conference focused on experience in all its forms -- business, art, society, technology, and life.The conference has been held annually in New York City since 2003, and the first European counterpart, euroGel 2006, took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 1 September 2006...

 in 2007 and lead a workshop at Gel in 2011. He is a known advocate for his art form and has presented lectures for the Lincoln Center Young Patrons Program. In December 2010 he hosted fellow choreographers Robert Garland

Robert Garland

Robert Garland was a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, which he joined in 1985, and their first official resident choreographer, making dances for their School Ensemble, for the "A Demand Performance" benefit, for the DTH "Dancing Through Barriers" Ensemble, and for New York City...

, Matthew Neenan and Luca Veggetti for a panel at Juilliard. His dance writing has appeared in Dance Magazine and its annual Stern's Performing Arts Directory, Pointe Magazine, Ballet Review, The Juilliard Journal and he was the American correspondent for the European publication Dance-for-You. Rübsam appears in the documentary Behind the Curtain and is a long-time board member of the Martha Hill Dance Fund.

Choreographic development & Teaching career

Since working closely with the late Prima Ballerina Assoluta Eva Evdokimova

Eva Evdokimova

Eva Evdokimova-Gregori was a prima ballerina with the Royal Danish and Berlin Opera Ballets.Born in Geneva, Switzerland to a Bulgarian father and an American mother, Evdokimova, an American citizen, began her ballet studies as a child in Munich, before attending the Royal Ballet School in London,...

 starting in 2000, his choreographic work has incorporated ballet vocabulary. In 2002 he created a highly acclaimed solo work for Evdokimova and in 2004 began introducing point work to his eclectic repertoire, thus attracting dancers from American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem and New York City Ballet. His company SENSEDANCE premiered his Impending Visit (music: Rafael Aponte-Ledée) in 2009 at the Fiesta Iberoamericana de las Artes in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and he represented the United States as a cultural ambassador at the Danza Nueva Festival in Lima and on a subsequent tour with his company through Peru in 2010.
In Fall 2006, he joined the Juilliard faculty, where he implemented a dance appreciation program for the general public. Earlier that year he was named Resident Choreographer of the Hartford City Ballet.

Dancers & Students

Among his well-known disciples and guest dancers are Violetta Klimczewska, Ramon Thielen, Andrea Long, Carlos Molina, Dartanion Reed, Christine Reisner, as well as Samuel Lee Roberts and Akua Noni Parker, both with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is a modern dance company based in New York, New York. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey...

.

Quotes

"Mr. Rübsam has steadily followed his own drumbeat, though in the case of his cheerfully humanist choreography the sound might more appropriately be that of a flute." (Jennifer Dunning, NYTimes, Oct. 3, 2003)

"HALF-LIFE and Göttingen poignantly tackle the big questions and put Rübsam forth as the Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher during the 1970s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac...

 of dance." (Lori Ortiz, readingdance.com, June 26, 2011)

Works

His works include:

• Schubert: Lieder (1991)
• After Yet Another Fall (1992) – original music: Beata Moon
• Folk Tales (1992)
• Erect Secrets (1993) – original music: Christopher Buchenholz
• Sand (1993)
• Kingdom (1993)
• Lie (1994)
• Sunshine (1994)
• Jephte (1995)
• Ginger: My Story (1995)
• Dolphins and Antelopes (1996) – original music: Beata Moon
• Ode (1996)
• Brass Blues (1997)
• Art of Love (1997) – tribute to Laura Nyro
  Laura Nyro
  Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
  
  
• Moonpaths (1998) – original music: Beata Moon
• Carousel (1999)
• Rhapsody (1999)
• Be Good (2000)
• Voices of Spring (2000)
• Addicted (2001)
• Brahms: Double Concerto" (2001)
• Listeners borne as bone (2002) – original music: Kevin James
• The End of Innocence (2002) – music: Ricardo Llorca
• Litanei & Frühlingsglaube (2002) – for Prima Ballerina Eva Evdokimova
• On The Fritz (2002)
• Safari (2002) – music: Beata Moon
• Garden (2003)
• Petit Pas (2003)
• Chorale (2004) music: Ricardo Llorca
• Django (2004)
• Quartet (2004) – music: Ricardo Llorca
• Herman Sherman (2004)
• Dinner is West (2005) – original music: Beata Moon
• The Dance Bag (2005)
• Burque Bosque (2006) music: Beata Moon
• Basie's Basement (2006)
• Merciless Beauty (2006) – music: Leslie Wildman
• Caves (2006) – music: Ricardo Llorca
• Göttingen (2006)
• Amaranthine Road (2007) – music: Beata Moon
• Innocence (2007) – music: Ron Mazurek
• The Secret (2007) – music: Beata Moon
• Inter-Mez-Zo (2008) – music: Beata Moon
• Guernica (2008) – music: Beata Moon
• Final Bell (2008) – music: Ron Mazurek
• Scherzo (2008) – Hartford City Ballet
• Cloudforest (2008) – SENSEDANCE at Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater – NY, NY
• Impending Visit (2009) – at Festival Fiesta Iberoamericana de las Artes – San Juan, Puerto Rico
• José Antonio (2010) – Danza Nueva Festival – Lima, Peru
• Dvorák 8/3 (2010) – Texas Academy of Ballet
• HALF-LIFE (2011)
• Nonet (2011)
• Tenancy (2011)

Reviews

• NY Times, November 25, 1993
• NY Times, March 08, 1999
• NY Times, April 06, 2000
• NY Times, February 25, 2002
• NY Times, June 07, 2003

• NY Times, October 07, 2003
• NY Times, October 18, 2004
• NY Times, October 25, 2006
• NY Times, November 10, 2008
• NY Times, April 6, 2009

External links

• Martha Hill Dance