Biographies

Brigitta Herrman return

Brigitta Herrmann (guest artist) Dancer, choreographer, artistic director of Ausdrucktanz Dance Theater / Imprints in Motion and co-director of Group Motion Workshop,

Ms. Herrmann is a native of Germany, and a graduate of the Mary Wigman School of Dance in Berlin.

She co-founded Gruppe Motion Berlin in 1962, and toured in West Berlin, West Germany and Yugoslavia. In 1968, Herrmann came to the US and established Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theatre in Philadelphia together with Manfred Fischbeck and Hellmut Gottschild, serving as co-artistic director and as executive director, choreographing, touring and teaching until 1989. Additionally, she is co-founder and director of the Group Motion Workshop, a community-based resource for creative expression through dance and music improvisation.

In 1987, Herrmann co-founded Ausdrucktanz Dance Theater (ADT), in honor of Mary Wigman, and opened the DanceWorkspace, studio and performance space of ADT two years later, mounting the first Philadelphia exhibit celebrating Wigman’s life and work in conjunction with the studio opening.

While DanceWorkspace closed in 1996 due to an electrical fire, ADT, recently revived as ADT/Imprints in Motion, performed In the Spirit of Mary Wigman in November 2006, in celebration of the modern dance pioneer’s 120thbirthday.

Throughout her career, she has performed and taught extensively, throughout the US and Europe, and her continued explorations in dance and body-mind practices and healing are reflected in her work.

Herrmann has received numerous awards for her artistic work, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the PA Council on the Arts, among others.

Recently, Ms. Herrmann’s evening length work, Physiognomy of the Spirit, received support from Dance Advance, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts. It will premiere May 16,17 &18, 2008, at the CEC, Meeting House Theater, Philadelphia, and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Brigitta’s life as a dance artist in Philadelphia, and her 70th birth-year.

Ms Herrmann feels honored to perform with Jeanne Ruddy Dance in their 2008 season under the direction of world-renowned choreographer Susanne Linke.