Bernhild Thormaehlen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernhild Thormaehlen (born April 5, 1944 on the Rimberg ; † April 3, 2011 in Bad Kreuznach ) was a German ballerina , choreographer and dance teacher .

Bernhild Thormaehlen (Photo: Karsten Thormaehlen)

Bernhild Thormaehlen came from a family of artists that also included the graphic artist Alexe Altenkirch and the art historian Professor Ludwig Thormaehlen . At the age of five she attended a children's ballet school and danced her first, small roles at the Bad Kreuznach “New Theater” on Kurhausstrasse. After attending grammar school at the city wall , she began training as a dancer at the Folkwang University in Essen between 1961 and 1965 , and from 1965 to 1966 she completed the master class and danced in the Folkwang Ballet under the direction of Kurt Jooss . Then she went on to study dance education. From 1966 to 1968 she was engaged at the Wiesbaden State Theater and from 1969 to 1977 at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf . There she also worked as assistant to the ballet director Erich Walter and in 1973 she received the cultural sponsorship award of the state capital Düsseldorf. She appeared in various roles in many guest performances within Europe and together with world-famous choreographers such as Hans van Manen , Peter Breuer and Pina Bausch , with whom she was friends until their death in 2009.

Bernhild Thormaehlen was a guest at the Mainz State Theater in 1994 in a first solo evening at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden and was a member of the Schwetzingen and Salzburg festivals for many years . Always looking for new ways in dance and expression, she trained in pantomime courses and took lessons at private drama schools. In the 1990s to 2004 she gave more solo evenings, In 1995, during the Kreuznach Art and Culture Days, she performed the dance pantomime "Bernadette - Wendekreis des Lebens", which she choreographed, wrote and performed, as well as dance pieces together with the organist Beate Rux-Voss in the Pauluskirche or with sculptures by the artist Wolfram Renger . She had guest performance contracts at the Salzburger Landestheater , in 2001 in the role of " Thérèse Raquin " and in 2003 in the rock ballet "Pink Floyd - The Wall", also choreographed by Peter Breuer.

In 1982 Bernhild Thormaehlen opened her own ballet theater studio in Bad Kreuznach and organized public performances every year, sometimes with more than 70 actors. Shortly before her 67th birthday, Bernhild Thormaehlen died of a heart attack.

Works

Awards

  • 1973 Culture Prize "Music" of the State Capital Düsseldorf

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] , list of the music prize winners since 1972, accessed on April 5, 2015
  2. ↑ Six decades on the stage , Allgemeine Zeitung, April 5, 2011, accessed on May 2, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Thormaehlen, Bernhild
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ballerina, choreographer and dance teacher
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Rimberg
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 2011
Place of death Bad Kreuznach