Jessica Iwanson

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Jessica Iwanson

Jessica Iwanson (born April 21, 1948 in Stockholm ) is one of the pioneers of contemporary dance in Germany. From a young age, she decided to pursue a three-pronged career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher, which she has continued to this day. In 2001 she was awarded the Medal of Honor 'Munich Shines' for her services to contemporary dance. In 2007 Jessica Iwanson set up Germany's first foundation for contemporary dance. In 2010 she was honored for her life's work with the dance prize of the state capital Munich. In 2013 she was awarded the golden medal of honor by the Ivo Cramér Foundation at the Stockholm Opera.

youth

As a toddler she started dancing in her mother Gun Schubert's dance studio and then at the Stockholm Ballet Academy. At her mother's request, she went to Brighton for half a year, where she trained as a ballroom dance teacher with the Imperial Society of Dance . Back in Stockholm, she completed her professional training as a dancer at the Ballet Academy and worked with teachers and choreographers such as Walter Nicks, Katherine Dunham and Alvin Ailey . This was followed by an engagement as a dancer, initially for West Side Story . Subsequently, with a "Sandrew" scholarship, she was able to complete a one-year postgraduate course at the Graham School in New York, where she also had lessons with Martha Graham . She then engaged Ivo Cramér for the then newly founded, modern Swedish ensemble Cramérbaletten at the Riksteatern. After a season Jessica Iwanson left the Cramérbaletten. This was followed by three years as a dancer in Paris a. a. at Peter Goss' company.

Munich

In 1973 Jessica Iwanson came to Munich. Shortly after her arrival, she founded a company in Munich and soon afterwards a school. With performances in the then circus Krone , Leopoldtheater and the old Alabamahalle, but also with performances as part of the open-air series Munich Culture , she won an audience in a genre that was still new in Munich at the time. More than two decades later, in 2001, the state capital of Munich honored Iwanson, who was elected from Munich, with the Medal of Honor Munich shines “for her services to contemporary dance”. The mayor at the time, Dr. Gertraud Burkert : "It is thanks to you and your school that Munich, where dance has only recently taken on the role it deserves among the performing arts, is also at the forefront of training."

Scandinavia

Although based in Munich, Jessica Iwanson has always oriented herself towards her Nordic roots over the decades. As the successor to her mentor Ivo Cramér, she managed a production of Riksteatern, was ballet director for the Norwegian ensemble Nye Carte Blanche in Bergen and created a variety of works as a guest choreographer at city theaters in Scandinavia. In 1997 she directed Nattfåglar (Nightbirds) for Swedish television , a choreographic journey into the world of Edward Hopper's imagery based on music by Harald Weiss, which has since been broadcast several times on ARTE and 3sat . As an alumna of the Stockholm Ballet Academy, she was always in contact with her training school. Since the mid-1990s there has been a regular exchange program with students from the Stockholm Ballet Academy and the Iwanson School in Munich.

Since 2006 there has also been a choreographic post-graduate project in cooperation with the Choreographers Association Tanztendenz Munich, the Iwanson School and the Moderna Dansteatern in Stockholm: SMDP - Stockholm Munich Dance Project.

The choreographer

Iwanson's choreographic work has always evaded dramaturgical classification. Her abstract works on minimalist music are just as typical of her as humorous narrative works and pure literary adaptations such as Nora - a doll's house based on Ibsen or Die Stronger based on Strindberg. A number of works draw inspiration from paintings by Munch (Skriket) and Hopper (Nightbirds), the latter premiered in Bergen by Nye Carte Blanche, Norway in 1991 and finally filmed in 1997 by Swedish television. An even stronger choreographic motif that runs through a large part of the extensive catalog raisonné is the abstract treatment of the subject of nature and man. Meaningful references to this are work titles such as North Pole , Desert , Skagen , Archipelago , Snow, etc. a. Jessica Iwanson began setting up her own company in Munich as early as 1974, which, subsidized by the City of Munich, brought out one or two new productions per year. Her Swedish mentor Ivo Cramér soon became aware of her work and regularly engaged her as a guest choreographer at the Cramérbaletten. In 2005 she brought out an autobiographical solo evening under the title ... and then in 2006 she staged the one-act play Die Stronger after August Strindberg in the Munich Künstlerhaus, again as part of the choreographic chamber play, and since 2007 the series of choreographic short stories "Chapter 1 ...".

The dancer

Jessica Iwanson has always experienced herself as a dancer. She danced in the vast majority of her larger works, at least in the first few performances herself. Only for a short period 1999–2002 did she refrain from appearing in her new productions Other Places , Time Out and Zeitfenster due to injury . In 2005 she got in touch with the autobiographical solo evening ... and then? also back on stage as a dancer and performer. In 2006 she finally appeared again as a dancer / performer in her Strindberg adaptation The Stronger, alongside the actress Bina Schröer and the musician Hedwig Rost.

The pedagogue

Jessica Iwanson made her first pedagogical experiences at the age of 16 when she was teaching ballet and jazz dance in her mother's studio. At the age of 16 she was invited by the Danish dance teachers association Danse Ringen as a workshop lecturer for jazz dance, which was so new in Europe at the time. Pedagogical work has always been an immediate concern of her. Given this intense educational interest, it was only logical that she founded her own school shortly after arriving in Munich in 1974. In the late 1970s she taught advanced training events for the German Dance Teachers Association and at her own school she developed a consistent, modern teaching system that is still being developed today and is now being used by dance teachers all over Europe. As early as the late 1970s, at a time when there were no alternatives to classic children's ballet, she developed a concept for “modern children's dance ”. This teaching concept was first developed by Karren Foster and finally by Gabi Würf and still forms the basis of children's dance lessons at the Iwanson School today.

The school

The school was initially founded in 1974 at Gärtnerplatz under the name Dance Center Munich to train the next generation for the company's artistic work. In 1979 the dance center Iwanson was created in the new address in Westend . Lay courses and advanced training courses were very popular, and the trainees were personally supervised and instructed by Jessica Iwanson. In 1983 the school was expanded to include a studio. In 1985 Jessica Iwanson set up the first class association for training. The school continued to grow and in 1987 a further studio for pedagogical training was added.

In 1991 the school moved to its current, enlarged premises. The focus was placed even more on the training programs and this was communicated through a new name change to Iwanson School for Contemporary Dance . In the meantime, the school has fully concentrated on the training of contemporary dancers, educators and choreographers and offers a private alternative to the universities in Essen, Frankfurt and Dresden. The Munich school is internationally very attractive, today almost half of the students get by abroad, especially from Scandinavia.

The Foundation

In March 2007 Jessica Iwanson established the first foundation for contemporary dance in Germany together with her partner Stefan Sixt . The foundation's work focuses on awarding prizes, grants, school fees and travel allowances for talented young dancers in difficult economic situations.

Regardless of the concrete work of the foundation, an idea of ​​cultural policy should always be passed on: lobbying for contemporary dance and improving the social situation of dance professionals. The advisory board, a body of respected personalities from art, politics and business, helps.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Iwanson, Jessica
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm