Sebastian Prantl

Sebastian Prantl (* 1960 in Vienna ) is an Austrian dancer and choreographer .

biography

Sebastian Prantl is the son of the artist couple Karl Prantl and Uta Peyrer, as well as the brother of the painter Katharina Prantl . Sebastian Prantl is married to the concert pianist Cecilia Li .

After graduating from the Rudolf Steiner School in Vienna and New York , where he moved with his family in 1977, he completed training in dance, acting and singing from 1978 to 1984 and went through the spectrum of American dance in New York in the early 1980s .

He began his training at the Dance Theater of Harlem (Arthur Mitchell), in Harlem, where he studied jazz , afro , ballet and singing as a "white outsider" . This was followed by the Martha Graham School and admission to the Juilliard School of the Performing Arts. The pioneers of classical and modern dance, such as Martha Hill, Hanja Holm, Lucas Hoving and Doris Rudko, were his teachers.

After two years at Juilliard, he continued his studies at the Nikolais / Louis Dance Theater Lab, the Erick Hawkins School of Dance and the HB Studio. He was then shaped by contacts with artists such as Simone Forti , Elaine Summers , Trisha Brown , the first Contact Improvisation Jams and the Butoh movement, which found its way into New York through Min Tanaka and Eiko & Koma.

He deepened his theoretical studies as part of the Whitney Independent Study Program (scholarship) under Ron Clarke and Yvonne Rainer .

The first audition for the Tanztheater Wuppertal by Pina Bausch in America, in which he prevailed up to the final round, brought the geographical reorientation to Europe . From 1984 to 1986 he commuted between New York and Vienna and realized multimedia dance performances (“Pierre Riviere”, “No man's land” at the MAK , Vienna) together with the Canadian filmmaker Kristin Lovejoy (Whitney Program) and the actress Deborah Carmichael . With his first dance group, "Motion Pictures", he found quarters in the Wiener Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus (WUK ), which was just under construction at the time, and played a key role in developing its theater / dance area. The early ensemble pieces "Earthrise", "Gaia", "Mouvement" and "Fasce" (Friedrich Cerha / Klangforum Wien) and guest performances in Europe followed.

Dance Atelier Vienna

In 1988 Sebastian Prantl founded the Tanz Atelier Wien together with his wife, the pianist Cecilia Li. Performances have been shown internationally: Secession, Odeon, MAK, Semper Depot, Hofburg and WUK are the venues in Vienna; Cracow, Calcutta, Brasilia Opera, Mingzugong Theater Beijing, abroad; Festivals such as Impulstanz, styriarte, Wien Modern and New Music Festival Winnipeg followed.

Since 1988, over fifty projects have been realized that researched contemporary dance / choreography on specific topics, e. B. Friedrich Kiesler's “Raumbühne”; William Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; Piet Mondrian's last picture: “Boogie Woogie”; Sigmund Freud's “ Interpretation of Dreams ”; on terms such as Eikon, Katharsis , Ikonostasis , Memento, Kairos . The music concepts include compositions by Domenico Scarlatti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Cage, Johann Sebastian Bach, Friedrich Cerha and David Lang . An essential part of Prantl's work is dealing with the stage space.

In addition to theater jury awards from the federal government and Burgenland , he received a European cultural promotion award in 1996 and the first Austrian dance production award in 1997 at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten .

The 20-year collaboration with the pianist Cecilia Li is constantly researching new approaches to musical material. His solo works are also always part of an orchestral framework: B. Estonian Chamber Orchestra, Musiktage Lockenhaus / Gidon Kremer, Colourscape / Lawrence Casserley, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra / Pat Carrabre, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra / Andrey Boreyko , Lutoslawski Philharmonic / Ernst Kovacic . Sebastian Prantl's solo profile is communicative, philosophical and humorous. The current focus of Tanz Atelier Wien is " Trans Art Works " and "International ChoreoLab Austria" (ICLA).

Awards

• 1997 first Austrian dance production award in the Festspielhaus St. Pölten .
• 1996 European Culture Prize

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dancing and thinking in the quarry. Retrieved June 29, 2016 . 
2. ↑ What I read: Sebastian Prantl. Retrieved June 28, 2016 . 

Web links

• Homepage Tanz Atelier Vienna