Henrietta Horn
Choreographer and dancer, Henrietta Horn, studied from 1987 to 1992 at the Deutsche Sporthochschule (German Academy of Sport) in Cologne where she majored in „Elementary dance”. It was here that she gained a practical and theoretical understanding of the functional workings of the body and was first motivated to choreography in improvisation based classes. In 1992 she co-founded the dance group „Terza e Uno” for whom she worked as a dancer and choreographer and developed her first pieces.
In 1992 she continued her education at the Folkwang University graduating from the professional dance course in 1996. In contrast to the Academy in Cologne, Folkwang's purely dance environment gave her the necessary scope to concentrate on the fundamentals of dance technique at the same time as pursuing her development as a choreographer.
After her studies Henrietta Horn works as freelance choreographer. The first full-length choreography were created and successfully shown at home and abroad. Together with Pina Bausch she took over the artistic directorship of the Folkwang Tanzstudio in 1999. Henrietta Horn's term as artistic director of the Folkwang Tanzstudio comes to an end in September 2008. She works as freelanced choreographer and dancer. In August 2008 she received the Female Artist Award of North-Rhine Westphalia 2008 for Choreography/Contemporary Dance.
Henrietta Horn's work is influenced by her own movement research, background, incentive and energy. She considers movements down to the last detail, traces them to their beginnings, deciphers them and so discloses the original driving forces behind them. Her work centres on the phenomena of movement and the diverse means of perceiving and creating it.
Dynamic and rhythm as formative components of movement are two essential aspects of Henrietta Horn's movement research and, moreover, striking characteristics of her choreography. Here lies the close connection to music that is such an important influence in her work. The measure, dynamic structure and accents in music often suggest to her movement images that she takes as starting places for her choreographies. Analysing the music exactingly, Henrietta Horn brings it into relationship with dance movements and uses it atmospherically, supportively or contrapuntally.
In terms of style, Henrietta Horn's choreography tends more towards „pure dance” than dance theatre. She's succeeded in developing a highly personal body language that is hallmarked by formal stringency, clear structures and a highly adept use of space, dynamic and rhythm. Her movements, which seem to come from the everyday, are filtered and reduced to the essential. Seen like this, they transpose inner motivating forces in physical images that wake emotional associations on the viewer's part.
The press have said of her: „She knows how to handle music as she does silence and space and, above all, movement that she employs with incredible precision, economy and stringency: a born choreographer.”