Biography:
Sabine Sonnenschein:
Choreographer, performer
* in Austria
Studied: theatre
studies, philosophy and art history at Vienna university.
Dance and performance
education:
Contemporary Dance, Classical Ballett, Contact Improvisation, Release Techniques,
Developmental Movement, Physical Theatre and voice in Vienna and NYC (with David
Steele, Donna Uchizono, Jeremy Nelson, Zvi Gotheiner, Andrew Harwood, Gill Clarke,
Wendell Beavers, Lloyd Newson, Meg Stuart, Meredith Monk,...)
Scholarship
by Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst / Austria for
dance studies in NYC 1994/95.
Participant in European Choreographic Forum 4 in Dartington/GB organized by
Butterfly Effect Network (BEN); member of BEN.
August 1996 Choreodrome of the Place Theatre/London for a projekt in collaboration
with Annis Joslin/GB.
July 1999 (concerning the production "EXEO") "THE WIND"
- award for the innovative and experimental features given to the body - /"5th
PUF Pula International Theatre Festival" (Pula/Croatia).
Her work was shown at international festivals, for example: "Im Puls Tanz" (Vienna), "imagetanz" (dietheater Künstlerhaus, Vienna), "neuer tanz" (WUK, Vienna), "Tanzsprache" (WUK, Vienna), "kostprobe" (Tanztendenz, Munich), "Sprachen des Körpers" (Stuttgart), "4+4 Days in Motion" (Prague), "5th PUF International Theatre Festival" (Pula; Croatia) "Solo Dance 2001" (St.Petersburg); and "Knitting Factory" (NYC), "Altes Stadthaus" (Berlin, in a cooperation), and at Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna)
She initiated
a series, called Lab for Performance and Post-Dramatic Acting (2000-2003).
The Lab could be developed especially in cooperation with Marty Huber (performance
theoretician), Sabina Holzer (performer), Stefan Nowotny (philosopher) and Gerald
Raunig (philosopher).
2004/2005 training in sensual tantric massage at AnandaWave (Cologne). Her sensual
tantric bodywork focuses on the entire body's sensivity in combining healing
and pleasure. The flow of sexual energy through the whole body based on tantric
principles is the aim of this bodywork.
She was introduced to lomi lomi nui as well as yin yang massage by Andro, has
studied pelvic massage by K. Ruby; intensified her tantric experience at AnandaWave
and SkyDancing (Munich), and has been introduced to Kashmir tantrism and Kashmir
yoga of touch by Daniel Odier.
In Vienna she has practiced tantric body work since 2006, primarily individual
work, www.tantrischekoerperarbeit.at
She gives workshops focusing on the fusion of tantra and Contact Improvisation.
Teacher at ImpulsTanz in Vienna 2009.
In 2005 she
produced heteronom 1, a philosophical and pornographic video.
Since February 2006, she has worked on the reception of pornographic films (hardcore
pornos as well as art films) mainly in collaboration with the performer Brigitte
Wilfing, but also with film scholar and philosopher Matthias Wittmann, theater
director and filmmaker Armin Anders, performance theorist Marty Huber, philosopher
Stefan Nowotny, film scholar and fine artist Tim Stüttgen, and author and
performer Robert Steijn; this exploration takes place in the context of settings
with performative overlays followed by analysis and discussion. Three Open Labs
took place at the Tanzquartier Wien in April 2007 in the context of this project
called pornonom.
The project finale
was the symposion pornonom - a discourse
on pornography at WUK (Vienna) in 2008: Lectures [by Barbara Eder (media
theorist, queer studies/ A), Laura Méritt (communications expert, manager
of "Sexclusivitäten"/ D), Peter Rehberg (literary scholar, queer
studies / D), and Sabine Sonnenschein], performances by Sabine Sonnenschein
and Brigitte Wilfing, film screenings, party, lounge with Sexclusivitäten/Laura
Méritt (sex toys, literature, films) and Boudoir/Renate Christian (lingerie
couture, linens) and erotic cuisine.
In her artistic work Sabine Sonnenschein questions conventions of reception
and mechanisms of production.