DANCE
JANA GRIESS
Jana Griess is a freelancing dancer and choreographer living in Cologne, Germany. During her studies at the Folkwang University of Arts she worked with choreographers, such as Samir Akika and Susanne Linke and was part of the production If and only if by Rodolfo Leoni in the company Folkwang Tanzstudio as well as in works by Pina Bausch.
In 2008, she became a member of the company Neuer Tanz, Düsseldorf and worked with artist V A Wölfl in close collaboration on several productions which toured in international contemporary dance festivals in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland. She collaborated with Neuer Tanz until 2010 making a varied experience in the field of art, music and dance.
She also worked as a performer in Documenta Kassel and the museum K20, Düsseldorf for choreographers Trisha Brown and Xavier Le Roy in the context of dance in a museums' space.
In 2010, she started focussing on her own work. Together with a composer she created a staged concert with dance, music and electronics within the framework of an artistic residency at the ZKM, Karlsruhe. In 2014, the Solo for dance, music and electronics Lied vom Staub premiered in Cologne, Germany and was invited to the music festival Musica Viva in Lisbon, Portugal in 2015.
During a residency in St. Vincent de Tyrosse, France, she produced and danced the choreographed shortmovie 3 Halle aux Grains (2011 ) together with Mara Tsironi and Julia Mota Carvalho. Since December 2010 she works regularly with Mara Tsironi in choreographies as Carne Vale (2010), Zu Olga (2013), On the Rocks (2015) in Cologne.
In the theatre production Momo (2013/14) at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, Jana Griess worked with the choreographer Leandro Kees and the stage director Rüdiger Pape.
Since 2014, Jana Griess also devotes herself to teaching the art of dance to children. She teaches with great enthusiasm ballet in several schools in Cologne and gives children the chance to experience creativity through their body, to get aware of their posture, to canalise energy and emotion and to learn to dance with music. Her aim is to teach children to move with self confidence and to learn to be aware and to interact with other children