Swarthmore College Department of Music and Dance
Presents Multi-Media Tanztheater Performance
by Johannes Wieland

by Anita Pace
2/11/2009

The William J. Cooper Foundation and the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College will present newyou, an evening-length work by acclaimed choreographer Johannes Wieland on Fri., Feb. 27, 8 p.m. in the Lang Performing Arts Center, Pearson Hall Theater. A ballet master class by Wieland will take place on Thurs., Feb., 26, at 11:30 a.m. in the Lang Performing Arts Center, Boyer Dance Studio. Both events are free and open to the public.

Johannes Wieland and his company johannes wieland, delve into the philosophical realm of lies and happiness with newyou. Featuring five performers and a collaborating videographer, the multi-media Tanztheater performance newyou premiered in New York City, June 2008, and subsequently toured throughout Europe. "Wieland examines events that throb with covert passion and violence - cleansing, dissecting, and restitching them together as deftly as a surgeon wielding a scalpel and needle," says Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice. He explores happiness as an emotional state and looks beneath the surface to ask: "...in order to achieve happiness, are we deceiving ourselves?" Performer Eva Mohn received mention in the Dance Europe Critics Survey 2007-2008 by Stuart Sweeney, "Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer," for her performance in newyou.

A native German and former principal dancer with the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and Berlin's State Opera, Wieland established his eponymous company in New York in 2002. He was recently appointed artistic director/choreographer of the resident dance company at the State Theatre of Kassel, Germany. His choreography employs an architecturally driven understanding of bodies, movement and space, probing deeply into the human psyche to create an abstract, metaphorically-rich approach to performance art. Wieland has garnered critical acclaim from The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, and many other national and international publications, among them Dance Magazine, which cited him as one of the "25 to Watch" in January 2003. His duet, shift, won Germany's 2004 Kurt Jooss Prize and he is also a winner of the 2004 Hubbard Street 2 National Choreographic Competition.

For further information contact Liza Clark at (610) 328-8260 or email lclark1@swarthmore.edu.