arianne hoffmann
I enjoy ambiguity and subtlety. Hence I like to work in the space between language and perception, between experience and analysis. My dance making is rooted in physical investigations that are influenced by somatic practices. The strategies for creating and organizing my dances are guided by personal questions, which I then relate to a larger context, environment or (political) situation.
My dances attend to kinesthetic as well as formalist concerns. I practice improvisation and make scores that are grounded in the physical experience of the body in the right here and now. I consider scores to be frameworks that guide an experience for the performer as well as for the audience.
My work has been shown at TANZTAGE BERLIN 2013 (Sophiensaele Berlin), REDCAT Studio (L.A.), Movement Research at the Judson Church (NYC), the Bootleg Theater (L.A.), DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL (NYC), Anatomy Riot (L.A.), Highways Performance Space (L.A.), pieter Performance Space (L.A.), the Unknown Theater (L.A.), the Velaslavasay Panorama (L.A.), the Armory (Pasadena), TanzTangente (Berlin), and VideoDance2004 (Athens) among others.
I hold a M.F.A. in Choreography from U.C.L.A.’s Department of World Arts and Cultures, where I worked closely with Victoria Marks and Simone Forti. I further studied with Susan Foster, Dan Froot, Cheng-Chieh Yu, Neil Greenberg, and Peter Sellars.
Last year I was involved in an Oral Dance History Project (alongside Peter Pleyer and Andrea Keiz) that captures meandering conversations about the development of Berlin’s contemporary dance world while we knitted, knotted, and crocheted. The audio / yarn installation was exhibited as part of Tanznacht 2012 at Uferstudios.
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For the some years I enjoyed supporting the LA dance community as a producer, as a board member of SHOW BOX LA and as a co-editor of itch Dance Journal. I am the recipient of a grant from the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) for the podcast AN EARFUL OF DANCE, a series of conversations on dance with Los Angeles artists. Among other grants and awards, I was received the Forti Family Scholarship twice. This past summer I worked on my latest project “kopfgeburt / head birth” as part of the Hothouse Residency at UCLA.
I have taught/led classes and workshops on improvisation, composition, and art as social action at DANCEbank, U.C.L.A.’s Department of World Arts and Cultures, at the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) 2010 conference, and other “community venues.” I place great value on experiential learning, whether that is in or outside of the studio.
From 1998 to 2001 I was part of the performance art collective Rent-a-friend in Berlin. Since, I have performed with Liam Clancy, Krenly Guzman, Rachael Lincoln, Meredith Monk, Taisha Paggett, Nadja Raszewski, Kristen Smiarowski, Sri Susilowati, Cheng-Chieh Yu, among others.
In Los Angeles, I operated a pick-up company called A Group Of Movers. Past members have included:
- maureen dunn
- flannery gregg
- tammy kohan
- audrey malone
- jessica page
- rebecca pappas
- angeline shaka
- liz terschurr
- ally voye
