MEDIATHEK

Joshua Monten grew up in New York State and loved square-dancing as a child. He took his first formal dance class, however, at age 20. After receiving his BA in literature and anthropology from Duke University and his MA in dance from The Ohio State University, he moved to Europe in 2001. He danced with the Tanztheater Irina Pauls in Heidelberg (Germany) from 2002-04 and with Stijn Celis’s Bern Ballet (Switzerland) from 2004-08. His “story ballet, The Election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, was a finalist at the 2006 Hannover Choreographers Competition. He has choreographed for numerous opera and acting productions in Switzerland, including Puccini’s La Bohème, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Molière’s Le Misanthrope, and Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. He has been commissioned by the Ballet du Rhin to choreograph a production of Rameau’s opera, Platée, in Strasbourg (France) in 2010. He has choreographed a number of pieces for dancers of mixed abilities, including a contact-improvisation-based installation for the opening of the Paul Klee Center in Bern and a piece for 40 teenagers about soccer, entitled Kick Me!, performed shortly before the beginning of the 2008 European Cup in Switzerland. (Quelle: www.dancetheyard.org) / jst