Prof. José Biondi

PROFESSOR OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

PLACE OF BIRTH

Born in C?diz, Spain

EDUCATION

  • Escuela de Aspirantes del Ballet Clásico Nacional, Madrid, Spain
  • Ecóle de Ballet Contemporain de Bruxelles, Belgium

CAREER

  • Ballet Contemporain de Bruxelles, Belgium
  • S.O.A.P. Dance Theatre, Frankfurt
  • Assistant to Rui Horta and head of training for the company
  • Rehearsal director for the Carte Blanche, the Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance, Bergen, Norway
  • Founded the Biondidanza company and participation in dance projects in Finland, Germany and Spain
  • Choreographer for various dance companies including: Staatstheatre Mainz, St?dtischen Bühnen Osnabrück, Landestheatre Detmold and Carte Blanche as well as at universities in Hanover, Frankfurt am Main, and Dresden

TEACHING EXPERIENCE/QUALIFICATIONS

  • Professor of Modern Dance, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
  • Professor of Contemporary Dance, Palucca University of Dance Dresden
  • Head of the Dance Teacher Programme (2005-2007)
  • Vice-rector for Academic Affairs (2007-2010) and Director of the Master of Arts Choreography Programme 2010-2016
  • Visiting instructor at various dance companies as well as national and international workshops

ABOUT MY WORK

I work on an impulsive, expressive dance style based on the Humphrey-Limon tradition, and various complementary techniques such as release, capoeira and many others. Body articulation and placing are practised by students on the floor with the floor as their partner.  The perception of gravity, centrifugal force and the various qualities of the falling-rebound-recover principle are transferred to floor work. The off-balance phase gains a particular significance in this context, for it makes a decisive contribution to movement-size in space using the minimum of energy. Dynamic combinations always link the experience of space-body-time very closely to the floor.

My teaching maintains its focus on the flow and organic development of movements; I aim to convey the diversity of modern elements of movement in terms of both technique and dance.