Johanna Devi
Fellow
Johanna Devi trained in contemporary dance and ballet from the age of six at Jessica Iwanson, Munich. She has also been studying Bharatanatyam in India, Germany, the USA and Canada since 1995. She concluded her studies with her ‘arangetram’ under Rajyashree Ramesh in Berlin in November 2006. Additionally, Johanna completed her modern dance training at danceworks-berlin e.V., and at the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance Theater in New York City. Besides her dance training she studied classical music (piano and music theory). Johanna has been working as a professional dancer and choreographer since 2007 and has danced and toured with several international dance companies. From 2006 she started to develop her particular movement language, which shaped her unique choreographic style and which she continues to adapt successfully. She deconstructs the Western and Eastern dance forms she was trained in to merge physical contrasts – resulting in a very personal movement style that represents her hybrid identity. In 2012 she founded the Johanna Devi Dance Company in Berlin. So far she has presented solo and company work in Europe, North America, the Middle East, India and Cuba.
THIS AUTHOR WROTE
Johanna Devi trained in contemporary dance and ballet from the age of six at Jessica Iwanson, Munich. She has also been studying Bharatanatyam in India, Germany, the USA and Canada since 1995. She concluded her studies with her ‘arangetram’ under Rajyashree Ramesh in Berlin in November 2006. Additionally, Johanna completed her modern dance training at danceworks-berlin e.V., and at the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance Theater in New York City. Besides her dance training she studied classical music (piano and music theory). Johanna has been working as a professional dancer and choreographer since 2007 and has danced and toured with several international dance companies. From 2006 she started to develop her particular movement language, which shaped her unique choreographic style and which she continues to adapt successfully. She deconstructs the Western and Eastern dance forms she was trained in to merge physical contrasts – resulting in a very personal movement style that represents her hybrid identity. In 2012 she founded the Johanna Devi Dance Company in Berlin. So far she has presented solo and company work in Europe, North America, the Middle East, India and Cuba.
February 13, 2017
In this interview, IRC-Fellow Johanna Devi, artist, choreographer and dancer, provides a personal insight into her artistic career and the choices leading up to the research project that she had pursued at the IRC. Following the stages of her training, she explains how dance and music as well as Germany and India have always been closely interwoven parts of her life. Devi describes the challenges of the project that aimed at elaborating the metaphysical connection of performers and audience members asking how ether or space could serve as a medium for the transportation of subtle energies that communicate the state of the performer to the viewer.
June 6, 2016
April 26, 2016