Biography

Anna Hein, born in Graz and raised in Carinthia and Vienna, is a multi-award-winning international dancer and choreographer. As the former chairwoman of the CCB – Choreographic Centre Bleiburg/Pliberk she has been the artistic director of the the successful annual event „LONG NIGHT OF DANCE“ – a format, which takes place in various towns in the Alpe-Adria tri-border region of Austria, Slovenia and Italy. Furthermore, as an arts advisor for the performing arts, she provides the BMWKMS (Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport) with the best possible support in its decision-making.

She trained in classical ballet at the Vienna State Opera, and gained experience in contemporary dance at danceWEB/ImPulsTanz in Vienna (working with Jorma Uotinen and Ismael Ivo, amongst others), the Venice Biennale (working with Carolyn Carlson, Josef Nagy and Wim Vandekeybus) and with the Trisha Brown Company in New York. In 1998, she took up her first engagement at the Innsbruck State Theatre. After receiving the Tyrolean State Theatre and Carinthia State Prize for the Performing Arts, she was named Young Dancer of the Year by the dance magazine balletttanz international. From 2004, she was a member of the Belgian company Charleroi Danses, where, as a creative dancer, she performed in, among other things, the globally successful dance/architecture series body-city Frédéric Flamand, alongside architects Zaha Hadid and Thom Mayne. This was followed by guest appearances in theatre and festival productions both at home and abroad. She danced under renowned choreographers such as Elio Gervasi, Johann Kresnik, Jochen Ulrich, Mei Hong Lin, Jean Renshaw, Eric Trottier, Danskias and others, and always loved being a dancer with SiWiC in Zurich under the direction of Nigel Charnock and Susanne Linke – an exciting international Swiss training programme for young choreographers. During a protracted period of recovery from a work-related knee injury, her focus shifted increasingly towards developing her own choreographies, dance projects for children and young people, and teaching classical ballet, contemporary dance, Peak Pilates and movement training for actors.

She created her first choreographic commissions for Tanzherbst Feldkirch, Swarovski Kristallwelten, Tolentini-Kreuzgang-Venedig, MMKK Klagenfurt and neuebuenevillach, among others. She increasingly swapped the conventional stage for other spaces and favoured open-air experiments. She created further choreographies such as blanche, inspired by Per Olov Enquist's view of the figure of Marie Curie, the tower, a staging of the historic diving tower in Millstatt, the swimmer in co-operation with Josef Winkler, hidden senses with the successful Danish band Afenginn, painted and danced with the band spread as part of the music festival of the Carinthian Summer. She deliberately created all these pieces with live musicians, who were usually closely integrated into the action on stage.
In collaboration with theatre directors and their focus on The body as a language Anna Hein discovered her passion: she went on to create further choreographies for, among others, Prezih's dream with Bernd Liepold-Mosser, BeingElse with Rachelle Nkou, Having to live with Johann Kresnik, Beet.Symph.Five with Ernst Kurt Weigel and the memorial project and now by Peter Wagner/Clemens Berger.

Her own choreographic focus is currently on dance and dance-music video productions in collaboration with the Finnish-Swedish composer Kim Nyberg/Afenginn/ Ring.

Alongside her career as a dancer and choreographer, Anna has always been passionate about sharing her love of dance by running workshops in a wide variety of dance styles – tailored to the needs and ability levels of the participants.