Iris Heitzinger

alias Miss Luiss Twisted studies contemporary dance and pedagogy at Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz/Austria. In 2001 she becomes a member of the postgraduate company x.IDA/Linz to which she later returns as choreographic assistance. In the season of 2002/2003 she is given a scholarship by the Austrian Ministry of Culture, which allows her to continue her studies in England, Holland Belgium and Finland. In 2005 she graduates with the Bachelor of Arts. Since then she has been collaborating as a freelance dancer with artists such as Jeremy Wade (USA), Ted Stoffer (BE, USA), Vincent Dance Theatre (UK), H2Dance (SE, NO), Cie. Willi Dorner (AT), Cie. Laroque (AT), Guillermo Weickert (ES) or Cia. Lanònima Imperial (ES).

Besides her work as a performer Iris has been teaching contemporary dance, improvisation and partnering workshops and regular classes for professionals in Austria, Poland, Canada, the UK, Spain and Japan.

In December 2006 Iris forms the collective cafe mut. together with a fellow dancer and three musicians. Together they investigate the relation between music and movement within the playground of structured improvisation. They create the full evening piece “Hotel Eden”, which is warmly received in both Austria and Spain.

In January 2007 Iris founds the platform Miss Luiss Twisted, which serves as a base for her for her solo work. The latest production is the performance intervention „Wunschkind“, commissioned by the museum CaixaForum, Barcelona, which premiered in march 2013.

In 2009 the guinea pig collective is born, which forms the base for creative processes and exchange of inspiration of 3 artists coming from the fields of new media art, experimental music and performance art, Iris being one of the founder members. Their first collaboration „Blackbox“ receives financial and infrastructural support in both Austria and Spain, premiering in March 2010.

In 2012 Iris starts to collaborate with the fellow dancer and choreographer Natalia Jiménez. Together they create L_ENTES a site specific dance piece for natural spaces which is co-produced by the Festival NEO / Mercat de les flors and premiered in may 2012.

For the festival IDN 2013 she makes the interactive dance piece Trinity in co-creation with the audiovisual artist Oscar Sol supported by Nu2s, el Graner and Mercat de les flors.

Iris is currently based in Barcelona.

WUNSCHKIND (2013)

Wunschkind is a performance intervention created specifically for the exposition "Que desear" (engl.: "what to desire") at CaixaForum, Barcelona. Inspired by pieces by Anish Kapoor, Rivane Neuenschwander, Liu Jianhua and Dora García, Iris Heitzinger invites to read the pieces  reinterpreted through the body. She creates a bridge between the works and the spectator offering the body as a site of projection where the concept of desire is reflected and questioned. Offering a physicality which materializes the suggested concepts the work looks at how desire sometimes confronts us with our own limits to comply but also how our most hidden desires are a potential source of strength. 

Idea, creation and performance: Iris Heitzinger

Commissioned by CaixaForum Barcelona
Supported by: Centro de Creación Contemporánea La Caldera, C.C. Can Felipa



TRINITY (2013)

Trinity is an audiovisual interactive dance piece which tells the journey of a body going through different states of perception of the space. Through movement, the body is immersed in an environment of textures and audiovisual landscapes that not only accompany but will push to a transformation process. 


A transformation process achieved through the close link between the triad of movement, light and sound shaping a language that allows the expression of these elements in space, while causing profound changes in physical behavior to the body through the reverberation and echoes of its own actions.

Co-creation:
Oscar Sol (visuals and interaction)
Iris Heitzinger (choreography and performance)
Original music: Ramón Prada
Costume design: Ariadna Papiol
Film making: Mind the Film

Created 2013 in Barcelona; produced by electronic performers with support from:
NU2s / El Graner / Mercat de les Flors

watch the trailer



L_ENTES (2012)

After various individual creations and a long collaboration as performers in different productions Iris Heitzinger and Natalia Jiménez decide to come together to create the piece L_ENTES. A contemporary dance performance situated outside in a natural space (e.g. park, forest) which joins forces with science in order to raise different questions on the subject of human perception. How do we perceive? Which point of view do we choose and why? What captures our attention? What is illusion? What is reality?

The creation departs from a research process in which movement and performing arts interact with scientific knowledge, light study/design and sound creation investigating the main subject of the work, perception. The concepts of space, time, light, sound and movement become the protagonists of the work instead of being mere vehicles of expression. These concepts are present, not only in performing arts but also in our every day life and they compose our perception of the environment.

The audience arrives to a natural space which is defined by its own elements. There is no stage area but a totality of space which is shared between the spectator and the performer. Each spectator decides where to situate him/herself, being free to move around and choose the desired point of view.The piece is composed of duos and solos which play with the space. Proximity and distance, presence and absence, repetition and duration. Visual atmospheres are created between nature and artificiality. Optical illusions emerge which offer different dimensions of perception. Sound scapes which suggest movement and which can be perceived in different spaces coming from different angles involve the audience. L_ENTES constantly plays with the audience, transforming them into an essential part of the work. There is no perception without the witness.

Idea, choreography and direction: Iris Heitzinger and Natalia Jiménez
Assistance to direction: Françoise Boillat
Performance: Iris Heitzinger and Natalia Jiménez
Original music: Ilia Mayer
Light design: Israel Quintero
Scientific advisement: Irene Lapuente (physics) and Pep Vidal (mathematics)
Costume: Laura León
Photography: Yoana Miguel
Video: Johann Pérez Viera
Management: Anna Bohigas

L_ENTES is a coproduction with Festival NEO/Barcelona, with the support of CONCA Consell Nacional de la cultura i de les arts and the collaboration of O espaço do tempo, Estruch/Sabadell, La Fragua y la Nave del Duende.

Thanks to:
Ricardo Quesada, La Mandarina de Newton S.L., Tedi Tafel, Doris Frömel, Ester Marquina, Dietmar Suoch

watch the trailer



BREVE ENSAYO SOBRE LA NADA (2011)


SoloPerformance

There is something unpredictably beautiful about not having a plan. Nothing(ness) is the most complex goal to achieve. Before you get to nothing(ness) you pass through the complex multiplicity of yourself. Within nothing(ness) everything that happens becomes the pure version of it's form, the core of each sensation, emotion or action, without being linked to circumstances, situations or people - not even to personality. Somewhere far away from individuality but yet within the essence on one's being. Action and reaction loose their foundation when everything becomes one within nothingness. There is no ground for judgment, here are no parameters for comparison. It just Is. Simply and delicately.

Idea/creation/performance: Iris Heitzinger

watch the trailer



THE GUINEA PIG COLLECTIVE'S BLACKBOX (since 2009)

The guinea pig collective unites three artists from different fields: Dietmar Suoch (media artist), Christine Hinterkörner (singer/composer) and Iris Heitzinger (choreographer/performance artist). They are brought together by the interest to create a discourse, which deepens the understanding of each artist’s own craft as well as one, which offers an intense exchange and involvement with the craft of the others, therefore, creating an interdisciplinary language. Their first collaboration is the project Blackbox an interdisciplinary proposition, which combines performative, audiovisual and media art with new technologies in both the format of an interactive installation and a live-performance.

Blackbox deals with the topic of the virtual space as a misinterpreted place of intimacy and of personal encounters and puts this face to face with the immediate experience of direct human and personal exchange.

Idea/concept/creation: Dietmar Suoch, Christine Hinterkörner, Iris Heitzinger
Choreography/performance: Iris Heitzinger
Technical direction/realization: Dietmar Suoch
Musical direction/composition/voice: Christine Hinterkörner
Light design: Hannes Peithner - Lichtenfels
Costume: the collective
Set design: the collective, Ingrid Weichselbaumer

Blackbox is funded by the Arts Council of Salzburg/Austria and was coproduced by ARGEkultur/Salzburg within the festival Basics 2010. Furthermore it’s creation was supported by La Caldera - centro de creación de dansa y de artes escénicas contemporáneas/Barcelona, Nau Coclea - centro de creación contemporánea/Camallera y Verein tanzhouse - association of choreographers/Salzburg.

watch the trailer

http://www.gpigs.com

LO QUE ES (2008)

SoloDancePeformance for a lady and a ventilator

Where does life happen?
Between people.
Where does fear live?
In the relations between owning, loosing and loving.
What is pride?
The attempt to protect one`s own value or that which keeps us from growing.
What is disillusionment?
The loss of self-deception.
Where does communication or exchange start?
With the willingness to listen.
What is loss?
Realizing that one has to go on.
Why think about what should have happened?
In order to learn.
Why take of the layers one by one, give up again and again all the mechanisms that simplify my living with myself?
In order to find myself someday.

Lo Que Es is a reflection on how we try to deal when we loose something or someone, on the process of admitting loss to yourself and working through the stages of grief in order to go on.


Idea/creation/performance: Iris Heitzinger
Music: various
Lightdesign: Dani Lacueva, Iris Heitzinger

watch the trailer



AnDANDO CON ZAPATOS (2007)

Duo for 2 dancers and a bunch of shoes
"Would you lend me your shoe?"... Maybe being asked to take of your shoe could be the most intimate favor anyone could ask of you. And maybe walking in someone else's shoe gives an idea of his everyday routines, of his way of moving, thinking, feeling... maybe it means touching a slight bit of his essence even. And what is there to find? Only a caricature of someone, an artificial image? Or is it possible to catch a glimpse of truth? And… in the end is it me who’s walking in your shoe or is it you?

Idea/concept: Iris Heitzinger

Creation/performance: Ariadna Estalella Alba, Iris Heitzinger

CAFE MUT'S HOTEL EDEN (2006)cafe mut. acts as an interdisciplinary (music-movement-word) and interactive collective of artists, coming from the field of contemporary music and dance who's declared goal and passion it is to create the "moment" in real time and space. Moving within the playground of the art of improvisation we strive to share the creative moment and make it directly accessible and experience-able for every-body and soul. This is accomplished in a typical "cafe mut. melange" consisting of atmospheric and technical virtuosity, emotional authenticity, abstraction and simplicity.

Collaboration in the full-evening improvisation piece "Hotel Eden" (2006)

cast: 
clemens salesny - reeds
thomas froschauer - drums
clemens wenger - piano, electronics
marlene wolfsberger - movement
iris heitzinger - movement
guest: eneko alcaraz - movement

Appearences at: CCL Linz, WUK Wien, Festival Dantza Hirian (Spain/San Sebastian, Irun), Jazzwerkstatt Wien, Wuk Wien, Spratzerner Kirchenweg (St.Pölten), Sommerpavillon Melk

watch video I, video II

http://www.myspace.com/cafemut

• BUBBLES

a series of DanceVideoExperiments

A reality I find within my work is that sometimes ideas end up on the hold because it seems that first you have to write a dossier about it, elaborate the idea, find collaborators and investors, rehearsal space and money to bring them to term. But what happens with the creative sketches which pop up like bubbles in a glass of champagne and want to be heard and seen just for what they are? Just because right now I feel like hopping around my living room in underwear or starting a little dance in my kitchen for example and who knows what can come from this. So I've decided to start a series of spontaneous works - boring afternoons which inspire me to do something a bit strange or no at all planned and see where it takes me. I've decided to take the freedom to just do. So here they are - BUBBLES - and who knows when the next one will pop up?

idea/concept/creation: Iris Heitzinger
camera and video editing: Iris Heitzinger

• Crystal Balls (2012)
  

• Red Head (2011)

• High 5 (2011)

• TwistIt (2011)

• Toute seule a la maison (2010)

Artistic projects:

• project L_ENTES - site specific dance performance
  
• the guinea pig collective - dance and new media
  
• cafe mut. - collective of improvisers

Friends & Collegues:

• Natalia Jiménez - dance & performance artist

• Ramón Prada alias Vittus - musician

• Oscar Sol - electronic performers - audiovsiual artist
  
• Dietmar Suoch - media & design
  
• Madame Humtata - vocal artist
  
• Stiliana Mitzeva - graphic design & illustration

Support:

• Creation Centre El Graner Barcelona
• Mercat de les flors Barcelona
  

• Tanz_house - independent choreographers Salzburg
• Creation Centre La Caldera Barcelona
• Creation Centre Nau Coclea Girona