“The extreme freedom inherent in dance is demonstrated with fascinating strength in this performance.”
Birgit Kirchner, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“You have to see it to believe it…”
Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir
As an artist with roots in the avant-garde of the 1980s, Britta Lieberknecht has driven forward and helped shape cross-border dance performance in Germany. Continuously and independently of trends, she creates original and high-quality works that are characterised by both depth and humour. She presents stage works or works site-specifically in architecture and landscape. She dances herself in a large part of her work and works as a choreographer for her ensemble Britta Lieberknecht & Company. Since her beginnings, she has included musicians as physical performance partners and equal protagonists. Britta Lieberknecht always relates dance to an artistic or everyday medium that she consistently engages with and treats on an equal footing – from collision to fusion. Since 2012, this medium has predominantly been music.
With her dance ensemble Britta Lieberknecht & Company, she has developed her detailed choreographic approaches to early and new music in six stage works to date. With the help of musical collaborator Laurenz Gemmer, she has choreographed the Kunst des Staubsaugens for five dancers to compositions by J.S. Bach. After relating the music of Keith Jarrett and B.A. Zimmermann to each other through her choreography in Space for your Imagination, she was commissioned by the Festival for New Music Acht Brücken | Musik für Köln in collaboration with the ensemble Musikfabrik. With Vibes, she expanded the company’s musical focus in 2021 to include the topic of communication. Since then, she has been researching intuitive communication in improvised performances with visual artists and musicians. Among other things, in the Kollektiv PML, which she co-founded, and in the production Leise schäumt das Jetzt 2024, a collective improvisation by dancers and musicians. The trombonist Paul Hubweber has been a constant companion of the equal performative interaction between dance and music in Britta Lieberknecht’s work, introducing physical interaction and movement with his instrument early on with his open conception of music. From 1979-2012, she created the media for her dance explorations herself: Installations made of moving slide projectors, furniture, moving chipboard, a computerised sound installation under a dance floor made of floor mats, walk-in sculptures made of TV sets, installations made of light bulbs and fluorescent tubes, colour pigments, sculptures made of video monitors, films. During this period, she developed many works with the physical actor Reinhard Gerum as a permanent artistic partner under the label Britta Lieberknecht & Technicians. The boundary-pushing performances of this team were radical and characterised by maximum physical exertion. These included actions such as the tearing of clothing as a movement process or the smashing of a chair to the point of exhaustion or, from a musical perspective, with the theme of destruction as creation. However, she also shows the fusion of dance with her media, for example a moving sculpture of a dancer connected to a chair by underwear, or a ritualised interaction in Fluss TV. Britta has developed her dance-like performative form of action paintings from drawing. A three-year study of American postmodern dance and visual arts in NYC was groundbreaking for her artistic development, as was her membership of the multimedia dance ensemble PLAN K, led by Frédéric Flamand, in Brussels. Her feminist position is inherent in her work, both provocative and self-evidently inclusive.
including the supporting programme of documenta IX, Festival X94 Akademie der Künste Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Int. Tanztage Potsdam, Int. Theaterfestival Freiburg, Theaterzwang NRW, Tanzhaus NRW, Staatstheater Kassel, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Unikum Klagenfurt (A), Aargauisches Kunsthaus Aarau, VIPER Luzern (CH), Charleroi Danse, Le Botanique Brussels (B), Opéra de Lille (F), The Place Theatre London, Phoenix Arts Space Bristol (GB), Stadttheater Freiburg, Video Dansa Barcelona, Dies de Dansa Barcelona (ESP), Acht Brücken Musik Cologne, SPARK – Festival für aktuelles Musiktheater Cologne etc.
- Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, serie Grenzgänger
- Brotfabrik Bonn
- Pact Zollverein Essen
- Städtische Galerie Neuss Performance Lounge
2009
Kölner Tanztheater Preis
2009
with the Kölner Kinder- und Jugendtheaterpreis of the theater monteure as choreographer
2020
with Reni Scholz Award Winner of the Tagore International Film Festival, Collaboration
1979
- Gold
Performance/Film in Piazza San Marco (Venice)Movement: Britta Lieberknecht Britta Lieberknecht Britta Lieberknecht
Camera work: Mathias Schwerbrock
1980
- Fututourismus
Street performance (Rome)
Performance duo with painter and photographer Doris Frohnapfel (Rome)
1981
- Drehtanz
SoloHanno Braun: Saxophone (Tanzfabrik Berlin)
1982
- Rot und Blau – eigene Geschwindigkeit
Film version of Monika Vogel’s revolving dance
on the architecture of the TU Berlin by Hans Scharoun
1984
- Dancing on the woodside
Dance performance (NYC)
Duo with Lauri Nagel
1985
- Will cow be on time?
Dance Performance (NYC)
Duo with Christine Cole
1986
- Aquarium: Aquarium, Marbles, Las Vegas, Idylle
Solo evening (Tour D, CH) - Bewegung – Stimme – Licht
Performance at Aargauische Kunsthaus Aarau (CH)Movement, Voice: Britta Lieberknecht, Marianne Schuppe
Light: Gere Widmer - Das Fallen im Haus vermeiden
Performance (Bern)
Movement, action, voiceMusic: Britta Lieberknecht, Marianne Schuppe, Mich Gerber, Gere Widmer
1987
- Flash (20 min)
Solo dance performance with light installation (Bremen) - Rot und Grün
Performance (Breminale)Movement: Britta Lieberknecht
Singing and movement: Marianne Schuppe
1988
- Autoerotik (15 min)
Outdoor dance performance with car wreck and live music, installation (Breminale)
Trio - Dinosaurier
Solo dance with slide projection (Solothurn, CH)Slides: Max Hudson - Dino – Disco
Solo dance performance in the discomoving slide projection: Willy Daum (Bremen)
Slides: Max Hudson
1989
- Dinosaurier, Britta Lieberknecht & Technicians
Solo dance with moving slide projectionProjection/Animation: Birgit Freitag, Reinhard Gerum, Horst Mühlberger
Slides: Max Hudson
1991
- Bombsville
Tanztheater (Tour D, CH)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
1992
- Schwarz und Weiß
Performance (Tour D, B, F, GB)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum - Gut Holz
Dance action (documenta IX supporting programme)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
1993
- Kunstrasen
Composition for noisy stage set and dance action
with computerised sound installation (Cologne, Bremen, Essen, Nuremberg)installation: Britta Lieberknecht
sound composition, sound editing and dance action: Willy Daum
dance action: Britta Lieberknecht, Frauke Havemann, Reinhard Gerum
1994
- Fluss TV (3 hrs)
Dance installation on the banks of the Rhine (Cologne, Bonn)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
1995
- Muybridge Tänze
Solo dance evening with video film (Cologne, Krefeld) - Muybridge Tänze
Film by Mathias SchwerbrockActor: Britta Lieberknecht - Irxprocks Horizont
Dance Solo - Barbie Hypnose
Dance solo to video projectionCamera: Gerrit Busmann
Actor: Reinhard Gerum
1996
- Drücken Sie den Posaunisten
Dance-Music-Light-Performance (Cologne)Dance: Britta Lieberknecht
Trombone/Performance: Paul Hubweber
Light-Installation/Performance: Michael Vorfeld - Klagenfurt TV (3 hrs)
Outdoor dance performance with walk-in TV sculpture (Unikum, AU)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
1997
- Gleis TV (20 min)
Outdoor dance performance with walk-on TV sculpture on the tracks of the Zeche Zollverein, Essen - Kalk TV (20 min)
Dance performance with walk-on TV installation in the Kalk hall of the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
1998
- Sibelius, ma non troppo (5 min)
Dance performance with light board (TANZhautnah Köln)Britta Lieberknecht, Reinhard Gerum, Dyane Neiman
Music: Sybelius Symphony No. 1
1999-2000
- Wüstenprojekt Australien (AUS)
seven films and actions in the Australian desertBritta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
2001
- Sur place
Dance and Music Performance Series (Cologne)
Britta Lieberknecht and Paul Hubweber (trombone/performance) - Kanga-fucking-roo
Dance installation with video sculpture (Cologne, Skulpturenmuseum Marl exhibition Grenzgänge)installation, films: Britta Lieberknecht
dance performance: Britta Lieberknecht, Reinhard Gerum
violin: Harald Kimmignominated for the Cologne Dance Theatre Award
- Tanz in Blau (15 min)
Solo performance
Excerpt from Kanga-fucking-roo (Cologne)
2002
- Köln Projekt
Dance and music performance (Cologne, Bonn, Berlin)Dance: Britta Lieberknecht, Ingo Reulecke
Trombone/Performance: Paul Hubweber
Cello/Performance: Sebastian Hilken
2003
- Ohrsichtig
Site-specific dance and music performance
three versions: Galerie R. Haferkamp Köln, St. Johann Petri Dortmund, Cuba-Cultur MünsterDance: Britta Lieberknecht
Trombone/Performance: Paul Hubweber
Lighting: Reinhard Gerum
2004
- 120 works of painting/graphics on the inner connection between painting and movement, numbered
- Procession, exhibition Brotfabrik Bonn
Drawings by Nik Haffner and Thomas Mc Manus, Commerce Company
2005
- Baud Exhibition Pact Zollverein Essen
Drawings to choreography by Rodolpho Leoni
2006
- Loading (15 min)
Dance solo to live drums (Cologne)Drums: Josef Kirschgen - Beben Vibrato (30 min)
Solo dance performance on a table (Cologne, Wuppertal)Live music/performance: Christoph Hillmannnominated for the Cologne Dance Theatre Award
- Karijini Song (30 min)
Solo dance with video projection (Festival TANZhautnah)
Dance performance about a desert landscape of AustraliaFilm, dance, storytelling: Britta Lieberknecht
2007
- Funky Waltz (60 min)
Dance and live music (Cologne, Bonn, Bergisch Gadbach)Dance: Nina Patricia Hänel, Britta Lieberknecht
Composition and live music: Christoph Hillmann
Lighting design: Marco Wehrspann - Komposition für Violine (5 min)
Solo dance and live musicViolin: Toshiko Takada
Composition: Shin-Ichiro Ikebe - FIS (8 min)
Improvisation series dance and music performance, 22 performancesViolin/Performance: Toshiko Takada (Roomservice von Gregor Weber, Köln)
2008
- Geigenänze (30 min)
Site-specific dance and music performance; (Geysirsprünge III, Galerie im Fronhof, Leutesdorf)Violin/Performance: Toshiko Takada
2009
- Berühren – Zerreißen
Dance performance (Cologne, Bonn, Essen, Heidelberg)Choreography, Installation: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: I-Fen Lin, Olaf ReineckeCologne Dance Theatre Award
2009
- Crash (20 min)
Outdoor dance performance with I-Fen Lin and Olaf Reinicke (Barcelona)
Co-production with Goethe Institut Barcelona and Dies de Dansa BarcelonaChoreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: I-Fen-Lin, Olaf Reinecke
2009
- Zerreißen (15 min)
Performance (Cologne, Berlin, Barcelona)
Co-production with the Goethe Institut Barcelona / Dies de Dansa Barcelona)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum - Tango en bois (15 min)
Dance and music performance on the occasion of the exhibition by Brele Scholz (Aula Carolina Aachen)Britta Lieberknecht and Paul Hubweber (trombone/performance)
2010
- Crash (20 min)
New version outdoor dance performance (Cologne, Paderborn)Britta Lieberknecht and Reinhard Gerum
2011
- Passacaglia (13 min)
Solo dance performance with live music (LVR Museum Engelskirchen)Violin/Performance: Toshiko Takada
Music: Franz Biber
2012
- Bach Projekt – researching the flow
Dance performance (ZZT Köln)Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Henar Fuentetaja, Claire Lavernhe, Britta Lieberknecht, Photini Meletiadis, Miguel Tornero
Musical advisor/performance: Laurenz Gemmer
2013
- Die Kunst des Staubsaugens (60 min)
Dance Performance (Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach)Dance: Henar Fuentetaja, Claire Lavernhe, Colas Lucot, Photini Meletiadis, Miguel Tornero
Musical collaborator, composition for vacuum cleaner installation: Laurenz Gemmer
Composition: J.S. Bach
2014
- Schimmerndes Blau
Dance performance to Baroque music (Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach)Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Neus Barcons Roca, Kanako Minami, Paraskevi Terzi, Anaïs Van Eycken
Music: J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Purcell - Krisenhocker
Dance performance to the installation by Reni Scholz (Künstlerforum Bonn)
2016
- Space for your Imagination
Dance performance to the music of Keith Jarret and B.A. Zimmermann (Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach)Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Neus Barcons Roca, Kanako Minami, Sophia Ndaba, Paraskevi Terzi, Anaïs Van Eycken, Petra Van Gompel - Dance performance and drawings, Städtische Galerie Neuss Performance Lounge Von Sinnen
- Transformation (10 min)
Solo with live drawings
2017
- Dance performance and exhibition
Project of the Galerie im Wiesengrund (Studio tour Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach) - Stolpern (10 min)
Solo dance performance
Drawings from the Australia series - Missing Lola
Solo dance performance for the exhibition by Reni Scholz - Sei leise sonst weckst Du die Kleine
Solo dance performance for the exhibition by Jutta Dunkel
2018
- Momentschicht
Dance Action Painting (performance evening at Off-Raum Betonbox, Düsseldorf)
Solo Performance and Performance Duo with Jasper Llewellyn - Hund und Katze
Dance and Music Performance (Open Studio Brele Scholz, Aachen)Dance, Voice: Britta Lieberknecht
Trombone/Performance: Paul Hubweber - Sonate für Violine Solo
Dance Performance to Live Music (Cologne)Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Neus Barcons Roca
Violin: Hannah Weirich
Composition: B.A. Zimmermann - Sonate für Viola Solo …an den Gesang eines Engels
Dance performance to live musicChoroeography: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Barbara Fuchs
Viola: Matthias Buchholz
Composition: B.A. Zimmermann - Acht Brücken I Musik für Köln
two commissioned works
cooperation with Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln
2019
- Site-specific dance and music performance
in the Johanniskirche Köln BrückDance, singing: Britta Lieberknecht
Vocals, cello, performance: Marei Seuthe
2020
- Performance Kollektiv PML
regular, week-long public performances in parks in Cologne during Corona 2020/2021
2021
- Motaphysis
Site-specific dance and music performance at the Motte Kippekausen (Kultursommer Bergisch Gladbach)Dance: Britta Lieberknecht
Vocals/cello/performance: Marei Seuthe - Vibes
Dance performance between the words (Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach)Artistic direction: Britta Lieberknecht
Dance: Clara Thierry, Dario Wilmington, Jacob Gómez Ruiz, Maria Flores Mujica, Neus Barcons Roca
Music performance: Gerno Bogumil
2022
- Kanadagans (14 min)
Solo performance (Kultursommer Bergisch Gladbach)
Project of the Galerie im Wiesengrund
2023
- Tier/Ich/Tier
Performance for the exhibition by Brele Scholz (Aula Carolina Aachen)
in a quartet with Gerno Bogumil, Irmgard Himstedt, Paul Hubweber - à table (15 min)
Dance performance (exhibition LICHT! of the AdK Bergisch Gladbach)Christiane Budden and Britta Lieberknecht
Light: Britta Lieberknecht
2024
- Leise schäumt das Jetzt
Improvised dance and music performance (Cologne)Dance: Britta Lieberknecht, Lilo Stahl
Violin: Harald Kimmig
Accordion/voice: Eva Zöllner
2017/18
FLIPBOOK II + IV
Directed by Susanne Helmes
Site-specific performances on Mallorca, including 2017 performance at the Fundacio Pilar y Joan Miró museum, Palma de Mallorca
since 2018
Performances with PAErsche Aktionslabor
Platform for performance art, Cologne
since 2020
Member of the Performance Kollektiv PML with Gerno Bogumil, Susanne Helmes, Irmgard Himstedt, Paul Hubweber, Katharina Maister
1990/91
Ensemble PLAN K
Conductor Frédéric Flamand, Brussels (B, F, ES, IT):
La Chute d’Icare
Conductor: Frédéric Flamand
Stage design: Fabrizio Plessi
Music: Michael Nyman
2005
Execution Ground
by André Jolles Nude Ants, Cologne
2011
X-motion Dance performance
Action days 25 years Chernobyl (Citykirche Mönchengladbach)
Conductor: Frieder Mann
2014
Dance performance duo with Frieder Mann
Couples’ Courage, Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche, Cologne
for the multi-award-winning and award-winning children’s and youth theatre monteure, a trademark for innovative performance in this field:
2007
blaues gold
by Andrea Lucas
Choreography and dance: Andrea Lucas and Britta Lieberknecht
2009
wo der pfeffer wächst
Directed by: theatre monteure
Choreography: Britta Lieberknecht
Cologne Children’s and Youth Theatre Award
2010
hier bin ich
Interdisciplinary and interactive performance in schools
Directed by: Joachim von der Heiden
federfein und kratzebein
Co-direction/choreography for Andrea Lucas and Thomas Marey
2011
schattenriss
Dance theatre for young people
Directed by: Andrea Lucas
Co-directed and choreographed by: Britta Lieberknecht
2012
abend sonne – morgen mond
Choreography for Andrea Lucas and Thomas Marey
2015
mit dir zusammen
by Andrea Lucas
Directed by: Britta Lieberknecht
2020
wenn das cello katze spielt
Direction/Choreography: Karoline von Lüdinghausen, Britta Lieberknecht
2022
Ich denke sowieso mit dem Knie
Interdisciplinary and interactive performance in schools
Directed by: Joachim von der Heiden
2012
Winterlandschaft mit Nescafé #2
Ilona Paszthy IP dance
2018
Schirmgespräche III – just a piece of paper
Performance project with refugees, Susanne Helmes
2024
Current production IP Dance