Teacher
Univ.-Prof.
Helge Musial
Helge Musial worked as one of the central dancers and choreographers in Berlin in the 80s and 90s and was one of the formative artistic personalities of the early experimental dance factory in Berlin, Kreuzberg. 2000-2006, the point of his entry into higher education teaching at the legendary Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England, he led his own dance company in Berlin. His choreographic work is characterized by explorative engagement between contemporary dance technique, contact improvisation, partnering, multimedia means and life music. Since 2014, Helge Musial has been Univ.-Prof. for Dance at the Orff Institute, which he directed 2017-2022.
Helge Musial studied choreography at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts as well as contemporary and classical dance in Berlin. Scholarships have taken him to the School of Choreography and Music in Riga, to the Graham Studios in New York, to Bobby Blankshine and to the company of the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. In 2010 he completed a Postgraduate Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education (PGChE) program at University College Falmouth, England. In his choreographic work, Helge Musial emphasizes that each individual with their body, their sensuality and their spirit forms a whole for which their own form, an unmistakable expression can be found. He is interested in working out what is specifically personal on stage. His choreographic work has been shown worldwide, in North and South America, Canada, Southeast Asia, Russia and almost all European countries. As a choreographer and movement director in numerous dance, speech and music theater productions, he has worked for free and "large scale" projects and stages, e.g. for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the National Drama Theater in Seoul, South Korea and the Norrdans Company in Sweden. As a lecturer, Helge Musial taught internationally at numerous universities and colleges: 2010-2014 at Teesside University in Yorkshire, from 2005-2009 at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England. 2012, 2015, 2016 at the AdK Ludwigsburg, 2010 at the University College Falmouth, 1996-2005 in the acting department of the UdK Berlin. From 2008-2010 he worked as a visiting professor at the HZT Berlin, where he played a key role in developing the MA choreography course . Helge Musial has taught numerous master classes and workshops in the field of choreography, dance and acting worldwide, for example at Sungkjungwang University Seoul, the Damascus University of Music and Performing Arts, the HdK Bern, the Dimitrij School for Physical Theater, Verscio, the Theatertreffen the youth in Pula, Croatia, the KER Studio, Hania, Greece, several times in the Forum for Young Stage Members at the Berlin Festival, for the Kyoto Arts Center in Japan, at the German-speaking theater university meeting at the HdK Zurich in Switzerland and of course in the Tanzfabrik Berlin, his former artistic homeland. He is in demand as an expert for contemporary dance in juries of funding programs. He advised the Performing Arts Fund, the German Study Foundation, Stiftung Kultur NRW and the Stuttgart Cultural Office. From 2008 to 2010, as a member of the Committee of Experts, he advised the Inter-University Center for Dance on the implementation of new courses in Berlin. He has also acted as an expert on dance in accreditation phases at European arts universities.
