Univ.-Prof.
Helge Musial
Helge Musial is a choreographer, dancer and university professor whose work combines contemporary dance, contact improvisation, partnering, multimedia elements and live music. A formative figure of Berlin’s experimental dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s, he has taught internationally and has been Professor of Dance at the Orff Institute since 2014.
After studying choreography at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch as well as classical and contemporary dance in Berlin, Helge Musial continued his artistic training internationally. Scholarships took him to the School of Choreography and Music in Riga, the Graham Studios in New York City, and to further studies with Bobby Blankshine and the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. In 2010, he completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education at University College Falmouth in England.
Musial was one of the central artistic figures of the early experimental dance scene surrounding the Tanzfabrik in Berlin-Kreuzberg during the 1980s and 1990s. From 2000 to 2006, he directed his own dance company in Berlin. His choreographic work is characterised by an explorative engagement with the expressive possibilities of the body and by the search for an individual stage language for each performer. His productions have been presented internationally throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia. As a choreographer and movement director, he has collaborated with institutions including the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the National Drama Theatre in Seoul and the Norrdans Company in Sweden.
Alongside his artistic work, Musial has taught extensively at universities and conservatoires internationally. His appointments have included the Dartington College of Arts, Teesside University, University College Falmouth, the Berlin University of the Arts and the Akademie für Darstellende Kunst Baden-Württemberg. From 2008 to 2010, he was Visiting Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT), where he played a key role in establishing the MA Choreography programme. Since 2014, he has served as Professor of Dance at the Orff Institute of the Mozarteum University Salzburg, which he directed from 2017 to 2022.
Musial is also active internationally as a lecturer, workshop leader and advisor for funding and accreditation bodies in the field of contemporary dance. He has served as an expert and juror for organisations including Fonds Darstellende Künste, the Deutsche Studienstiftung and Stiftung Kultur NRW, and has contributed to the development and accreditation of dance programmes at European arts universities.