“In a first impression you can understand that Kaiser’s work is pushing it’s own boundaries of experience and intensity. She displays a bold and unusual choice, developing the selected idea in depth, in a refined mix of ludic and dramatic expressions, using minimalism as well as an explosive energy.”  Jury Statement ´Pina Bausch Fellwoships 2017

Marie-Lena Kaiser is a choreographer and dancer based in Essen. Her choreographic work is rooted in group processes and explores concepts of encounter and collaboration between dancers, audience, space and music with a improvisational, energetic and playful approach. She develops her artistic ideas in collaboration with dancers, hence the actual encounter, the training space, where practise and the exchange of methods is happening is an important part of her routine. For Kaiser, the training is a space of knowledge production which creats power structure and tackels the frictions between authority and autonomy, the disappointments of broken agreements and the frustrations of one’s own failures.

In 2016 she graduated from Folkwang University of the Arts. Since then she has been working as a freelancer in Germany and abroad. In cooperation with dance institutions such as tanzhaus nrw, Maschinenhaus Essen, Pact Zollverein, tanzfaktur köln and Folkwang University of the Arts, Marie-Lena Kaiser is constantly developing her choreographic work with local artists. Her next work, with the working title Peeking through a Brickwall, is scheduled to premiere at tanzhaus nrw in fall 2023. In this work, Kaiser is collaborating with numerous artists and organizers in Nrw. This is her second full-length production. Her first full-length piece Ariodante (2018) was performed throughout North Rhine-Westphalia, including at the festival tanz nrw, tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf and at Maschinenhaus Essen.
Marie-Lena Kaiser got the Pina Bausch Fellowship, which she spent in Mozambique and Europe with Mozambican choreographer Horácio Macuácua. As a dancer, Marie-Lena Kaiser has toured Germany, Europe and Asia with the company performing:group. She is part of the work of Lee Méir, whose choreography safe&sound will be shown at Radialsystem Berlin in April 2023. She is part of the network IG_Tanz Essen, which is committed to a vibrant, free and diverse cultural scene in Essen and the Region Ruhr-Area through continuous exchange with the artists and culture institutions in Essen. In 2021, she began a master’s program in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. In 2022 she received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes to support her studys.

You can access to projects and past work under the Projects. You can also find the latest information on her Instagram profile.

Pics by Marie Laforge und Timo Reinders