R E S U M E
Prue Lang received a Bachelor of Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts – University of Melbourne in 1992. Following her studies she became a founding member of Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre, creating and touring new works throughout Australia and internationally.
In 1996 at the invitation of renowned French directors Bouvier / Obadia, she moved to France to join Compagnie L’Esquisse at the Centre Nationale de la Danse Contemporaine d’Angers. After extensive touring and a dance film project she joined the Compagnie Cre-Ange. At the same time she worked on independent projects in Paris, including her own choreographic events and video installations in collaboration with artist Pierre Giner.
In 1999 she embarked on an important creative collaboration with William Forsythe and until 2004, she was a leading soloist of the renowned Frankfurt Ballet, both dancing and choreographing for the company. During her tenure, she was named Most Outstanding Dancer by Europe’s Balletanz’s Annual Critics’ Survey. Original works she created for the Frankfurt Ballett include Narc, Intervenus, ScreenPlay, Uncharted and Infinite Temporal Series which earned her Most Innovative Production and Most Outstanding Choreographer by Europe’s Balletanz’s Annual Critics’ Survey. She also became a leading exponent of Forsythe’s revolutionary dance philosophy and improvisation technologies.
In 2004 she became an Associate researcher for DAMPF (Dance and Media Performance Fusion). The same year she founded the collective Episode with fellow choreographers Nicole Peisl and Richard Siegal, which was dedicated to the development of extemporaneous performance. They created The Blueprint episode, The How episode and The Kleine episode with renowned electronic composer Christian Kleine.
In 2005 she created Fiftyfourville, presented in HAU 3 Berlin, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf, Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis Paris and Kalamata International Dance Festival Greece, earning her ‘Young Choreographer to Watch’ by Europe’s Balletanz’s Annual Critics’ Survey. Following this she created the short film -Iris in collaboration with Lutz Gregor. The film was shown on ARTE France/ Germany in 2005 followed by screenings at Dance on Camera Festival, New York 2005, Dance Screen Bristol 2005, Festival temps d’image Rome 2005, Reeldance International Dance on Screen Festival, Sydney 2006, Cinedans Festival, Amsterdam 2006 and Festival di Palazzo Venezia, Rome 2006.
The same year she was invited to Australia to re-create Infinite Temporal Series on Gideon Obarzanek’s Melbourne-based company Chunky Move. It won Green Room awards for Design, Original Choreography and Best Ensemble, as well as being nominated in the categories Outstanding Achievement in Choreography and Outstanding Performance by a Company at the Australian Dance Awards 2005. At the invitation of La Ferme du Buisson in Paris she created La fleur de peau in collaboration with contemporary artist Mathieu Briand for the Festival Temps d’images Paris and TRANSART Festival, Italy. Their innovative collaboration awarded them a special story on ARTE’s series -Tracks – shown on television throughout France and Germany.
In 2006 she was invited by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Museum in Baden-Baden to create a unique performance with Vanessa Le Mat in Richard Jackson’s 1000 Clocks installation for the opening of the exhibition, Ballerina in a Whirlpool. This was followed by a commission from Berlin actress Elettra de Salvo, to create a solo for her for Context Festival Hebbel-am-ufer Berlin and Mousonturm Frankfurt 2006. At the invitation of REDCAT in Los Angeles she created a site-specific performance for the exhibition ‘Ubiq: A Mental Odyssey’ with Mathieu Briand. This was followed by a new work for the C-scope festival in Den Haag, Holland in collaboration with choreographer-dancer Vanessa Le Mat, and a site-specific, outdoor performance for the Biarteca Festival Rosazza, Italy. During this period she was also invited as a special guest with The Forsythe Company, notably participating in the MK2 film One Flat Thing, Reproduced and its online media project Synchronous Objects.
In 2007 she was invited by the TATE Modern, London to create a unique performance in collaboration with Mathieu Briand for the Turbine Hall. The performance, titled Did you ever want to be someone else? was created for 100 participants who responded to real-time choreographic instructions sent by SMS. That same year she created and presented Infinite Temporal Series II -the second in the choreographic series inspired by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges- at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Tanzperformance Köln, Cologne, Festival Les Plateux de la Biennale du Val-de-Marne Paris and Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf. In 2008 she began research for her sustainable dance performance for which she was the invited choreographer at the London Festival of Architecture July 2008. In 2009 she presented a development of this work at the Festival Mal au Pixel at Mains d’Oeuvres where she was artist-in-residence from 2009-2012. In 2010 she was commissioned by the Australian company Leigh Warren & Dancers to create Rubicon for Adelaide International Arts Festival. That same year she was commissioned to create Timepiece for the MDKollektiv in Cologne.
In 2011 she presented Un réseau translucide, an autonomous performance that runs 100% on its own energy, through onstage bicycle powered lights and energy harvesting costumes. For this innovative performance she received an ‘Honarary mention’ from the prestigious PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA –for Hybrid Art. In 2013 she created Timeproject for the Festival Faits d’hiver in Paris. Timeproject was then presented at the Theatre National de Chaillot Paris, along with a new prototype of piezoelectric shoes in collaboration with Grafitti Research Lab France, that harness the dancer’s energy throughout the performance.
In 2014 she moved to Melbourne, Australia in order to continue her work in her home country. In 2015 she created Spaceproject at Dancehouse for Dance Massive Australia. In 2016 she established the PLANT Research Lab from which to transmit and further develop her choreographic thinking with a group of Australian dancers. That same year she created a durational gallery work Handovers + Translations with visual artists Fayen D’evie and Sophie Takach for Gertrude Glasshouse Gallery in Melbourne. She also created A Live Exhibition for the graduating students at the VCA. In 2017 she created STELLAR PROJECT presented at Dancehouse as part of Dance Massive festival. That same year she was commissioned by MDkollektiv to create a new work ZAURAK in collaboration with the Kollektiv, which was presented at Tanzhaus NRW Dusseldorf, Staadtstheater Darmstadt, HebelHalle -Kunstlerhaus Unterwegs Theater Heidelberg, Sauerland Theater Arnsburg 2017/2018.
In 2018 she created a site-specific performance in the Pae White space for National Gallery of Victoria – a choreographic takeover of the NGV Triennial in collaboration with Chunky Move. That same year she created Towards Innumerable Futures - a commission from Sydney Dance Company as part of the New Breed program at Carriageworks Sydney. In 2019 she began developing a feminist dance work with all-female team of collaborators and presented an in-progress presentation at Dance Massive 2019. She then premiered the completed work PROJECT F for the re-opening of the historic Magdalen Laundries at the Abbotsford Convent in February 2020. This work was programmed at Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in FRANCE and the New Baltic Dance Festival LITHUANIA in May 2020, both cancelled due to Covid. During the two year lockdown in Melbourne, she researched a new work with collaborators remotely and shared her Octopus-inspired practice with dancers all over the world via zoom. She also created the film BODY/INSECT/MACHINE a movement experiment between her choreography, artist Mathieu Briand’s androids and a Phasmid (Australian stick insect), presented by Chunky Move and the Science Gallery Melbourne, Ars electronia Linz 2020.
PROJECT F was re-scheduled to open the Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis Festival, then cancelled again due to Australian border closures. In 2022 she premiered a new work CASTILLO -created for and with award-winning performer Jana Castillo, which explores the taxonomy of touch through the lens of choreography and neurodiversity. After a world premiere in Dancehouse Melbourne, it toured to InDance at Sydney Dance Company, then Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis accompanied by performances & talks at Rehabilitation centre in Paris. Between 2021-2023 she created a series of short dance films all filmed at specific locations in Melbourne/Naarm – influunt, laeviter, profero, forum, with upcoming films to be released end 2023.
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C H O R E O G R A P H I C W O R K S
CASTILLO -Dancehouse Melbourne March 2022, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis France June 2022, 2020, InDance Sydney Dance Company Aug 2022. *Winner BEST PERFORMER Green Room Awards 2023
PROJECT F – Abbotsford Convent Melbourne Feb 2020, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis France 2020, New Baltic Dance Festival Lithuania 2020.*Winner BEST CHOREOGRAPHY Green Room Awards 2022
Towards Innumerable Futures – SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY New Breed, Carriageworks Sydney 2018
NGV Triennial – Site-specific performance for the NGV Triennial, Melbourne 2018
Zaurak – in collaboration with MDkollektiv, Tanzhaus NRW Dusseldorf, Stadtstheater Darmstadt, Germany 2017,
Stellar Project – Dancehouse, Dance Massive Australia, Melbourne 2017
Handovers + Translations – in collaboration with Fayen D’evie + Sophie Takach, Gertrude Glasshouse Gallery, Melbourne 2016
Spaceproject -Dancehouse, Dance Massive Australia, Melbourne 2015
Timeproject -Festival faits d’hiver Paris 2013, Theatre National de Chaillot Paris 2013
Timeshift -Victorian College of the Arts -University of Melbourne 2012
Un réseau translucide -sustainable dance performance Festival Faits d’Hiver Paris and Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf 2011
Timepiece – MichaelDouglas Kollektiv, Buhne der Kultur köln, Tanzhaus köln, Cologne 2010
Rubicon – Leigh Warren & Dancers -Adelaide International Arts Festival, Adelaide Australia 2010
Infinite Temporal Series II – Tanz im Hessen- Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt 2007, Tanz performance köln, Cologne 2007, Les Plateux de la Biennale du Val-de-Marne, Paris, Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf 2008
Did you everwant to be someone else ? – Site specific performance for the Turbine Hall at TATE Modern during The Long Weekend in collaboration with Mathieu Briand, London May 2007
Intervention #4: Cherrycab –C-scope Festival Das Regentes, Den haag, Holland 2006
Intervention #3: Cherrycab –Ballerina in a whirlpool exhibition, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden 2006
A divided moment of attention – Solo for Elettra De Salvo, presented in the trilogy ‘Some others and me’ with Jochen Roller and Celestine Hennerman. Mousonturm Frankfurt 2006, Context festival Hebbel am Ufer Berlin 2007
Intervention #2: Cherrycab – Presented at La force de l’art exhibition, Grand palais Paris 2006
The liquefied instruction -Performance for the Biarteca Festival, Rosazza, Italy 2006
Intervention #1: Cherrycab –Die jugend von heute, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany 2006
La fleur de peau – created in collaboration with artist Mathieu Briand. Festival Temps d’images, ARTE / La ferme du Buisson Paris 2005, Television Arte / Tracks / La fleur de peau et Prue Lang avec Mathieu Briand, 24th Nov. 2005 Transart Festival – Bolzano, Italy 2006
Iris – short film for ARTE in collaboration with Lutz Gregor, Shown on ARTE France/ Germany 2005, Dance on camera festival, New York 2005, Dance screen Bristol 2005, Festival temps d’image Rome 2005, Reeldance International Dance on Screen festival, Sydney 2006, Cinedans Festival, Amsterdam 2006. Festival di palazzo venezia, Rome 2006 Guest – creation & performance in Tanzgeschichten by Raimund Hoghe. Theatre de la Bastille, Paris 2005
The kleine episode – EPISODE collective, Klapstuk #12 festival, Leuven Belgium 2005
Fiftyfourville – Eurasia Festival – Hebbel-am-ufer (HAU 3) Berlin 2004, Mousonturm Frankfurt 2004, tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf 2005, Rencontres choregraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis Paris 2005. Kalamata International Dance Festival, Greece 2005
The How Episode – EPISODE collective. Context Festival, Hebbel-am-ufer (HAU 3), Berlin, 2004
Uncharted – Short film (DV) in collaboration with Cindy Lee. Screening at Bockenheimer Depot/TAT, Frankfurt 2004
Infinite Temporal Series – Bockenheimer Depot /TAT, Frankfurt 2003, KLAPSTUK festival #11, Belgium 2003, Tanzplattform Deutschland, Düsseldorf 2004, Pelerinages Festival Weimar 2004, Festival Mettre-en-scene Rennes, France 2004, Les Halles de Schaerbeek Brussels 2005. Chunky Move performance space, Melbourne, Australia 2005
The Blueprint Episode – EPISODE collective, Site specific performance. Neue Boerse, Frankfurt 2003
ScreenPlay – Video installation in collaboration with Cindy Lee and David Le Barzic. Bockenheimer Depot/ TAT, Frankfurt 2003, Pelerinages Festival, Weimar 2004
Intervenus – Performance for 5 women. Ballett Frankfurt, Bockenheimer Depot/TAT, Frankfurt 2002
Day of dancing floor – Video installation in collaboration with Pierre Giner. Festival of French contemporary dance, New York 2001
Vapour – Video installation in collaboration with Cindy Lee. Bockenheimer Depot/TAT, Frankfurt 2001
Narc – Performance for Ballett Frankfurt. Bockenheimer Depot /TAT, Frankfurt 2001
Chez l’un, L’autre – Video installation in collaboration with Pierre Giner, Basel, Switzerland 2000
Never walk alone – Video installation in collaboration with Pierre Giner. Centre Nationale de Photographie, Paris 1999
P U B L I C A T I O N
Chapter -Thinking, movement and language, in Gerald Siegmund, William Forsythe : Denken in Bewegung (Henschel : Berlin, 2004)