Henning Rübsam

is the artistic director of SENSEDANCE, a resident choreographer for Hartford City Ballet, on faculty at The Juilliard School and a visiting guest artist at Texas Academy of Ballet (Carolyn Bognar, director).  

                                                                       

Rübsam earned his B.F.A. degree in dance from The Juilliard School, where mentors included Martha Hill and Elizabeth Keen.  While at Juilliard, he performed as the Faun in the Nijinsky/Debussy ballet, worked extensively with Anna Sokolow, and toured internationally with the Limón Dance Company.  Upon graduation he founded his own ensemble SENSEDANCE and continued to dance with other choreographers, namely Duncan Macfarland, Murray Louis, and most importantly Alwin Nikolais.  Rübsam appeared as a guest dancer with a myriad of contemporary choreographers, among them the delightful Beverly Blossom, and in works of dance pioneers Isadora Duncan and Doris Humphrey.  

                                                                           

Among Rübsam’s citations are a Jerome L. Greene Fellowship, a Lincoln Center Fellowship, a Manhattan Spirit Award as "best male dancer,” a choreography award from Stephens College, an award for his advocacy from Dancers Responding to AIDS, and the Distinguished Artist Award from Bergen College in 2009, the first time this award was given to a dance artist.  In 2010, he and his company represented the United States at the Danza Nueva Festival in Lima.

Rübsam also works for theater and opera as both choreographer and director.  He has been a guest choreographer and teacher for ballet, contemporary dance companies and universities throughout the Americas as well as in Australasia and Europe.  His dance writing has appeared in Dance Magazine and its annual Stern's Performing Arts Directory, Pointe Magazine, Ballet Review, The Juilliard Journal. He was the American correspondent for the European publication Dance-for-You and currently writes for Dance-Enthusiast.com.  As an historian and advocate for his art form, he is a long-time board member of the Martha Hill Dance Fund, has implemented a dance appreciation program at Juilliard for the general public, taught dance history at SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, has given lectures for the Young Patrons Program at Lincoln Center, and - in 2007 - was the first dance artist to speak at the GEL conference where he conducted a workshop in 2011.

Rübsam collaborates with contemporary composers Beata Moon, Ricardo Llorca and Leslie Wildman. His “Impending Visit” to music by Rafael Aponte-Ledée was premiered at the Fiesta Iberoamericana de las Artes in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He works regularly with Mexico City-based photographer Antonio Yussif and had the honor to create a solo for his late mentor, Prima Ballerina Assoluta Eva Evdokimova.  Rübsam, who has presented annual performances with SENSEDANCE and has toured internationally, appears in several television documentaries about his work - produced by Dancevista - and in the documentary feature Behind the Curtain.  The documentary ANOTHER TOUR (by director Greg Vander Veer) about his company’s tour through Peru is forthcoming.

His company’s twentieth anniversary season through 2011/12 commenced with the premieres of ensemble works Nonet, Tenancy and HALF-LIFE in front of sold-out houses at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center in November and culminates with performances in October 2012 in Bogota, Colombia and Peridance Center, New York City (10/27&28).  An informal showing of new work led critic Lori Ortiz to comment: “HALF-LIFE and Göttingen poignantly tackle the big questions and put Rübsam forth as the Anselm Kiefer of dance.” (http://www.readingdance.com/rubsam.html)

After having reworked HALF-LIFE into the sextet “HALF-LIFE 102” and premiering “obsession | calm” as well as the lyrical full ensemble work BRAHMS DANCES, The Huffington Post commented on “Rübsam’s tenacity and flair” in a January 2013 review:
“...eye-pleasing rounded movements and the attention to facial gestures, which is however set off by an equal passion for jagged, rugged movement reminiscent of more experimental choreographers. This constitutes just another fascinating duality in one of our more intellectual downtown choreographers.”

Rübsam’s company SENSEDANCE is represented exclusively by agent Linda Reznik of River City Artists Management  within the USA and Canada. Please check “Presenters” page on this website for contact information. Daniel Ochoa is Rübsam’s booking agent for Mexico. Other international destinations are booked through in-house administrator Byron Segal-Jabobs: sensedance@sensedance.org

SENSEDANCE – 1425 Third Avenue, #3c – New York, NY 10028 - 212.717.6869

Henning Rübsam’s SENSEDANCE

is a fiscally sponsored member of NewYorkLiveArts.org,

a non-profit tax-exempt organization.