{{Short description|Austrian choreographer (born 1958)}} thumb|Editta Braun (2008)'''Editta Braun''' (born 25 May 1958) is an Austrian choreographer, stage dancer, dance pedagogue as well as founder and director of the Salzburg dance company Editta Braun Company.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.drehpunktkultur.at/index.php/kulturpanorama/zanz/505-editta-braun-company|title=Editta Braun Company|last=|first=|date=|website=DrehPunktKultur|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609135225/http://www.drehpunktkultur.at/index.php/kulturpanorama/zanz/505-editta-braun-company |archive-date=2019-06-09 |access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref> She is known as a pioneer of contemporary dance in Austria<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wolf Perez|first=Edith|date=2017-10-24|title=Geehrt: Editta Braun|url=http://www.tanz.at/index.php/magazin/people/1880-geehrt-editta-braun|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518142610/http://www.tanz.at/index.php/magazin/people/1880-geehrt-editta-braun |archive-date=2019-05-18 |access-date=2019-09-24|website=tanz.at}}</ref> and chairwoman of ''tanz_house'', the association of freelance choreographers based in Salzburg.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=About tanz-hose|url=http://www.tanzhouse.at/e/about.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910125230/http://www.tanzhouse.at:80/e/about.html |archive-date=2016-09-10 |access-date=2019-09-28|website=tanz_house}}</ref>

== Early life == Braun was born in Vöcklabruck in the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut.<ref name="GroßerSalzburger">{{cite news|url=https://www.sn.at/salzburg/kultur/grosser-kunstpreis-des-landes-fuer-editta-braun-19096552|title=Großer Kunstpreis des Landes für Editta Braun|date=9 October 2017|work=Salzburger Nachrichten|accessdate=19 May 2019|location=Salzburg, Austria}}</ref> As a child, she learned classical ballet and piano<ref name="GroßerSalzburger"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.kulturfonds.at/fileadmin/_migrated/content_uploads/Editta_Braun.pdf|title=Internationaler Preis für Kunst und Kultur: Mag.a Editta Braun|last=Kulturfonds Österreich|date=|website=kulturfons.at|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928201043/http://www.kulturfonds.at/fileadmin/_migrated/content_uploads/Editta_Braun.pdf |archive-date=2019-09-28 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> and trained intensively in gymnastics; she was Upper Austrian state champion in 1974.

From 1976 to 1982, she studied sports science and German language and literature at the University of Salzburg.<ref name="GroßerSalzburger"/> When she encountered the work ''1980'' of Pina Bausch at a performance in Vienna in 1982 she became interested in contemporary dance.

In 1983, she began her dance training in Paris and New York.<ref name="GroßerSalzburger" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.salzburg.gv.at/kultur_/Documents/Publikationen/Editta_Braun.2017.pdf|title=Editta Braun: Großer Kunstpreis für Darstellende Kunst 2017|last=Land Salzburg|date=2017-11-28|website=Broschüre-KunstuKultur2017_PreiseuPreisträgeronline|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928201042/https://www.salzburg.gv.at/kultur_/Documents/Publikationen/Editta_Braun.2017.pdf |archive-date=2019-09-28 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> She was also influenced by acting lessons in method acting with Walter Lott and by a dance project with Wim Vandekeybus initiated by SZENE Salzburg, where she learned to combine her artistic gymnastics technique with contemporary, sporty dance.

== Artistic career == In 1982, Braun founded the "Kollektiv Vorgänge" together with Beda Percht,<ref name="GroßerSalzburger"/> which won the Bagnolet Choreography Prize (ex equo with Saburo Teshigawara) with ''Lufus'' in 1986.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Österreich tanzt|last=Amort, Andrea|first=Wunderer-Gosch, Mimi|publisher=Böhlau|year=2001|isbn=3-205-99226-1|location=Wien|pages=158f}}</ref>

In 1989, she founded the Editta Braun Company in Salzburg, with which she has since produced and internationally toured at least one full-length dance piece every year.<ref name=":1" /> Her dance pieces have won numerous awards.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Der Kobold der Träume|last=Habringer, Rudolf|first=Mautner, Josef P.|publisher=Picus|year=2006|isbn=3-85452-497-8|pages=185}}</ref>

In the field of dance filming, Braun worked with Othmar Schmiderer, Wolfram Paulus and Hannes Klein, among others, from an early age. Her short film "[https://vimeo.com/336296184 Collision]", directed in 1993 by Othmar Schmiderer, was awarded the bronze medal at the New York Film Festival in 1995.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schmiderer |first=Othmar |title=collision |url=http://www.othmarschmiderer.de/collision.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=othmarschmiderer}}</ref> In 2022, together with photographer and commercial filmmaker Menie Weissbacher, she brought the alienating Luvos beings from their body illusion theatre to the screen in the short film ''LUVOS migrations''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf-Perez |first=Edith |date=2022-11-15 |title=LUVOS, jetzt als Film |url=https://www.tanz.at/index.php/magazin/vorschau/2691-luvos-jetzt-als-film |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=tanz.at}}</ref>

Braun collaborates with composers, live musicians and artists from outside Austria<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> such as Jean-Yves Ginoux<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.impulstanz.com/archive/artistbios/id408/|title=Artist Archive: Jean-Yves Ginoux (+2009) (FR)|last=|first=|date=|website=ImPulsTanz Archives|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923192929/https://www.impulstanz.com/archive/artistbios/id408/ |archive-date=2019-09-23 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> and the Egyptian director Mahmoud Aboudoma. With Jean Babilée she created the dance theatre piece "La vie, c'est contagieux" in 1993/94 in Paris<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOVF2xZCkY|title=Jean Babilée in Editta Braun's "La vie, c'est contagieux"|last=Paulus|first=Wolfram|date=23 December 2013|website=youtube.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref> and Salzburg. Since 1996, she has worked with Thierry Zaboitzeff,<ref name="GroßerSalzburger" /> who is her partner.thumb|planet LUVOS, 2012 Braun's most internationally successful production is ''Luvos, vol.2.,'' developed from the piece ''Lufus'' in Salzburg in 2001, that establishes a series of innovative, purely female body illusion theatres, including ''planet LUVOS'' (2012), ''Close Up'' (2015), ''Close Up 2.0'' (2017), ''Fanghoumé'' (2019) and ''Hydráos'' (2020) and the short movie ''LUVOS migrations'' (2022/23). In these series, Braun and her company conduct continuous research into the visual overcoming of bodily boundaries over more than two decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://manipulatefestivalblog.wordpress.com/tag/editta-braun/|title=Tag archives: editta braun|last=divers|date=February 2014 – February 2016|website=manipulatefestivalblog|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729081502/https://manipulatefestivalblog.wordpress.com/tag/editta-braun/ |archive-date=2019-07-29 |access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref> LUVOSmove® is the trademarked name for this very special, purely female body language which has also been the subject of scientific research since a colloquium in 2021 at the Anton Bruckner University Linz.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Poschmann-Reichenau |first=Gerda |date=2022-01-21 |title=Forschungskolloquium "LUVOSmove®: Einblicke und Außenansichten" an der ABPU |url=https://www.bruckneruni.at/de/news-presse/news/news-detail/forschungskolloquium-luvosmover-einblicke-und-aussenansichten-an-der-abpu |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=bruckneruni.at}}</ref>

Since the 1980s, the decidedly political impulse in her works has got stronger.<ref name=":0" /> It can be seen already in the choice of themes for plays such as ''Voyage à Napoli'', ''Luvos'', ''vol. 2'', ''King Arthur''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vienna.at/merlin-kotzt-knig-artus-beim-tanz-house-festival-in-salzburg/1603788|title=Merlin kotzt|last=|first=|date=2010-10-20|website=Vienna Online|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924085820/https://www.vienna.at/merlin-kotzt-knig-artus-beim-tanz-house-festival-in-salzburg/1603788 |archive-date=2019-09-24 |access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dance.lv/eng/currently-resident-in/|title=currently resident in...|last=|first=|date=|website=dance.lv|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924085822/https://www.dance.lv/eng/currently-resident-in/ |archive-date=2019-09-24 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> In 2011, ''schluss mit kunst''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cityofwomen.org/en/content/2013/video/editta-braun-schluss-mit-kunst-enough-art|title=Editta Braun: Schluss mit Kunst / Enough of Art|last=|first=|date=2013|website=City of Women|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111044953/http://www.cityofwomen.org:80/en/content/2013/video/editta-braun-schluss-mit-kunst-enough-art |archive-date=2014-11-11 |access-date=2019-09-24}}</ref> with text contributions by Kurt Palm and Christian Felber, among others, questioned the meaning of artistic creation in the face of hunger, war, environmental destruction, extinction of species and growing inequality.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/332734226|title=editta braun company: schluss mit kunst|last=|first=|date=26 April 2019|website=vimeo|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719190148/https://vimeo.com/332734226 |archive-date=2021-07-19 |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref>

Braun is known for applying an intercultural mode of production: she frequently develops socially committed projects with local artists, especially in Asia and Africa, and contrasts their cultural, historical, and social identities with Central European traditions.<ref name=":1" /> The resulting pieces include ''India'' (1998 in Bangalore and Salzburg), ''manifest'' (2002 in Senegal and Salzburg) and ''Coppercity 1001'' (2007/08 in Alexandria/Egypt and Salzburg).

Also important in her work is the feminist impulse, which brings women's fates into focus and, in recent times, often leads to exclusively female casts.

=== Teaching === From 1987 to 2021, Editta Braun has taught acrobatic gymnastics and gymnastic dance forms as well as African dance and Modern Dance at the Interdepartmental Faculty of Sports and Movement Sciences of the Paris Lodron University Salzburg.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Editta Braun Company |url=https://www.sn.at/wiki/Editta_Braun_Company |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Salzburg WIKI}}</ref> Since 1997 she is teaching contemporary dance, physical theatre, choreography, improvisation and professional strategies at the Institute for Dance Arts of the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz (Austria).<ref name="GroßerSalzburger" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

From 1992 to 1998, she worked as a lecturer at ImPulsTanz Wien (formerly Internationale Tanzwochen Wien)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.impulstanz.com/archive/artistbios/id435/|title=Artist Archive: Editta Braun (AT)|last=|first=|date=|website=ImPulsTanz Archiv|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928201042/https://www.impulstanz.com/archive/artistbios/id435/ |archive-date=2019-09-28 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> and from 1994 to 1997 as a commissioned choreographer for the Vienna State Opera Ballet School.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archiv.wiener-staatsoper.at/search/person/10723/work/280/credit/648|title=Wiener Staatsoper - Archiv|last=|first=|date=|website=Wiener Staatsoper Archiv|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928201042/https://archiv.wiener-staatsoper.at/search/person/10723/work/280/credit/648 |archive-date=2019-09-28 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref> In 2006, she supervised the youth project "wintertime" at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archiv.noeku.at/festspielhaus/images/BrendaAngiel.pdf|title=Abendprogramm Landschaft|last=|first=|date=|website=Archiv Niederösterreich Kultur / Festspielhaus|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928201042/http://archiv.noeku.at/festspielhaus/images/BrendaAngiel.pdf |archive-date=2019-09-28 |access-date=2019-09-28}}</ref>

As part of her teaching activities, Braun developed a specific improvisation technique that combines acting and contemporary dance to create "Physical Theater".

=== Recognition ===

*1986: Second Prize and Award for Most Innovative Choreography at the Concours Chorégraphique International de Bagnolet in Paris for ''Lufus'' for the Kollektiv Vorgänge * 1995: bronze medal at the New York Film Festival for ''Collision'', director Othmar Schmiderer * 2001: Award for Best Direction at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre for ''Nebensonnen'' * 2014: Internationaler Preis für Kunst und Kultur der Stadt Salzburg<ref name="GroßerSalzburger" /> * 2017: Großer Kunstpreis des Landes Salzburg<ref name="GroßerSalzburger" /> * 2022: Prize for Best Ensemble Performance at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater

== Further reading ==

* "Editta Braun – Die Rebellin". In: Caroline Kleibel: ''Bühnen-Frauen''. Linz: Fram-Verlag, 2001. pp.&nbsp;45–57. * Editta Braun: "Levitationen". In: Rudolf Habringer, Josef P. Mautner (Hrsg.): ''Der Kobold der Träume''. Vienna: Picus, 2006, pp.&nbsp;157–160. * Gerti Krawanja: "Die Alphafrau". In: ''Echo'', March 2008, pp.&nbsp;68ff. * ''Österreich tanzt: Geschichte und Gegenwart''. Hrsg. von Andrea Amort und Mimi Wunderer-Gosch. Vienna: Böhlau, 2001. *Ilse Retzek: "Die Löwenbändigerin". In: ''tanz affiche N° 100''. Vienna, June 2000. * Ditta Rudle: "Eine wilde Hummel". In: ''Echo'' March 2008, p.&nbsp;68f. * ''Tanz Kunst Leben. 20 Jahre Editta Braun Company''. Hrsg. von Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau und gestaltet von Bettina Frenzel. Norderstedt: Book on Demand, 2009.

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links == *[http://www.editta-braun.com/ Web presence editta braun company - German] *[http://www.editta-braun.com/e/ Web presence editta braun company - English]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Braun, Editta}} <!--- Categories ---> Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:People from Vöcklabruck Category:Austrian choreographers Category:Austrian women choreographers Category:Academic staff of Anton Bruckner Private University