Raimund Hoghe (1949 – 2021)

Biography of Raimund Hoghe

This biography was written Mary Kate Connolly and featured in Throwing the Body into the Fight: A Portrait of Raimund Hoghe (2013: 21-23). The text is reprinted here with kind permission of the publishers.

The word hunchback she never uttered. She just called it his back. In loose pullovers it would be scarcely noticeable. “There are worse things than a back like that,” she says…When the son tells that he had heard that also men could kiss each other, and that he would like to know what that was like, he receives from the mother the only clip around the ear he can remember.

 (Chambre Séparée, 1997).

Raimund Hoghe was born in Wuppertal, Germany.

In 1967, he began work as a journalist with the weekly German newspaper Die Zeit, writing portraits both of celebrities and individuals on the fringes of society. These portraits were later compiled into several books, including Stärke als Schwäche (Strength as Weakness) 1976, and Anderssein. Lebensläufe außerhalb der Norm (Being Different. Curriculum Vitaes of Life Outside the Norm) 1982.

In 1979, Hoghe wrote a piece on the seminal choreographer, Pina Bausch, for the periodical Theater Heute, entitled Meinwärts – Ein Zweig, eine Mauer (Mewards – A Twig, A Wall). An artistic collaboration developed between Hoghe and Bausch following this initial contact. From 1980 to 1990, he worked as dramaturg for Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal, a role requiring artistic involvement in production elements ranging from theatre programme design to staging. This period also produced the subject matter for two more books written by Hoghe: Bandoneon  –Für was kann Tango alles gut sein? (Bandoneon – How many uses can be found for the tango?) 1981, and Pina Bausch – Tanztheatergeschichten (Pina Bausch – Stories from the Dance Theatre), 1987.

In 1989, Raimund Hoghe began creating theatre work for a number of actors and dancers, beginning with Forbidden Fruit, for Mark Sieczkarek. 1992 saw the beginnings of his collaborations with fine-artist Luca Giacomo Schulte and photographer Rosa Frank. Thus began a longstanding working relationship which continues to the present day. In 2012, Hoghe celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his company, which he dates from the commencement of his work with Schulte and Frank. This began with Verdi Prati (Green Meadows), created for Rodolpho Leoni in 1992. Since then, Luca Giacomo Schulte has worked as artistic collaborator with Hoghe in the creation of every piece, and Rosa Frank has photographed all of Hoghe’s works.

In 1994, Raimund Hoghe took the final step of throwing his own body into the fight, by creating his first solo, Meinwärts (Mewards), which together with the subsequent Chambre Séparée (1997) and Another Dream (2000) made up a trilogy on the 20th century, tracing personal and cultural memories from the 1940s to the 1960s. Following this, he created a 2000/01 lecture performance Throwing the body into the fight which combined choreography and text from pivotal moments of his previous work.

Early collaborations with dancers produced works such as 1998’s Dialogue with Charlotte performed by Hoghe with Charlotte Engelkes, and Sarah, Vincent et moi in 2002, with Sarah Chase and Vincent Dunoyer. These were followed by larger group pieces Young People, Old Voices (2002) and Tanzgeschichten (2003).

An interest in the history of iconic classical music scores formed the basis of many further works, beginning with a 2004 duet with Lorenzo De Brabandere, Sacre – The Rite of Spring. This was followed by Swan Lake, 4 Acts in 2005, Boléro Variations in 2007 (created for the Centre Pompidou, Paris/Festival d’Automne), and L’Après-midi, a solo for the dancer Emmanuel Eggermont which premiered at the 2008 Montpellier Danse festival. 2007 also saw the creation of 36, Avenue Georges Mandel, a solo for Hoghe based on the life and works of the singer Maria Callas, which was first presented in Seoul, and then during the Festival d’Avignon.

2009 heralded the creation of Sans-titre, a piece for the Congolese dancer-choreographer Faustin Linyekula. In 2010, Raimund Hoghe was commissioned by Montpellier Danse to create an homage to the late choreographer, Dominique Bagouet (former director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, and founder of the festival Montpellier Danse). This resulted in Si je meurs laissez le balcon ouvert, a group work contemplating loss and the art of saying farewell.

Pursuing his interest in Japanese theatre, Hoghe created Pas de Deux with Takashi Ueno in 2011. At the time of this publication, rehearsals were in progress for Cantatas, a performance for seven dancers and a soprano (Kerstin Pohle). This will be the first time Hoghe has worked with a singer (rather than dancers), having worked with actress Astrid Bas for Si je meurs laissez le balcon ouvert. The premiere of Cantatas is scheduled for November 2012 at Tanzhaus NRW in Düsseldorf, to coincide with the twentieth anniversary celebrations of his company.

Whilst in the earlier stages of his company, Hoghe tended to work only once with each performer, there are certain performers who feature in a number of his works, with whom he has established more longstanding collaborations. These began with Lorenzo De Brabandere, and continued with Ornella Balestra and Emmanuel Eggermont. More recently, Yutaka Takei and Takashi Ueno have also featured in multiple works.

In addition to his performance work, Hoghe has worked for television on projects such as Der Buckel (The Hunchback), an hour long self-portrait, created in 1997 for WDR (West German Radio and Television). In 2005, the short film Cartes Postales was made by Richard Copans, featuring Raimund Hoghe and Lorenzo De Brabandere (for ARTE).

Alongside the touring repertoire of the company, he has also created a number of site-specific one-off performances. These have featured text, site-specific performance and excerpts from previous works. On September 11^th 2010, Hoghe created Skyroom Project, performed at the French Institute, New York. In July the following year, he performed Montpellier, 4 Juillet 2011 outdoors in the Cour de L’Agora, as part of Montpellier Danse.

Raimund Hoghe was awarded the French Prix de la Critique in 2006 for Swan Lake, 4 Acts, and the title Dancer of the Year in 2008 by the magazine Ballet-Tanz. Developments such as these are demonstrative of the continually increasing exposure his work enjoys. He has been programmed throughout Europe, and in cities such as New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.