Marthe Krummenacher

Marthe Krummenacher
© BAK/Gregory Batardon

Marthe Krummenacher

Outstanding Female Dancer 2017

Marthe Krummenacher was born in Southfield, Michigan in 1981, and attended the École de Danse – Ballet Junior in Geneva from 1992 to 2000, graduating in classical and contemporary dance. She then joined the NDT2 young talent group of the Nederlands Dans Theater in Den Haag under Jiří Kylián, where she remained until 2003, dancing in works by Kylián, Paul Lightfoot, Hans van Manen and others. From 2004 to 2007 she was a member of the Forsythe Company under William Forsythe in Frankfurt. Now back in Geneva, she has since worked as a freelance dancer on various projects with Noemi Lapzeson, Cindy van Acker, Pierre Pontvianne, Perrine Valli and others. She also teaches improvisation at the École de Danse in Geneva.

After a number of years dancing in companies, Marthe Krummenacher became increasingly interested in artistic creation. She studied the Japanese martial art of budō, focusing in particular on the relationship between body and spirit – reflections that have since flowed into her artistic work. In 2010, together with Raphaële Teicher, she devised “RA de MA ré”, which deals with the relationship between emotion and reason. The two dancers’ bodies constantly move so close together that they almost merge into a single, larger body. In “Pousser les bords du monde” (2012), the duo return to the theme of physicality: their bodies are stripped of their verticality, new postures are tried out, transformed again and again into new movement sequences, and so redefined. Marthe Krummenacher also constantly engages with her role as a dancer, most recently in “Laissez-moi danser” (2013) with Perrine Valli and Tamara Bacci. Her works frequently confront the audience with the meaning and attributions of the body, which she critically interrogates and attempts to redefine.

Brigitta Luisa Merki, jury member:
“Marthe Krummenacher is this wonderful dancer, remarkable for the extraordinary sensitivity and naturalness with which she expresses herself through dance, and her stupendous technique. Her every gesture is believable. Her interpretations are poetry, passion, beauty and virtuosity combined. Following her time at the Nederlands Dans Theater and with William Forsythe, her multi-faceted approach to dance brought her back to the Swiss dance scene, which she greatly enriches with her enthusiastic engagement. Her natural gift and artistic courage have been most eloquently described by Alexandre Demidoff, who said: Marthe Krummenacher is a dancing reed, defying the darkness.”