Bettina Holzhausen trained in ballet and contemporary and modern dance in Zürich and London to earn her nationally certified diploma in dance education (SBTG). She went on to obtain further training in Berlin, Paris and New York. She studied literature and pedagogics at the University of Zurich (1989-92) and made her Masters at the University of Leeds/UK in Theatre and Development (2004/05).
Her numbered engagements as a dancer were followed by the 1992 grounding of her own company, n'est-ce pas. Bettina Holzhausen has created seven evening-filling productions along with a series of shorter pieces and also a video-dance-film with her company. It continues to tour in its native Switzerland as well as in farther reaches of Europe.
She created choreographies for Olga Zitluhina Dance Company Riga (2002), Attakkalari Centre Bangalore in Indien (2003), Companhia Nacional de Canto e Dança CNCD in Mosambik (03 & 04) and Leipziger Tanztheater (2007).
She herself has led production for a number of collective projects. Noteworthy among these is the “European Travelling Project”, which from 1999 - 2001 linked choreographers from five European countries to create European Travelling Project 1999-2001: Postcards to the 21st Century together with Fiona Millward (UK), Olga Zitluhina (LV), Rossen Mihailov (BU) und Zoltan Nagy (HU).
Under the direction of Meg Stuart / Damaged Goods at Schauspielhaus Zürich, Bettina Holzhausen assisted the production of ALIBI (2001).
Bettina Holzhausen teaches both lay dancers and professionals. In Switzerland she has taught among other places at Winterthur’s Tanzhof Akademie. Her classes in Zurich have taken place at public schools; at the Zurich Tanz Theater Schule; and at Tanzhaus Zurich. She was lecturing and holding workshops at the University of Buenos Aires and Cordoba/Argentina, the National Balletschool and Ballet Arabesque in Sofia/Bulgaria, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore/India, the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds/UK and various institutions in Maputo/Mosambique in particular company classes for the Companhia Nacional de Canto e Dança CNCD. In collaboration with CNCD she held a capacity building workshop for traditional dancers and musicians of the northern provinces of Mozambique. In 2007 she was again invited as guest lecturer at IUNA (University of Buenos Aires) and taught also workshops in the provinces Jujuy and Catamarca / Argentina.
Since 1999 she is regularly teaching as a guest lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga.
For the season 1999/2000 Bettina Holzhausen was artistic director and head of administration of Tanzhaus Zurich. She is artistic co-director and project manager of stromereien Performance Festival Zurich 01 / 03 / 05 and 07. The next edition, stromereien 09, will take place beginning of August 2009. She is responsible for the national organisation and the coordination in Zurich of an event related to the International Dance Day 2006, 2007 and 2008 (www.dansetanzdanza.ch) and has worked 2008 as press and PR manager at Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zurich.
She is responsible for the national organisation and the coordination in Zurich of an event for the International Dance Day 2006 and 2007 (www.tag-des-tanzes-zh.ch & www.dansetanzdanza.ch).
Based on fieldwork in Mosambique 2006 she wrote a research for the Swiss Development Cooperation about the situation of youth and youth culture in rural Mozambique.
Awards:
- Dance award of the city of Zurich in 1995
Grants:
- Grant for choreography of SSA Societé Suisse des Auteurs 1995
- Participation at ADF American Dance Festival, ICR international choreographer's residency program in 1997 (www.americandancefestival.org)
- Grant of Bogliasco Foundation New York 1997, residency at the Liguria Study Center Bogliasco/Italy (www.liguriastudycenter.org)
- Artists residency in Bangalore/India through Gaesteatelier Krone Aarau (www.artists-in-residence.ch)
Travelogues:
