Vis à Vis Tanztheater
Anneliese Monika Koch
Vis à Vis Tanztheater
Founded by Anneliese Monika Koch, is a community of artists who share the vision that dance theatre is a space for healing and transformation.
Evolving out of the tradition of European dance theatre, our work goes beyond the boundaries of dance production, exploring expressive dance as a path toward inter-arts research and education.
Dance theatre is an attempt to find ourselves - our shared expression beyond culture and language - a space for building community beyond cultural and linguistic boundaries.
Whether in the gallery theatre, studio, or classroom we are concerned with the movement of a person from within. Movement, as an authentic expression, becomes a transition from the everyday world into the inner world - where an unseen force moves us forward.
Life does not repeat itself; it calls for our full presence, a readiness for the unknown in every fleeting moment, like a child deeply absorbed in play. As we move, we search for what lies beneath, an attempt to discover ourselves, the source of our pain and our joy, our hope, our space and our yearning for harmony.
"We must remain open, ready to begin a new life, to grow organically, and to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary."
Selected Works
Biography
Anneliese Monika Koch
After studies of Literature at the University of Bremen she trained at the London Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In London, she met the expressionist dancer Hilde Holger, an expressionist Dancer originally from Vienna who fled Austria in 1938 and taught in London until 2001. Monika developed a deep artistic relationship with Hilde Holger, working as both student and performer, and Hilde's creative and healing approach to expressive movement deeply influenced her work.
Other influences come form performance research with theatre director Anatole Vassiliev in Moscow.
Rooted in Modern European Dance Theatre, her practice encompasses art-performance, research, and pedagogy. She has taught widely, including a lectureship in the MA programme in European Dance Theatre Practice at Trinity Laban, London (2001–2002), leading an Expressive Dance in Education programme at the University of Vienna (2015–2021), and directed a postgraduate training course in Expressive Movement Practice at St. Virgil, Salzburg (2017).
As Director of Vis à Vis Tanztheater, Monika has led annual Performance Laboratories for emerging artists from Eastern Europe, the UK, and Austria (2007–2018), and Art Performance Residencies in galleries and other locations. Another important part of their work is Untersberg Community (since 2013) supporting children living in care homes through dance theatre practice. Here, Monika combines dance, movement, and play in a holistic approach to arts education, offering seminars, creative projects, and professional development courses in the Holistic Art of Movement Practice.
"I see teaching as equally important and creative as my own artistic practice. I love guiding students as they discover themselves and develop their talents through engaging in a lively, creative dialogue with them. In this shared journey, I learn and grow alongside my students. It is more than technique; it all begins with play, an adventure of discovery where movements emerge naturally from curiosity and joy. To be able to move is to be able to improvise."