Gabriele Gierz

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Certified Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA)

About Me

By the time I was 20, I knew I wanted to dance. Not ballet—that was over long before it even began. Instead, I wanted expression that felt authentic from within, not a form dictated from the outside. This realization shaped my path—and it continues to influence how I work to this day.

For over 30 years, I have been choreographing, teaching, researching, and writing—with people in very different stages of life. My training took me from Vienna to Freiburg and The Ohio State University, and finally to Hamburg, where I have lived and worked for many years. My work operates at the thresholds: between improvisation, dance technique, and expression; between art and research; between what aging might mean—and what dance can actually achieve.

What drives me is a simple conviction: If we want to change the world for the better, we must start with ourselves. And with our bodies and our emotions. Dance connects both. The body knows what the mind cannot yet name. Movement makes visible what cannot be shown in any other way. And in this space in between—between feeling and understanding—change begins.

I create spaces where people can follow their longings. Where they discover the unique, unmistakable potential waiting within them. This happens through the art of dance, through engaging with the body—and through the permission to take oneself seriously.

I have a particular interest in dance in old age. Not because old age is a problem that needs to be solved. But because older bodies on stage reveal something that younger ones have not yet experienced: the beauty of a life lived, the precision of the essential, the appreciation of the small, and the freedom beyond the norm. With the My Ways & Guests Ensemble—dancers between the ages of 62 and 82—I have been showcasing this on stage since 2008.

I am a choreographer, dance educator, mentor, researcher, and author. Certified Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst. Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University. Co-founder of fokus!tanzperformance e.V. And someone who is convinced: There is an artistic streak in every person—if the space is right.

What matters to me in this process is dedication—the willingness to stay true to one’s own path, even when it is arduous. And an open heart: the conviction that even in difficult moments, something awaits that only reveals itself when one does not shy away. This attitude can be interpreted as spiritual—or, viewed quite pragmatically: responsible.
For to me, responsibility means: to respond. To what is there. With what I have. And with what I am!