Ian Kaler studied Transmedial Arts in Vienna and graduated from the pilot study programme Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography at the higher educational Centre for Dance at the College of Fine Arts, Berlin (Universität der Künste Berlin). Since 2010 he develops his physical and creative practice in choreographic series in exchange with different artists through different (visual) media.
Since 2015 Kaler develops the choreografic series o.T. (german acronym for “untitled”).
The first part of this series, o.T. | (the emotionality of the jaw), premiered at Halle G / Tanzquartier Vienna in February 2015. The piece is the first collaboration with Jam Rostron aka Planningtorock. Planningtorock invited the percussionist Houwaida Hedfi for this production who performs live with Kaler and Rostron.
The second piece – o.T. | (gateways to movement) – with Kaler, Rostron and the choreographer Philipp Gehmacher as a guest-performer, premiered at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival in July 2015 and was presented a.o. at the German Tanzplattform in Frankfurt LAB in March 2016 and the Bienal de Danza Cali in Colombia in 2017.
The third part of the series o.T. – (Incipient Futures), had its world-premiere in November 2016 at Tanzquartier Vienna, was presented in December 2016 at HAU2 in Berlin and was on tour a.o. in Helsinki and Mexico in 2017. As a new guest-performer the dancer and fashion designer Stéphane Peeps Moun joined Kaler and Rostron, as well as a new drummer Joy Leah Joseph.
A special format within the o.T. Series is RAW PRACTICE. The building blocks of this new format are the core elements from the first, second and third part of the series. In a structured and improvised jam-session Kaler and Planningtorock uncover their shared practice and further develop it in an intimate dialogue that communicates between different media and languages. RAW PRACTICE had its Austrian Premiere at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival in 2019.
Ian Kaler has premiered the piece LIVFE – the first of a new series of works that combine movement with (spoken) language, live-music and live-video – at Akademietheater in the frame of ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival in August 2017. LIVFE was presented in a newly edited version at HAU1 in Berlin in April 2018.
The group piece ON THE CUSP Ian Kaler's first choreography for 16 dancers of the Swedish Cullbergbaletten premiered in January 2019 in Tanzquartier Vienna and was on tour in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands in 2019.
Parallel Kaler has been working as choreographic director with Planningtorock on their musical show Powerhouse – the show premiered at the Berlin Club Berghain in May 2019, a solo-version was presented at Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre in London in July 2019.
From January – March 2020 Kaler was granted a research stipend by Senat Berlin to continue his studies with acting coach Brad Calcaterra at THE STUDIO in New York.
In September 2020 Kaler had a residency at Le Studio Film und Bühne in Vienna and together with set-designer Nanna Neudeck built The Kid, a marionette, for the shortmovie GRAFTING SELF that he will realise in 2021. The residency was followed by a work-in progress presentation of INOSCULATION, a lecture performance / video-documentation of the process in the beginning of October 2020.
Ian Kaler develops workshops as research-formats analogue to his choreographic series, so far for ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, Tanzquartier Vienna, PACT Zollverein Essen, DOCH School for Dance and Circus Stockholm, as well as for the Escuela Profesional de Danza in Mazatlán and the University of Sonora in Mexico. Besides giving workshops for professional dancers with mixed abilities he also transmits his practice in workshops for practitioners from backgrounds other than dance.
In 2020 he was teaching online workshops that focus on creative adaptations and applications of choreography in relation to the new modalities of living and working due to COVID, so far for the set design department at University for Applied Arts Vienna, Austria and the department for Visual Communication at University Kassel, Germany.
11.04.2021
