Chris Leuenberger studied acting at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (USA) and dance and choreography at the School for New Dance Development (NL). Based in Bern as a freelance choreographer and performer, he collaborates with different artists in various contexts and constellations, keeps developing his own work and performs for others.
His piece WHITE HORSE – AN ATTEMPT AT LIVE THERAPY won the ITS Choreography Award 2007 and marked the beginning of an ongoing interest in framing therapeutic approaches to the body in set choreography.
In 2007 Chris founded the collective White Horse together with Lea Martini and Julia Jadkowski. After their debut piece TRIP (2008) they made ROMANCE (2009), TRIP EN MASSE (2010), GROUPIES and TOGETHER (2011). The work of White Horse deals with social phenomena of togetherness as depicted in the mass media and has been widely shown in venues and festivals in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. TRIP and TRIP EN MASSE were invited to China, Kenya and South America. TRIP EN MASSE won the Swan for best Dutch dance production in 2010.
Also in 2010 Chris was the recipient of the Network Culture Prize for his solo MASCULINITY and was nominated for the ZHK Förderpreis with the piece ENTER MY BUBBLE (created in collaboration with Katy Hernan) at the Zürcher Theaterspektakel.
KREUTZBERG, a collaboration with author and theater director Marcel Schwald, was awarded with the Schweizer Kulturpreis `Tanzerbe Schweiz` in 2014 and opened the season 2015/16 at Dampfzentrale Bern. The second Schwald/Leuenberger production EF_FEMININITY was invited to Theater Festival Impulse in Düsseldorf and was showcased as part of the Sélection Suisse in Avignon in 2019.
Besides his dance projects Chris has taught yoga at Open Yoga and Yogamarket in Bern as well as co-organized and taught on retreats in Switzerland and internationally. His yoga practice and fascination for pranayama have significantly influenced his artistic work. In the group pieces SOPLO DE VIDA, TANZLIED and DAS RITUAL, in his solo works MASCULINITY and ORGANISATION as well as in the video series BREATH PORTRAITS the choreographic potential of breath plays a crucial role.
As a dancer Chris has performed in works by Jenny Beyer, Aitana Cordero, Cosima Grand, Lowtech Magic, Tino Sehgal and Dick Wong among others.
CHRIS LEUENBERGER PRODUCTIONS 