Mirjam Gurtner studied dance at the Theater Basel, the Vienna State Opera, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Trinity Laban London. In collaboration with her company, she produces her own works in Germany and Switzerland, which tour internationally. In 2021 she was awarded the June Johnson Newcomer Prize at the Swiss Performing Arts Awards.
Her artistic practice is concerned with improvisation, real-time composition and the correlation between sensory perception and physicality. In interdisciplinary collaborations she explores the relationship between audience and moving body in different spatial contexts and stages her work in theatres, museums and public spaces. Mirjam teaches improvisation and inclusive dance and leads international inclusive and intercultural dance projects.
Her latest series of works "PLAY" (2020-2023) premiered at the KINDL Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin and at the ROXY Theatre in Birsfelden. Since then, "PLAY" has been shown at 48-Stunden-Neukölln, on a national tour of Tanzfest Schweiz, at the Performing Arts Festival Berlin, and as a long-term performance at Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal and FASONO Art Space Berlin. In 2023 he created the site-specific performance "GESTALTEN" for the inclusive Forward Dance Company of the LOFFT Theater Leipzig at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig, followed by "OPENING" for the opening of the Kunstfest Weimar in 2024. Earlier works include the inclusive work ALMOST HOME, which will premiere at the STEPS dance festival in Zurich and Geneva in 2022, and SKINNED, which will be presented at the Sophiensaele Berlin, Theater ROXY Birsfelden, 48-Stunden-Neukölln, Novosibirsk Centre for Visual Arts and the Chapelle du Quartier Haut in Sète.