Heidi Aemisegger | Director

Born in Herisau, living in Bern. Co-founder and leader of öff öff productions. Dance training at the Academy of Performing Arts in Cambridge (Canada) and training in the arts of theater, dance and mime at the Comart school in Zurich. 1994–97 actor and performer in Steinbruch I und Steinbruch II and in Rupture of Karl’s Kühne Gassenschau.

Following this period she concentrated on dance and choreography. Further training in choreography with Rosemary Butcher, intensive workshops with Nigel Charnok, David Zambrano, and Milli Bitterli. 1997 saw the creation of öff öff’s first full-length production, Barbie goes Vegas. Since then Heidi has been responsible for the production and choreography of all of öff öff’s pieces, usually in collaboration with the dancers, for example with Jenni Arne in Twins ahead and Two2.

Her courage in creating oversize productions has resulted in her receiving important commissions, e.g. the production of the Swiss Day at the Hannover Expo, the open-air sequences at the opening of the Stade de Suisse, the production of the opening ceremony for the Paul Klee Center and the Swiss Day for the Zaragoza Expo. Her version of Séraphin by Wolfgang Rihm was invited to the Biennale in Venice and was the result of a co-production with the Contemporary Opera of Berlin.

In 2010, Heidi was invited to travel to Munich to work at the Bavarian State Opera alongside star director Calixto Bieito for his production of the opera Fidelio. The elaborate and ingeniously constructed sets for this production were designed by Rebecca Ringst, one of the most sought-after stage designers today. The challenges of staging an opera in such a complex structure—a sort of vertical labyrinth—required the know-how and conceptual talents of a specialist: someone used to working fully in all three dimensions. It was thus only natural that Calixto would invite Heidi to join his production team.his production team.

Heidi is a guest lecturer for the Dance Studies program at the University of Bern and served for seven years (2002-09) as a member of the Theater and Dance Commission of the Canton of Bern.