Rainer Behr

was born in Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Germany in 1964 and studied dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts after completing an apprenticeship as a gymnastics teacher. From 1990 to 1995 he danced at the Folkwang Tanzstudio in Essen, working with Susanne Linke, Raffaella Giordano, Urs Dietrich and Mark Sieczkarek, as well as performing as a guest dancer with the Tanztheater Wuppertal. In 1995, Pina Bausch invited him to become a permanent member of the ensemble.

Rainer Behr has been choreographing since 1989. For “Die Wendung der Dinge” (The Change of Things) he was awarded the first prize at the choreographic competition in Cagliari, Italy. In 1990, he received the Claasen Dance Award. He choreographed four pieces for the Folkwang Tanzstudio in Essen, including “Rote Rose”, “Solo”, “Einsames Königreich” (Lonely Kingdom) and “ButterflyRiverMountainSun-Moon”. In 2004, he created and performed in „Der eiserne Pudel” (The Iron Poodle) for the International Dance Festival NRW – Three weeks with Pina Bausch.

He has also created several works for the Tanztheater Wuppertal’s UNDERGROUND series and has worked as a guest choreographer for the Theater Bielefeld. He was part of the team of choreographers for “Encounters” in 2020 and premiered “Schlafende Frau”, his first full-length piece for the Tanztheater, at the Wuppertal Opera House in March 2021. Also in 2021, he presented a piece at the Staatstheater Braunschweig as part of the evening “All you need is less”, and later a choreography for the Osnabrück Theatre.

In 2023, he developed the piece “VONA” with dancers from Ukraine, which later went on tour. In 2024, he created the choreography “When wormwood blooms” for the theatre Les Kurbas in Lviv, Ukraine.