Photo credit: Matthias Popp
Isaac Spencer, born 1982 in Massachusetts, U.S.A., is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer living in Frankfurt am Main. He started dancing at age 9 with Joan Sheary and graduated as ballet major from Walnut Hill School for the Arts in 2000. He moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and Lawrence Rhodes. He was the recipient of the Princess Grace Award in 2003, and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004. He then joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago under the direction of Jim Vincent. Dance Magazine named him one of the “25 to Watch” in 2006. That year he moved to Stockholm to join Cullberg Ballet under the direction of Johan Inger, then Anna Grip, where he held a permanent contract. After freelancing in Berlin he was invited to dance with GöteborgsOperans Danskompani led by Adolphe Binder for the season 2013/14. Since then, Isaac was an independent dance artist in Dresden and continues to dance and perform in his own productions and with others. He is on the artistic panel of MARC artistic research center in Sweden and a member of the Villa Wigman für TANZ e.V. in Dresden. As of September 2021, he is acting professor for ballet techniques at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
Isaac is a teacher, mentor, and rehearsal director and currently acting professor for ballet techniques at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. He has frequently worked at SEAD in Salzburg, teaching ballet, mentoring, and staging repertoire. He teaches for companies, gives professional training in ballet and contemporary, and leads workshops. He co-authored the publication “Mentorship Toolbox” following the 3 part “Think Tank on Mentorship” initiated by SITE in Stockholm and MARC in Skåne in 2018/19. In fall 2019 he was rehearsal director for the production “Human after all” by Olga Tsvetkova, and in 2020 for the production “Our House Is On Fire” by Nicole Beutler at Norrdans in Sweden. Isaac has been an invited guest teacher and lecturer of dance in the disciplines of ballet, contemporary, improvisation, and composition at:
Isaac has staged works by Johan Inger, Benôit Lachambre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and worked as rehearsal director and co-choreographer for the production “Intergalactic Underwater Palace” by Sebastian Matthias at Cullberg Ballet/ Riksteatern Sweden in 2015.
Besides collaborating with others as dancer and performer, Isaac initiates his own productions. In 2017 he created the solo “the heart of the matter” as part of the Tanzfonds Erbe project “Bautzner Strasse 107, PAST PRESENT FUTURE” initiated by the Villa Wigman für TANZ e.V. in Dresden. The solo was built around translations of movement principles from Mary Wigman. That year he also created “BLEIB SAUBER”, a performative installation in public space about crystal meth addiction. In 2018, he created “MESH” for the exhibition “Bauhaus und Amerika” at the LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster. In 2020 he conducted research together with visual artist Franz Ehrenberg as part of TANZPAKT Dresden. In 2021 he conducted the research project “Expanding Inclusion in Contemporary Dance” as part of #takecare residencies at Hellerau European Centre for the Arts. His project “GOING VIRAL: strategising and producing artistic content for social media” was funded by DIS-TANZ-SOLO in 2021.