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Helmut Ploebst

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Helmut Ploebst has been writing about dance since 1993. Based in Vienna, he started out as art and literature critic in the monthly magazine Wiener Journal in 1986. He also worked as editor for the weekly culture supplement of the daily paper Die Presse during the first half of the 90s. Since 1996, he has been writing as a free-lance dance critic for numerous newspapers and specialised media in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, such as Frankfurter Rundschau, Stuttgarter Zeitung, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Falter, Salzburger Nachrichten, Der Standard, kulturrisse, Ballettanz, tanz affiche, Ballett Journal-Das Tanzarchiv, Tanzdrama, Tanz der Dinge, Theater der Zeit etcetera.

For Sarma, he provides a special selection of his writings for diverse journalistic media since the mid-90s, supplemented by essayistic work, in order to create an image of his critical writing through its diversity.

Biography

Helmut Ploebst (Austria, 1961) absolved his studies in communications and art history at the University of Vienna in 1989 with a PhD thesis analyzing art ideology in Vienna between 1918 and 1938. He experimented as a practitioner in visual arts and literature and decided to become writer in media communicating insights, analysis and art criticism. After his experiences in the monthly literature magazine Wiener Journal and the newspaper Die Presse, he extended his activities on an international level, became Austrian correspondent for the magazines Ballettanz and Tanzdrama, and has been publishing about dance and performance in various specialised media. As a guest curator he worked for dietheater wien and the festival Im Puls Tanz. In 2001 he published the book No wind no word. New Choreography in the Society of Spectacle.

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• Read Helmut Ploebst's poetics: Writing about dance performance