Schönbein, Ilka (1958)

Ilka Schönbein comes from Darmstadt in Germany. She was trained in eurhythmic dancing by Rudolph Steiner, for whom dance is more about expressing the soul in movement than about effort and technique. She then studied with the puppeteer Albrecht Roser in Stuttgart. After her studies, she worked for about ten years with other companies, before taking to the road with her own shows after creating the Theater Meschugge. « Métamorphoses », the first show which brought her to a wider audience, was originally a street show, and for spectators of all types. While she never stopped performing in the street, she agreed to adapt this show for the theatre. With « Le Roi Grenouille » (The Frog King) in 1998 Ilka returned to creating and performing for a young audience. This show has also had several versions. In 2003, she created « Voyage d'Hiver » (Winter Journey) inspired by Franz Schubert and Wilhelm Müller, then in 2006 « Chair de ma Chair » (Flesh of my Flesh) - based on Agaya Veteranyi texts. François Grosjean describes her artistic work in this way : " Her universe is visual and her language multiple and complex. She starts off with objects (masks, puppets, stage systems). Then, from these elements, Ilka constructs her production, and around these objects gravitate movement, music and words. There is a wonderful rapport with her puppets as Ilka is without doubt an artist who can give life to objects and also become her own puppet who embodies the thousand faces of life with powerful emotional magic ".