Ruth Meyer

Ruth Meyer was born in Hamburg, Germany and educated in the USA. She
studied Modern dance at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary
Dance in New York, dance technique, composition and music at
Bennington College ,Vermont and has an Art History degree from
Columbia University School of General Studies, New York.

After performing in several dance companies in New York, Ruth Meyer
moved to Amsterdam, Holland where she joined the dance company of
Koert Stuyf and became a staff member of the Theatre School in
Amsterdam, teaching Mime students and modern dancers. In 1979 she
started her own company; Ruth Meyer Dance Co. This company produced
numerous dance performances between 1979 and 1988 and was
subsidized by the Dutch Ministry of Culture, The Prins Bernhard
Foundation and the City of Amsterdam.
Her speciality became multi-media location performances. Ruth Meyer
was active both as a choreographer and a set designer and developed
"environments" for her own productions, including moving objects and
sets for the Holland Festival production "Vertigo". Her production
"Zenith" was performed on a large dune in the north of Holland. This
piece was a collaboration between several choreographers with an
international cast of 25 dancers. It was performed all summer in
1985 and received rave reviews.
The Dutch film maker Frans Zwartjes made a film impression based on
"Zenith".
This 45 minute film "Charon" had its première at the Rotterdam Film
Festival of 1986 and was broadcast on the Dutch Tv Art Chanel.

In 1988 another large scale production "Duna" was produced by Ruth
Meyer & Company on a huge sandhill in Ashdod, Israël; in coproduction
with the Israël Festival, Jerusalem. Part of this performance was
broadcast by Israël Tv.

FILMOGRAPHY

In 1989 Ruth Meyer took part in the Scenario Workshop of the IDFA
Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Her documentary "Birds of a
feather" was produced by NOS Tv after the IDFA jury gave the script
a special recommandation. This film is a family portret of a
choreographers and dancers family Stuyf. The film (50 min) was broadcast
in april 1990.

Ruth Meyer's next film "Madeleine, portret of a voice teacher" was
broadcast by the NPS television and recently shown at the IDFA film
festival in december 2000. It was both written and directed by Ruth Meyer.

In september 2000, the short dance film "Breathcrystal"
(Atemkristall) 12 min. was premiered in 35mm blow-up version at the
Utrecht Film Festival. This film is a visualization of the poem
"Weggebeizt" by Paul Celan. "Breathcrystal" was filmed on a
beautiful glacier in Switzerland. The film commemorates those who
died during the Holocaust. The glacier is transformed into an
"environment" including glass art, music, dance and the poem
(written and directed by Ruth Meyer).

Ruth Meyer is currently preparing several scripts including a new
dance film, a documentary, an animation feature film, a thriller and
several short animation films in collaboration with artist and illustrator
Thomas Colthof. The animation short "Shoestory" will go in production
in January 2001.

Ruth Meyer works and lives in Amsterdam. She is a member of the
Dutch Directors Guild, Diva (documentary makers) and LIRA.

Works of Ruth Meyer: