Jared Gradinger is an interdisciplinary artist working in the fields of performance, dance, social art and Nature. Since moving to Berlin in 2002, he has been fostering long term collaborations and unique artistic practices, connecting community, creativity and Nature; exploring different forms of co-existence. What can we do together that we cannot do alone?

Since 2013, he has been developing a co-creative, artistic relationship with Nature taking the forms of gardens, dance pieces, workshops, lectures, music and other social/artistic practices. He shares his work with Nature and art with adults and kids; working in collaboration with Theatre o.N., Ponderosa and other international programs. In 2016, he created the ‘Impossible Forest’ in the Uferstudios as a part of Tanznacht Berlin. This 240 square meter garden is a social choreography and permanent installation; a meditation on blossoming and decay, a space of performance and a classroom intended to bring a variety of lifeforms together. 

This long term project partly inspired him and Angela Schubot to create their latest cycle of work ‘The Nature of Us’. Out of their deep encounters with the plant kingdom, Gradinger and Schubot, with 9 plant beings, created ‘YEW’ (2018); a posthuman, soil-less garden for the stage. In ‘YEW: outside’ (2018), the work was adapted to an outdoor setting and performed in Blankenfelde-Pankow Botanical Park. In this adaptation, much more than in the stage version, both artists succeeded in developing something really new; namely, to artistically convey a new understanding of ecology. ’The Nature of Us’ (2019), is their first group piece where they invited 5 performers and 10 plants beings to create their own ecology on the stage. Their most recent work ‘The opposite of a shadowland’, was created for Immersion Festival at Martin Gropius Bau,  where they ‘danced’ a regenerative garden of native bulbs and seeds into existence. Since 2017, they have been ‘co-creating’ performances with Nature. These works are a sensitive plea for the dissolution of the human-nature dichotomy and an attempt of a hierarchy-free co-existence through real encounters and radical experimentation. With their previous works "What they are instead of", "is maybe" and "Les Petites Morts: All my holes are theirs & I hope you die soon”, they have celebrated much international success. Thematically, the works deal with an unconditional co-existence and dissolution of the self/body and its borders, characterized by an extreme physical language of movement and artistic handwriting. Their work continues to be presented internationally in the form of performance, workshops, installations and retrospectives. 

In 2014, he helped to develop the Social Muscle Club; a group of artists and non artists, using art as a tool to challenge the current paradigm of habitual thinking and doing. This project/club has since been developed in Basel, Bristol, Vienna and is continuing to be produced and tour around the world. In 2008, he was curated a series of festivals in Bordeaux with Les Grandes Traversees. ‘How Do You Are was a three part festival dedicated to the topic of community, focusing on the Berlin dance/art scene. In 2006, he began working with Pictoplasma (contemporary character design),  where he created numerous ‘character interventions’ as well as two full length stage pieces in the Haus Der Berliner and Volksbühne Berlin. He originally moved to Berlin to work with Constanza Macras and subsequently helped found the company Dorky Park and as well created over 8 major works, all of which toured throughout the world. In 2011, he was awarded best male dancer by Tanzmagazine. 

He has an ongoing work relationships with Meg Stuart, Sigal Zouk, Stefan Rusconi, Shelley Etkin, Goethe Institut Colombia, HAU, Sophiensaele and Uferstudios. He has worked with William Forsythe, Aleesa Cohene, Leyland Kirby, Mark Jenkins, Jeremy Wade, Liz Rosenfeld, Silke Bake, Laurie Young and others. He is a certified Quantum Healing Hypnosis Practitioner (QHHT). 

He is deeply inspired by the work of Machaelle Small Wright, Susan Raven and Rudolf Steiner. Jared continues to perform and teach and offers mentoring to artists, groups and students.