I studied cultural science and fine art in Berlin and Moskau, and aerial arts and performance with Mike Wright, Orit Nevo, Mimbre, Gabriel Chame, Elias Cohen, and Minako Seki. I create and produce aerial theater and narrative circus, mainly producing performances for public space. As a creator and researcher I am searching for a circus of the future.

My artistic style is rooted both in Czech experimental theater with its strong tradition of object theater and in Moscow Romantic Conceptualism. My subjective look as a woman onto the world as well as my feminist background have a strong influence on my artistic productions.

I am artistic director of the Aerial Arts Festival Berlin, co-founder of the RAW cultural space (Berlin), and active in the Magdalena Project. I am first chair of the Federal Association for Theater in Public Space in Germany.
I live and work within the collective korb+stiefel in Eastern Berlin.

>> About Jana Korb

>> Artistic director: Aerial Arts Festival Berlin
>> Research: Women in circus
>> Network: Magdalena Project
>> Lobbying: Theater in public spaces & contemporary circus
>> Teaching: Aerial arts and more

Contemporary aerial arts are "high" art in every sense of the word.
2016 we had our first meeting of international renowned aerial artists, vertical dancers, and trapezists – to perform and present their work, to teach, and to network in Berlin.

The Association for Overcoming Gravity (Verein zur Überwindung der Schwerkraft) started the Aerial Arts Festival Berlin with artistic directors Jana Korb und Daniel Megnet (now Jana Korb and Jessie Walters), to be repeated annualy.

Partners are Maulhelden Büro, Institut Français, Berliner Senat, and others. Patron is Arnulf Rating.

>> further information

"To imagine her as wife and mother was simply stupid; a wife and mother, or even anyone who could possibly be
thought of as one, does not hang head-down from a trapeze[...] An unapproachable Amazon of the realms of space beneath the canvas, high above the crowd, whose lust for her was transformed into aw."
Thomas Mann in Felix Krull (1909)

This quote lists the only roles attributed to us women. This being a paternalistic, objectifying reduction is obvious – there is still a lot of enlightenment to do. Circus women, acrobats and other performers, are the best example to show the wide range of femininities, androgynities, and other identities of women. I love researching this, I love finding forgotten women, to bring them to life, and to show their fantastic stories to the world.

Publications, exhibitions, lecture performances and more

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International network of women in contemporary theatre

The Magdalena Project is a dynamic cross-cultural network of women’s theatre and performance, facilitating critical discussion, support and training. It is a nexus for diverse performance groups and individuals whose common interest lies in a commitment to ensuring the visibility of women’s artistic endeavour.

Jana Korb has been active in the Magdalena Project since 2013, partaking in meetings and festivals. She is working with initiatives to bring the project to Germany. At the moment there are Magdalena groups in Munich, Frankfurt/Main, Wuppertal, and Berlin.

>> Magdalena Project – international network
>> Magdalena München – festival curated by Helen Varley Jamieson
>> Internationales Frauen Theater Festival – an affiliated festival in Frankfurt/Main

Justifying and explaining to be proper art – a situation both genres of the performing arts have in common. Both art forms are creating with precarious conditions (e.g. little public funding), but both attract a huge and wide audience of all classes.

Jana Korb is at home in both art forms – creating contemporary circus for public spaces. Thus she is lobbying for both by networking, working in associations, and producing festivals.

>> Federal Association for Theater in Public Spaces
>> Federal Association of Contemporary Circus

Ongoing classes in Berlin:
- Trapeze
- Silks

Workshops:
- Creation in confined space (for aerial artists and performers)
- Aerial arts for advanced students and beginners (trapeze, silks, hoop...)
- Rigging basics and safety in aerials

>> further information