Martin Stiefermann received his dance training at the Hamburg State Opera Ballet School. This was followed by his first engagement as a dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, where he was an ensemble member for five years. During this time he created his first choreographic works. He attended workshops by Carlos Orta, Steve Paxton, Reginé Chopinot, Steven Petronio and others, and sat in on rehearsals by Johann Kresnik, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Maurice Béjart and Merce Cunningham.
From 1992-95 he worked as a freelance choreographer, among others in Vienna, Dresden, Basel, Berlin and at Kampnagel in Hamburg. He gained experience in choreographic collaborations in theater and musical theater with directors such as Jossi Wieler, Kirsten Harms, Lore Stefanek and Andrzej Woran. In 1992 he received a choreographer’s grant from the international Tanzwochen Wien [ImPulsTanz Festival]. From 1995-97 Martin Stiefermann was director and choreographer at the Theater Kiel. During these years he created five full-length choreographies and developed the mediation format TANZ Xtra.
In 1998 he founded the independent dance-performance group MS Schrittmacher in Berlin. Since then, more than forty productions have been created. From 2001 to 2006, Martin Stiefermann was simultaneously director of the dance division at the Oldenburg State Theater and head of his group MS Schrittmacher. During this time he installed a unique model of cooperation between the two institutions and was twice festival director of the Oldenburg International Dance Days (2003+2005).
Since 2007 Martin Stiefermann has been back in Berlin full-time as a freelance choreographer and director of MS Schrittmacher, but is also active as a guest choreographer/director in Konstanz, Halle, Braunschweig, Lübeck, Bremerhaven, Saarbrücken, Budapest and Sofia, among others. His repertoire now includes over 80 mostly full-length choreographies and stage directions. In 2008, together with Efrat Stempler, he developed the label LESS MESS in Berlin – until 2012. A conceptual office for artists, marketing and interactive dance and theater formats. From 2018 to 2021, Martin Stiefermann directed the residency program at Schloss Bröllin. He represented schloss bröllin e.V. at the Working Group of German International Residencies, the National Performance Network and Res artis. Since 2018 Martin Stiefermann is in the management team of Vorpommern tanzt an – movin bröllin (today Mecklenburg – Vorpommern tanzt an) a TANZPAKT – Stadt-Land-Bund project.
Since 2019 he is artistic partner of the label Art Hacking® (transfer of artistic processes to business issues).
From 2019 – 2021 he was Artistic Partner in the research project AL-Pro (Arts-based Learning of Soft Skills in Project Management of Events) with Beuth University and HTW – Berlin.
Stiefermann is active as a mentor for the PEER TO PEER Academy (LAFT e.V. Lower Saxony), the support program Young Artist-Flausen im Kopf and the residency program at Schloss Bröllin. He took on various teaching positions in the field of dance studies and theater studies, including at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Bern.
He is a founding member of ZTB e.V. (Zeitgenösschischer Tanz Berlin), and a member of LAFT e.V. (Landesverband freie darstellen Künste-Berlin), where he served on the board from 2014-2018. He was a member of the Bundesdeutsche Ballett- und Tanztheaterdirektor*innen-Konferenz (BBTK) from 2001 – 2006. He has been a member of schloss bröllin e.V. since 2015 and a board member of Tanzregion Vorpommern e.V. (now Tanzregion Mecklenburg – Vorpommern e. V.) since 2018.
Stiefermann has been a speaker at numerous panels, panel discussions, search commissions and working meetings: Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Tanzkongress and Tanzfonds Erbe), Republica Berlin, Flausen – Bundeskongress, Branchentreff-Berlin, Tanznacht Berlin, Tanz im August, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Ballett Akademie Berlin, Performing arts Festival Berlin, Tagung zum Deutschen Tanzpreis, ACT Festival Sofia, TOOLS Milan, Hauptsache frei Hamburg, IETM and BFDK, etc.
Further material about Martin Stiefermann and his work can be found on the following websites:
Project Mecklenburg-Vorpommern dances on: www.vorpommern-tanzt-an.de
Art Hacking®: www.art-hacking.com