Laura Hope Steckler

Laura is a performing artist who joined AlienNation Co. in the early days of the kind of dance-theatre and media productions that Johannes Birringer tried to bring to the Houston art world. The first version of Description of a Landscape was created in Dallas, before Birringer moved to Houston, and when he was invited by the Lawndale Art Center to recreate this poetic staging of a short text by East German writer Heiner Müller, he assembled a partially new cast and asked Laura to join. The premiere of Description of a Landscape took place in 1988. 

Laura subsequently performed in the break-through performance of Invisible Cities, which secured AlienNation Co.’s place in the history of alternative performance art in Houston. 

Laura later on left the USA and is now a performing artist based in Scotland.

Laura has two invisible disabilities that have impacted her ability to dance. Having been told at 25 that she could never be a dancer due to congenital fractures and instability in her L5 vertebra, she continues evolving and adapting her practice to overcome continuous challenges. After she experienced a relapse of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME or chronic fatigue syndrome), she began to translate her work into film which allowed her to continue to make work despite limitations in stamina and energy.

In her ‚Theatre of the Body‘, she creates a practice that transforms the performance arena through the use of objects, materials and sculptural forms merging with the body.

Her performances evolve from the integration of eastern and western performance practices, devised text and movement.

Body Theatre combines ritual, character and performative installation to weave stories from the interior of the body, embodying the archetypal and reflecting deep emotional states.

This painterly, minimalistic work is rooted in new dance, theatrical elements, butoh, yoga and whirling. Laura engages the sense of drama and play present in all these disciplines to address the rich and substantive themes that characterize her work.

She also has a keen interest in somatic practices such as Feldenkrais and Alexander work as well as Authentic Movement. She is a Certified Rubenfeld Synergist ®, a synthesis of Bodywork, Alexander Technique and Gestalt Therapy for which she trained for four years in New York. She practices as a body-oriented psychotherapist and somatic movement therapist.