Richard Merz

Richard Merz, born 1936, made his Matura in Zug (Swizzerland). As an actor he got engaged at the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurth am Main and at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. After participating in the teacher’s seminar and working as a teacher in an elementary school, he finished his following study of German language and literature studies, history of religion and psychology with his dissertation. Then he completed a psychoanalytic education.
From 1979 till 2000 Richard Merz was the speech-director of the Kammersprechchor Zürich. Here he made many premieres of works of contemporary composers possible and worked on his own creations like Schwitter’s Sonate in Urlauten  (1990) and Zingg’s Besuch auf dem Schloss (1999). His newest work .. man sagt .. oder der Spuk von Maschwanden will premiere at the end of January 2007. He releases theatre and dance reviews at the Neue Züricher Zeitung, collaborates on different dance magazines and is considered as an established historian of dance with his emphasis on the dance world’s detachment in ballet and dance since 1900 and the serious effect for the development of dance and the reception of dance history.