Alexander Hille
Ballett des Staatstheaters am Gärtnerplatz
The US-American, graduated from the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing artists in his home state of Minnesota, and continued his education receiving his BFA from the Juilliard School in New York City. He has performed off Broadway with Austin McCormick’s Company XIV, was a Principal artist with Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Benjamin Millepied’s Los Angeles Dance Project, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Les 7 Doigts de la main, and Cirque du Soleil (“Vitori”). He has worked with choreographers Anabelle Lopez Ochoa, Itzik Galili, Cayetano Soto, Mauro Bigonzetti, Alexander Ekman, Marco Goecke, Ina Christel Johannesen, Aszure Barton, Ioannis Mandafounis, Roy Assaf, Rui Horta, Thomas Hauert, Roy Assaf, and Benjamin Millepied. During his career he has had the desire and privilege to develop his own choreographic work, most notably with a commission from Minnesota Dance Theater with the cooperation of the Leonard Bernstein trust, fashion week in Montreal for Charlie Le Mindu, and most recently touring his work in Spain, as a result of his success in the prestigious competition “El Certamen Burgos & Nueva York”. He is also assistant, and rehearsal director for his friend and mentor Andonis Foniadakis, having set works and assisted creations for him around the world. He has been a member of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz since September 2020.
Contemporary Training
Physical freedom: a study on anatomical principles and serious fun. This class will aim to liberate the artist psychologically through understanding physical limitations we place on ourselves. Through this contemporary workshop, with an anatomical approach, we will focus on our bodies in relation to gravity, and identifying the most effective ways to move with efficiency. This training aims to aid each dancer in injury prevention, resulting in greater freedom and confidence to perform their best. Additionally, we aim to identify which barriers we place on our personal growth, how we might start to identify them, and make a plan to move forward with a new sense of self awareness, and confidence.Â
Marc Geifes
Ballet Academy, HMTM
Marc Geifeswas trained at the Munich Ballet-Academy from 1988 to 1992. After graduating, he danced for six years under Konstanze Vernon and then for six years under Ivan Liška at the Bavarian State Ballet. During this time, he danced solo and character roles in both the classical and modern repertoire in ballets by, among others, Frederic Ashton, Ray Barra, John Cranko, Mats EK, William Forsythe, Jacopo Godani, Jiřà Kylian, John Neumeier, Saburo Teshigawara and Hans van Manen. After his dance career, he studied physiotherapy in Amsterdam and graduated with a Bachelor of Health in 2007. From 2007 to 2010 he worked as a physiotherapist in Arnhem, where he cared for the dance company Introdans and the students of the Artez School of Dance, among others. From 2010 to 2020 he looked after the dancers of the Bavarian State Ballet and the Bavarian State Orchestra.
Since 2020, Marc Geifes has been teaching dance medicine at the HMTM Ballet Academy.
Warm-up and Check-in
We explore the body at the beginning of a dance day to prepare it for what lies ahead. We listen, feel, and investigate our musculoskeletal system. How am I feeling today, and how do I transition into the movement mode required for today? A fundamental warm-up where we gently mobilize and activate ourselves.
Cool-down and Check-out
Ideally concluding our dance day with a cool-down to initiate optimal recovery for the next day. We learn breathing, massage, and stretching techniques. Through individual and teamwork, we explore how to guide both body and mind into relaxation, concluding this day and being ready for the next.
Chantal Fink
Ballet Academy, HMTM
Chantal J. Fink started her dance training at the University of Music and Theatre Munich and graduated from the John Cranko School Stuttgart. She then danced as a member of the Stuttgart Ballet, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, the Bayerisches Staatsballett and as a soloist with Ballet Dortmund. In 2021, Chantal J. Fink received the Master Dance Teacher degree from the Palucca University of Dance Dresden and started teaching at the Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Theatre Munich the same year.
Classical Training
With the base of the Vaganova method the focus of the class is the understanding of the body as a whole, working on movement quality, dynamics as well as physical presence in classical motion.
Tamás Bakó
Tamás Bakó received his dance-education at the Budapest Ballet School in 1995. He has been a member of various foreign and Hungarian ensembles led by Ismael Ivo, Marco Santi, Adrienn Hód, Gábor Goda, and others. He has participated in numerous independent productions and projects as a dancer or co-creator. Since 2009, he has been teaching contemporary dance and Contact Improvisation at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy. From 2022, he’s coordinating the BA course at Budapest Circus Arts and Contemporary Dance College. Tamás Bakó has also worked as a guest teacher at other professional contemporary dance schools such as SEAD (Salzburg) and La Manufacture HES-SO (Lausanne).
Contemporary Training
Every movement counts’. The material of the class comes from different fields of dance and movement like contemporary dance, release, or contact improvisation. The class is designed to emphasize functionality and accessibility of the body’s architecture by investigating and utilising organic pathways of the body. By practicing set movement phrases and tasks, we will explore alignment, gravity, and momentum in both challenging and embracing ways. The rolling, walking, and skipping-hopping sequences will be used as vehicles to express these ideas through space, acting them in all possible directions.
Paolo Amerio
Paolo Amerio is a Professor of Contemporary Dance and Improvisation at the Akademie des Tanzes, Staatliche Hochschule fĂĽr Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim. Graduated at the MTD – AHK in Amsterdam, he later joined the Dance Company Nanine Linning / Theater und Orchester Heidelberg as dancer and choreographic assistant and took part as dancer at two productions of Costa Compagnie touring in Germany and USA. To this day, he has choreographed several pieces for the ADT which have been featured at the 7. BIENNALE TANZAUSBILDUNG 2020 HAMBURG and at the DUBAI WORLD EXPO 2020.
Contemporary Training
The aim of the class is to reach a sensitive, honest, organic and free way of moving while triggering a new sense of awareness and listening towards the individual, the others and the space within and around. Through various technical exercises based on floor work, release, flying low and soft acrobatic technique, the participants will be asked to channel their concentration into the movement’s path, from its origin to its extreme end, exploring and mobilising the pelvic area while acquiring a renewed physical & mental availability and generosity.
Emmanuelle Rizzo
Emmanuelle Rizzo, an Italian dancer, achieved semi-finalist status at the Gdanski Festival Tanca ‘Solo Dance Contest’ in 2020. She has collaborated with Sebastan Eilers’ SEtanztheater and currently works with DieTanzKompanie and Susanna Curtis & Co, with whom she was selected for the Kaija Festival in Korea in August 2024. Emmanuelle portrayed the role of Gazelle in the opera “Die Frau ohne Schatten” at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. She also continues her collaboration with Dustin Klein at the Munich State Opera and the Nuremberg State Theatre. Additionally, Emmanuelle has been engaged for a new production of ‘Elektra’ at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.
Matteo Carvone
Matteo Carvone is a choreographer and dancer based in Munich since 2012. His work blends physical, stenographic, and technological elements and they have been showcased at the Venice Biennale twice among Munich’s renowned venues like Gasteig, Bavarian State Opera, Schwere Reiter and more.
Matteo danced at the Gärtnerplatz Theatre, but also at the Jo Strømgren Company in Oslo, and in Alexander Ekman production “KUCKEL” in Stockholm.
He crafted five full-length performances and various shorter pieces. Notable collaborations include with Karl Alfred Schreiner in two R.Wagner operas, directed by Keith Warner: “Die Meistersinger von NĂĽrnberg” at Vienna State Opera and “Tannhäuser” at Nikkai Opera in Tokyo.
Sophia Charlotte Becker
Sophie Charlotte Becker completed her training as a stage dancer at Iwanson International in Munich and studied theatre and performance studies at LMU Munich and Stockholm University. As a freelancer, she works with the kollektiv anderer tanz, Emese Nagy, Johannes Härtl and Joanne Leighton, among others, accepts commissions, f.ex. for the state theatre Ingolstadt or the KulturbĂĽhne Spagat and realises her own projects. Sophie teaches contemporary dance at the August Everding Theatre Academy and Iwanson International. Her last production Hyperreality premiered in Munich in November 2022.Â
Anne do Paço
Anne do Paço is a dramaturg working in the fields of dance, music theatre and concert. Her activities focus on production dramaturgy, curating, promotion, education and outreach. After studying musicology, history of art and German literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, her first engagement took her to the Staatstheater Mainz. From 2009 to 2020, she was a member of Martin Schläpfer’s team at the Ballett am Rhein, since 2020 she has been Chief Dramaturg of the Vienna State Ballet. She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and on the advisory board of the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln.
Nina HĂĽmpel
has been the editor of tanznetz.de, an internet community for artistic stage dance in German-speaking countries, since 1996. From 2010-2023 she was the artistic director of the Biennale DANCE, the international festival for contemporary dance in Munich. She is also active in various dance contexts and networks as a lecturer, curator and juror. Nina HĂĽmpel is a member of the Access to Dance – Tanzplan MĂĽnchen initiative, which is committed to improving access to contemporary dance in the city through a wide-ranging network.
As a founding member of Tanz.Media, she is increasingly committed to the future of dance journalism and dance archives in the digital space. Her work as a board member of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland focuses on dance journalism, the independent scene and dance companies at municipal theatres.
