Doreen Windolf
State Ballet School Berlin
Doreen Windolf trained as a classical stage dancer at the State Ballet School Berlin. She danced with the Leipzig Ballet and the State Ballet Berlin, among others. In 2008, she trained as a dance teacher and has been working as a ballet teacher at the State Ballet School Berlin since 2014 and as a lecturer at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts since 2022. In February 2021, Doreen Windolf was commissioned to take over the Direction (interim) at the Dance Department at the State Ballet School Berlin. Her primary goal is to reconcile the performance requirements of ballet training with the protection of health.
Anna Chwialkowska
Anna Chwialkowska is a dance scholar and dramaturge based in Berlin. She is a research associate and lecturer at the Center for Contemporary Dance (CCD), University for Music and Dance Cologne.
Anna completed her BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Spanish at the Free University of Berlin and her MA in Cultural Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). She is currently doing her PhD on the topic of knowledge production in contemporary dance.
She works as a production manager and dramaturgical consultant for Sergiu Matis and is co-director of the project Touching Margins together with Sasha Portyannikova and Nitsan Margaliot.
Philipp Gehmacher
Philipp Gehmacher studied Contemporary Dance and Choreography (London Contemporary Dance School, Trinity Laban) in London in the 1990s and Fine Arts (Sculpture and Space class, University of Applied Arts) in Vienna in the 2010s. He has been Professor of Contemporary Dance and Choreography and Head of the BA Dance Context Choreography programme at the HZT Berlin since October 2022. Gehmacher’s artistic works use body and language as forms of expression, alone or in interaction and potential togetherness.
Colette Salder
Colette Sadler is a Scottish dancer, choreographer and multi-disciplinary artist.
Trained firstly in Classical Ballet she later graduated from the Laban Centre London. Sadler’s work has been shown in numerous International dance contexts and in the visual arts, including, Tanz Im August Berlin, South Bank Centre London, Performatik Festival Kaai Theatre Brussels, Les Latitudes Contemporaines France & Tokyo Festival. In 2024 she will premiere a new work The Violet Hour at Hebbel Am Ufer theatre Berlin and in 2025 Sadler will collaborate with Alexander Schubert on a new work for Berlin Philharmoniker.
Gigi Hyatt
Gigi Hyatt received her training in Berlin, with Tatiana Gsovsky and in Munich with Konstanze Vernon. In 1982, Gigi Hyatt won Gold in the Junior Division of The Jackson International Ballet Competition and in the same year joined The Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier. In 1984 she was honored with the Wilhelm Oberdörffer Award and in 1985 was named »Best Young Dancer« by Ballett International. In Hamburg Gigi Hyatt was fortunate to dance in many ballets choreographed by John Neumeier and created numerous roles. In 1997, ending her career on stage, she moved to the USA, where she was teacher, ballet mistress and then Artistic Director at the Georgia Ballet. Gigi Hyatt returned to Hamburg in 2013 as Deputy Director of The School of The Hamburg Ballet.
Elisabeth Bell
From Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Elisabeth Bell began dance at an early age receiving scholarships at The Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York before completing her B.F.A. at Butler University in Indiana, USA Cum Laude. She went on to dance professionally at the Dayton Ballet and Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco!). Before completing a Masters of Law and Business at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, her engagements included Staatstheater Cottbus, The Lion King (Hamburg) and the international tour of CATS. Elisabeth has been working as Assistant to the Managing Coordinator of The School of the Hamburg Ballet since 2022 and coordinator of school outreach projects since 2023.
Stephan Brinkmann
Professor of Contemporary Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen. Dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and dance scholar. Studied dance at the Folkwang University, theatre, film and television studies, German studies and sociology at the University of Cologne and additional studies in dance pedagogy at the Folkwang University. Dancer at the Folkwang Dance Studio and the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Own choreographies and international teaching activities for contemporary dance. Doctorate in movement studies at the University of Hamburg. Topic: Forms of memory in dance. Publication: Remembering movement. Forms of memory in dance (2013). Head of the Institute for Contemporary Dance at Folkwang University of the Arts since 2018.
Jakub Truszkowski
Jakub Truszkowski began his dance training in 1987 at the State Ballet School in Gdansk, where he graduated in 1996 and performed several pieces at the Gdansk Opera House. In 1996 he was accepted into Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S. school. In 1999 he joined the Rosas company. Here he danced in Drumming, Mozart/Concert Arias, Mikrokosmos and participated in the creation of In Real Time, Rain, April Me, Repertory Evening, Bitches Brew, Kassandra and The six Brandenburg Concertos. In 2008, he joined the ensemble Les Ballets C de la B, danced in Import Export and participated in the creation of Ashes. Between 2013 and 2015, he was programme coordinator at P.A.R.T.S. As a teacher, he worked with P.A.R.T.S., De Theaterschool Amsterdam, the Folkwang University of the Arts and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, among others, and Jakub Truszkowski rehearsed works for Rosas, the Opéra de Lyon, P.A.R.T.S., the Opéra de Paris and the Companhia Nacional de Bailado. In 2019, he choreographed the Broadway musical West Side Story by Ivo van Hove. His own creations include: Solo For The Projector, Bodyscapes, Memory Reset, White Noise, Dzisiaj Wszystko, TotoTo and Vibration of a Single String.
Anna Esser
Parallel to her high school graduation, Anna Esser completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the Ballet-Academy the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. After that she danced with Alberta Ballet II. She graduated from the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf with a Master of Science in Psychology. She is currently completing her further training as a psychological psychotherapist and works as a psychologist at the LVR hospital in Essen. On a self-employed basis, she teaches the Gyrotonic® method at the Ballett am Rhein, among other places. Since 2021, she has been part of the pedagogical concept of the Munich Ballet Academy in psychological workshops for dance students. In 2013, she received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation) through the artist promotion and has since been supported on her further educational path. From December 2022 she will be researching stress factors and psychological interventions in dance cohorts as a research associate at the University of Duisburg Essen.
Luca Giacomo Schulte
born in Wattenscheid, studied fine art at the Düsseldorf/Münster Art Academy. As a visual artist, he has been an artistic collaborator, set designer and actor in Raimund Hoghe‘s plays since 1992.
After his sudden death in 2021, he and dancers from the Raimund Hoghe company developed the homage An Evening with Raimund, which was shown at DANCE Munich last year. Another production in the spirit of a living artistic archive is being prepared for 2025 together with Ornella Balestra, Emmanuel Eggermont and Takashi Ueno.
