Persons

Dr. Eylül Fidan Akıncı received a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center-City University of New York (CUNY). She works independently as a dramaturg and performer across choreography, theatre, and visual arts between the U.S., Europe, and Turkey. Akıncı’s writing on dance and performance has appeared in academic and popular publications such as TDR: The Drama Review and Etcetera Mag, and is forthcoming in Performance Research. She also published on public protests in Turkey, “Sacred Children, Accursed Mothers: Performativities of Necropolitics and Mourning in Neoliberal Turkey” in Performance in a Militarized Culture (eds. Sara Brady and Lindsey Mantoan, Routledge, 2017). As an educator, Akıncı has been teaching at Hunter College and Baruch College of CUNY and giving workshops on dramaturgy and dance history.

Jean-Hugues was born in Avignon (France) and completed his dance training at the conservatory there. He developed and honed his Modern Dance technique while working with the choreographer Anne-Marie Porras in Montpellier. He completed his diplôme d’état in 1993, was an assistant to Anne-Marie Porras and taught at her school, Epsedanse. As an instructor, choreographer and dancer, Jean-Hugues Assohoto is in high demand and has taught all over the world, including in France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, the Caribbean, Africa and Israel. In 1999 he became a dancer at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where he worked with choreographers including Philipp Talard, Bruno Jacquin, Jeanne Renshaw, Marc McClain and Antonio Gomez. He then danced for the Dance Theatre Heidelberg under the supervision of Irina Paul. He also worked as a freelance choreographer and managed a range of projects for the HD/MA Theatre and the Choré-Ame Dance Company. He currently teaches Contemporary Dance at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and at the State Ballet School of Berlin [Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin].

Sevi Bayraktar is Professor of Dance, Music, and Performance in global contexts at the Center for Contemporary Dance of University for Music and Dance Cologne. Sevi has earned her Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from UCLA, and specializes in dance ethnography, politics of heritagization, choreographic research, and intersections of theory and practice. Her recent writings appeared in Dance, Movement & Spiritualities (2018), Performance Philosophy (2019), and Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (2020). Her current book project Dissenting through Dance analyzes a contemporary history of folk dance, gender body politics, and social movements in Turkey.

Anna Beke | M.A. Theatre Science, degree in stage dance | Teacher at the Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich [Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, HMTM]; curator of the “Tanzausbildung im Wandel” [“Dance training in flux”] symposium | Expert for the DIS-TANZ-START funding programme of the Federal Association of Dance in Germany | Teacher at the Institute of Theatre Science, LMU Munich, and research assistant to the chair in art education, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU); curator of the “Bauhaus für alle!” [“Bauhaus for everyone!”] exhibition, Jewish Museum of Franconia [Jüdisches Museum Franken] | Dance journalist for tanznetz.de and other publications| Dramaturgy and education assistant at the Bavarian State Ballet [Bayerisches Staatsballett] 

Kristina Bernewitz was born in Schwerin (Mecklenburg) and trained as a stage dancer at the Palucca School in Dresden. This was followed by 18 years as a soloist in the Leipzig Ballet directed by choreographer Uwe Scholz. After finishing her active stage career, she completed additional studies to become a certified ballet teacher and was subsequently hired as a lecturer for classical dance, classical repertoire and dance performance at the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin. Since March 2021, she has been appointed here as acting director of studies for the Bachelor’s program. Additionally, to managing rehearsals and preparing competitions, her work includes creating her own choreographies.

Peter Boragno is a graduate in business administration and has worked in cultural management since 1995. His clients include the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Culture and Media, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Goehte Institute. From 2010 onwards he accompanied the Ausbildungskonferenz Tanz and headed the office for the Biennale Tanzausbildng. Since January 2020, he has taken over the management of the Europäische Theaterakademie GmbH “Konrad Ekhof” Hamburg and is in charge of the Bundeswettbewerb deutschsprachiger Schauspielstudierender and the Bundeswettbewerb Biennale Tanzausbildung.

Allison Brown is Professor of Classical Ballet for Contemporary Dancers at the Center for Contemporary Dance at the Academy for Music and Dance in Cologne. From 2010 to 2019 she was on faculty at the University for Musik and Performing Arts in Frankfurt.  An important focus of her teaching is trying to work on a daily basis towards the development and advocation of anti-competitive, democratic frameworks and formats welcoming diverse bodies and artistic practices. Strength training and sports science are additional areas of concentration in her work with young dancers. Allison danced with the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp and Dancers, Amanda Miller’s Pretty Ugly Dance Company and Saburo Teshigawara’s Karas Company. From 1996 to 2004 she was a member of William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt.

Hannah Shakti Bühler teaches contemporary dance and somatic practices at the BAdance at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main. She first studied at Laban Trinity College in London, obtaining her BA(Hons) Dance Theatre in 2006. Her performance practice has then led to work with several companies in UK, Belgium, Spain and Holland. As choreographic assistant she worked between others with Iván Pérez at Korzo Theatre in Den Haag, with Anouk Van Dijk and Falk Richter at Schauspiel Frankfurt and at Opera de Lausanne with Cisco Aznar. In 2015 she graduated from MACoDE (Master in Contemporary Dance Education) at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main. In the same year she co-founds Hicks&Bühler, a choreographic collaboration with Laura Hicks. Their work has been presented between others at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Hessische Theatertage, Tanzfestival Rhein Main.

Matteo Carvone is an Italian choreographer and dancer based in Munich. He graduated from Milan’s DanceHaus in 2007 and has danced in and collaborated on creations by choreographers including: Alexander Ekman/Orionteatern, Jo Strømgren Kompani Oslo, Karl Alfred Schreiner/State Theatre on Gärtnerplatz, Marco Goeke, Robin Olryn, Michael Keegan-Dolan, William Forsythe, Emanuel Gat, Benoît Lachambre, Wayne McGregor, Ismael Ivo and many others. Carvone is in search of the kind of performance that brings together dance, voice and audiovisual installations in equal measure. His pieces have been performed at a number of places, including the Philharmonie in the Gasteig and the State Theatre on Gärtnerplatz in Munich as well as at the Venice Biennale. 

www.matteocarvone.com 

Born in Kazakhstan, her career began in the national ballet there. In 1993 she was engaged at the Theater Krefeld-Mönchengladbach and the State Ballet in Munich. After dancing the leading roles in all of Cranko’s great works, she came to the Stuttgart Ballet in 2004, where she supplemented her repertoire with Balanchine, Scholz, Spuck, Neumeier, van Manen and Kylian as 1st soloist. She has been a freelance worker since 2014 and has been a teacher at JCS Stuttgart since 2021.

Jasmine Ellis is a Canadian choreographer and film director based in Munich. A graduate of the Etobicoke School of the Arts, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and the Codarts Rotterdam Conservatory, she has been a professional performer and choreographer since 2006. Ellis does commissioned work at a national and international level, and her free productions regularly receive funding. Her artistic approach is founded on a multidisciplinary combination of movement, body language, text and music, weaving together humour, vulnerability and familiarity to create unexpected worlds. Ellis is a prizewinning film director and artistic director at the Bad Posture Productions film company. As an active member of Munich’s freelance dance scene, she runs the Bad Lemons Project, which aims to foster a vibrant, collaborative community of dancers in Munich through professional training, exchange, and research projects.

www.jasminellis.com

Simone Geiger teaches since 2010 at the ballet academy at the University of music and performing arts in Munich. Also here she studied 8 years of classical ballet. She worked as a demi soloist at the ballet at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and at the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. From 2000 till 2006 she was a member of the Nederlands Dans Theater in the Netherlands. Simone teaches classical ballet, pointework, repertoire (classical and contemporary) and works as a choreographic assistant and balletmaster.

Ilse Ghekiere is an artist, writer and activist. She studied dance at the Antwerp Conservatory and art sciences at the Free University of Brussels. In 2017, she received a scholarship from the Flemish Government to investigate sexism in the Belgian dance field. She is the founder of ENGAGEMENT ARTS, an artists’ movement that tackles sexual harassment, sexism and abuse of power in the Belgian art world. Since then, Ghekiere writes, lectures and gives workshops on these topics. She has also worked as a consultant and researcher in art organisation and education.

Martina Gunkel has completed her Bachelor degree of Performing Arts at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg, the Netherlands in 2017. Since then she is working as a freelance dancer, choreographer and teacher, first in the Netherlands and now mainly in Stuttgart, Germany. Martina worked a lot in site specific dance project, e.j. with vloeistof (NL), Willi Dorner (AT) and Yolanda Guttiérrez (GER), and in interdisciplinary work, for example with the collective multipluralwesen in Stuttgart. In collaboration with a contemporary circus artist she created her first own piece “It is there. Around the corner.” which is performed at theaters and festivals in Europa and Jordan. Since 2021 she is part of the Performance-Improvisation Group Instant PIG, which is based in Stuttgart. In 2021 Martina becomes a certified Gyrokinesis teacher. 

Nik Haffner has been artistic director of the Interuniversity Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT) since 2012. As dancer-choreographer he develops projects together with Christina Ciupke and Mart Kangro, among others. Nik Haffner was a dancer with William Forsythe at Ballett Frankfurt 1994 -2000 and worked with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion on their online score ‘Seven Duets’ as part of MotionBank.org in 2012-13. He is a member of the advisory board for Tanzkongress Deutschland and of the jury for the German Dance Award.

Since 2001 professorship for contemporary dance at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main. He is the director of the dance department. His artistic work is characterized by consistent movement research that examines communication possibilities in / about / through dance in the context of the social and societal environment. In doing so, he combines theoretical aspects with physical practice, writing with choreography and creates image-, sound-, possibility-spaces.

Rémy Héritier was born in France in 1977. He lives in Paris. Since 2005 he has created successively Arnold versus Pablo (duet), Archives (sextet) domestiqué coyote (solo), Atteindre la fin du western (quintet), Dispositions (solo), Chevreuil (quintet), Facing the sculpture (quartet), une étendue (quartet), Percée Persée (duo), Another version and Here, then (with Marcelline Delbecq).In these different pieces, Rémy Héritier involves in his choreographic writing the reoccurrence of temporal, spatial strata in places, developing the depth of the past to reach the present. This archaeological excavation in a given context, his personal history of dance as well as that of his collaborators, enables him to shift towards notions linked to other disciplines such as intertextuality, re-enactment or the Third landscape, and thereby to convoke a new poetics of gesture.

born in Miami, studied Studio Music & Jazz and Opera at the University of Miami and dance at the New World School of the Arts. He later moved to New York to continue his education at the Trisha Brown Dance Company and went on to work with Meg Stuart. He left New York and followed Meg Stuart to Brussels, where he helped set up ‘Damaged Goods’ in Belgium, spending almost seven years there as a dancer and collaborator. Alongside his own projects, he has performed with lots of artists, including LaborGras, Brice Leroux, Anouk van Dijk and Michel Debrulle. David worked with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for a few years on the pieces ‘Zeitung’, ‘Keeping Still’ and ‘D’un soir un jour’, and also danced and sang in the production ‘Cesena’, which premiered at the Avignon Festival in 2011. David teaches classes and workshops across the globe and has held a regular post as an instructor at P.A.R.T.S. – Performing Arts Research and Training Studios since 1995. David creates his own pieces in the organisation dh+, David Hernandez and collaborators. He also realises commissioned projects as a guest choreographer for various companies, including ‘The Devil’s Gardens’ for the Zagreb Dance Company and creations for Susanne Linke’s Company in Trier and the Skanes Dance Company from Sweden. From October 2020 to October 2021, David Hernandez was a guest professor at the Institute for Contemporary Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, where he created pieces for the Folkwang Dance Studio and the third year of the BA Dance programme.

Henrietta Horn is a choreographer, dancer and pedagogue. From 1999-2008 she is – together with Pina Bausch – the artistic director of the Folkwang Tanzstudio. Since 2008 she works as a freelancer. In addition to solo choreographies, she works worldwide as a guest choreographer and teacher, e.g. in London, Damascus, Yaoundé, La Paz, Taipei. She has received several awards for her reconstructions of the works of Mary Wigman. Since 2021, Henrietta Horn is appointed professor of contemporary dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. 

Anne Juren (b. 1978, Grenoble) is a choreographer, dancer, and Feldenkrais practitioner. She lives and works in Vienna. In 2003, she co-founded the Wiener Tanz- und Kunstbewegung association. Juren’s choreographic works and artistic research have been shown worldwide in theatres, festivals, museums, and art venues. Since 2013, Juren is a Feldenkrais® practitioner. Between 2014 and 2018, she was a member of the Artistic Committee of the Master Programme in Choreography at DOCH in Stockholm. Recently, she finished her PhD at the Stockholm University of the Arts under the supervision of André Lepecki and Sandra Noeth.

Jee-Ae Lim studied traditional Korean dance in Seoul and completed her master’s degree in Solo/Dance/Authorship at the HZT Berlin. In 2014 she was voted ‘Hoffnungsträgerin’ (‘Promising Artist’) in the Tanz Magazine Year in Review issue as well as ‘Young Leading Artist 2015’ by Gaeksuk Magazine. Between 2017 and 2020 she received several grants from the Berlin Senate and the Arts Council Korea. Since 2018 she has been teaching and mentoring at the HZT Berlin in the frame of the BA program.

Gregory Livingston is a guest professor at the HZT since the summer term 2021. He received his Masters in Contemporary Dance Education from the HfMDK Frankfurt in 2014, his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and completed a classical vocal music education. 2019/2020, he performed with Punchdrunk International in “Sleep No More” Shanghai, and years ago returned to New York City as a guest artist with the José Limón Dance Company. Prior to that, he danced with companies in the UK and in Germany and started his career with the City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong. Gregory teaches nationally and internationally for universities, professional arts institutions, and dance companies. He is the European Liaison of the New York Institute of Dance & Education (NYIDE), and Executive, Foundational Faculty of the New York Dance Festival (NYDF) summer intensive.

Myriam Lucas is a dancer and teaching artist from San Diego, California. She began her dancing as a freestyle Hip-Hop artist and has since moved into other urban dance forms and various contemporary movement techniques. She completed a 3 year Teacher Training with Eveoke Dance Theater. In 2018 she completed her BA in Dance, Context and Choreography at HTZ Berlin. Since graduating, she has focused her research on Urban Session spaces. She aspires to document, create dialogue and spread knowledge about the inner workings of Urban Dance culture in artistic and practical ways.

Born in Kiev, ballet training in Moscow where he also accepted his first contract as a dancer at the Bolshoi Theater. At the same time he trained as a teacher at the State Academy for Theater Arts. In 1996 he joined the Stuttgart Ballet, where he became a semi-soloist in 2004. He danced in numerous works and also continued his teaching at this time. He has been a teacher at JCS since 2010 and represents them in various competitions as a juror and training manager. 

Asja Mahgoub lives and works in Fankfurt as an theater maker, performance artist and mediator. She studied arabic language and culture, as well as piece- and conflict studies in Marburg and Cairo and applied theatre studies in Gießen. She finished her training  to become a mediator at IWS in 2016 and supportet Juliane Ade in another training programme at boscop Berlin. Since then she works mostly with groups and collectives on conflict resolutions, workshops on conflict-awarenes and as a moderator for a wide range of group processes.

Born in Warsaw, began his career at the State Ballet School and also completed a pedagogical exam with Leonid Zhdanov. Until 1984 first soloist at the Great Theater in Warsaw, from where he was engaged directly at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. There he already took on educational duties, became a training director and ballet master in many large companies and the Stuttgart Ballet. Juror of major international ballet competitions. Since 1998 he has been director of JCS Stuttgart. 

born in Berlin, trained at the State University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Seville and Madrid. Dancer in flamenco companies such as “Flamencos en Route”, including founder / producer of the company “Catarina Mora Flamenca” in 1995. In 1999 she co-founded the “Production Center for Dance and Performance”. Initiator of the Stuttgart Flamenco Festival since 2010. Producer of many Flamenco dance theater pieces, guest performance since 1996 nationally and internationally. Since 2006 teacher at JCS Stuttgart. 

Pilar Murube was born in Seville, Spain, and completed her ballet training at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart before moving in a contemporary direction as a dancer with Marco Santi. She is a freelance dancer, assistant and choreographer, and has worked for companies including the Marco Santi Dance Ensemble, the Nina Kurzeja Company and Co-Laps. Since 2014 she has worked primarily as a teacher of classical ballet and contemporary dance for children, adults and professional and amateur dancers.

Prof. Agnès Noltenius is the Director of the AdT
Choreographic Assistant at Forsythe Productions
Certified Pilates Trainer

In 1989, after meeting William Forsythe, she joined Ballett Frankfurt to which she remained loyal for over 13 years. As holder of pedagogic dance diploma, she is a regular guest teacher for ballet classical, repertory and “Improvisation Technolgies” of William Forsythe, in universities and ballet companies in Germany, France, Italy, Japan, she is the choreographic assistant of William Forsythe and she was given the responsibility for the realization of some of his pieces. She has worked in the most important dance companies of the world. She is the author of the book of photographs “DETAIL-FORSYTHE” (Éditions Complexe, co-edited by Arte Editions).

Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. After working for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, she now performs as a soloist and directs her own projects collaborating with a diverse range of artists. Eiko has performed her solo project A Body in Places at over 70 sites and has travelled to Fukushima six times to create A Body in Fukushima, her collaboration with William Johnston. Eiko regularly teaches at Wesleyan University, NYU, and Colorado College. She received an honorary degree from Colorado College in 2020.

Laurent Pichaud is a choreographer and dance performer, artistic director of x-sud  art/site (www.x-sud.info), and guest artist-researcher in the Dance department of Paris 8 University. Laurent’s process, both as a creator and researcher, centers around the use of choreographic gesture outside of traditional artistic or stage-oriented contexts. His work has two premier focal points. The first largely comprises site-specific practices and community projects created with non-dancer inhabitants. The second is his multifaceted collaboration with Deborah Hay, and by extension his interest in Dance history as a material and tool to study how composition functions for both documentation and transmission in the choreographic process. He has created the Choreographic Games with Rémy Héritier in 2013 as a platform to extend this two focal points.

Amanda Piña is a Chilean- Mexican Artist living in Vienna and Mexico City. Her artistic work is concerned with the decolonization of art, focusing on the political and social power of movement, temporarily dismantling ideological separations between contemporary and traditional, human and animal, nature and culture. Her work has been presented in institutions such as Tanz Quartier Wien, Kunsthalle Wien and MUMOK Museum of Modern Art of Vienna, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain Paris, Kunsten Festival des Arts Brussels, De Singel Antwerp, Royal festival Hall London, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico,  NAVE and Festival Santiago a Mil, Chile.

She studied Painting before going into performance, Studied Physical Theater in Santiago de Chile, Theater Anthropology in Barcelona and  Contemporary Dance and Choreography in Mexico, Barcelona, Salzburg (SEAD) and Montpellier (Ex.e.r.ce Choreographic Centre Montpellier) . In 2006 she received the danceWEB scholarship and in 2007 the scholarship for Young Choreographers from Tanzquartier Wien. In 2018 she was awarded with the Fonca Arts grant from the Mexican Government. 

Since 2008 she leads the gallery space specialized in expanded choreography and performance nadaLokal in Vienna which she founded together with the Swiss Visual Artist Daniel Zimmermann. Currently works on the realisation of the long-term project Endangered Human Movements, concerned with the re appearance of ancestral forms of  movements and cultural practices. Four volumes of research in the scope of this project have been already realised which include performances, Installations, Videos, publications, curatorial frames, workshop and lectures. She is a research fellow at DAS THIRD, from the department of Theatre, Dance and Performance at Amsterdam University of the Arts.

www.nadaproductions.at

Parvathi Ramanathan is a dancer, researcher and writer who has early morning affairs with poetry. In her sensed and written work, she is curious about the body’s relationship with manifested and layered identities. She holds an MPhil in Theatre and Performance Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Parvathi was a core member of Gati Dance Forum where she led the creation and publication of Tilt Pause Shift: Dance Ecologies in India

Brit Rodemund, educated at the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin, is a freelance dancer and teacher. In the last two decades she has worked together with various artists, among them Helena Waldmann, William Forsythe and Deborah Hay, and has also been a member of the Dance On Ensemble for two years under the direction of Christopher Roman. Before that she has worked as a soloist with engagements at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Aalto Ballett Theater Essen and Ballett Nürnberg.

David Russo is a dancer, choreographer and dance instructor. After training at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart he was a solo dancer in Saarbrücken as well as at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, a national theatre in Munich, the city where he lives and works today. Alongside his permanent engagements, since 2004 he has regularly choreographed individual pieces for a range of institutions, including the Birgit Keil Dance Foundation, the Ballet Philippines, the Universal Ballet in Seoul and the Ballett Dortmund. He also organises community evenings with dance professionals and transdisciplinary performances on Munich’s independent scene. Since early September 2010 he has been a teacher at the Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich [Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, HMTM]. In 2019 he founded the dancer initiative TanzQuelle, a project to build self-confidence and solidarity among Munich-based dance professionals.

Vera Sander is director of the Centre for Contemporary Dance and Professor for Contemporary Dance at the University for Music and Dance Cologne and has since been central to its development. Choreographer, dancer or teacher with e.g. Tanzforum Köln (D), Dansgroep Krisztina de Chatel (NL), Itzik Galili (NL), Semperoper Dresden (D), DV8 (UK), Adventures in Motion Pictures (UK), verasanderartconnects (D). Her interest centres on choreographic and body knowledge as a source for interdisciplinary and intercultural creativity. She has been regularly invited to choreograph, to teach as well as to collaborate in lectures and is occupied with the development of study programs and exchange formats in the field of dance.

The Berlin-based dancer and choreographer Isabelle Schad studied classical dance in Stuttgart, and worked with numerous choreographers before beginning to develop her own works in 1999. Her research concentrates on the relationships between bodies, choreography, (re)presentation, form and experience, and sees physical praxis as a place for learning processes, community and political participation. Isabelles work is situated between dance, performance and visual art. Her innovative projects are shown around the world in various contexts at festivals, museums or theatre spaces. She teaches internationally and is co-organiser of the work space Tanzhalle Wiesenburg in Berlin. Isabelle Schad is a daily practitioner of Zen shiatsu and aikido zen. In the frame of Deutscher Tanzpreis 2019, Schad was honored for outstanding artistic developments in contemporary dance.

Dr. Constanze Schellow is Juniorprofessor for Cultures of Knowledge and Transmission at the Centre for Contemporary Dance at the University for Music and Dance Cologne. Her focus is on interdisciplinary formats dealing with their*stories of body-based and -related cultures and economies of knowledges and practices – dance being one of them. She just completed a research on concepts of ‘theory’ operative in contemporary dance educations in Western Europe. As a dramaturge Constanze collaborated with e.g. Eva Meyer-Keller and Doris Uhlich.

Isabelle Severs was born in Brussels, Belgium. She graduated from the John-Cranko-Schule in Stuttgart. After first professional experiences with the Stuttgart Ballet, she joined the Ballet of the Deutsche Open in Berlin and the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. She worked with many different choreographers and danced classical and neo-classical repertoire as well as contemporary pieces. Since September 2015, Isabelle Severs teaches classical ballet at the Ballettakademie der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. In July 2021 she obtained a Master degree in dance pedagogy at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden.

Katelyn Skelley is a dancer working in the realm of education, research and performance. She holds a BFA in dance from New York University and a MA in Contemporary Dance Education from the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Katelyn has a Lehrauftrag at HfMDK and initiated the platform re-dance in 2020 that centers parenting dancers, through which she pursues her master thesis research on the theme of Motherhood and Dance.

Isaac Spencer is a dancer, teacher, rehearsal director and choreographer. He danced with Cullberg Ballet, Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School. Since 2011, he has been active in independent dance scenes throughout Germany and Sweden as dancer, choreographer, and mentor. He teaches dance and leads workshops for professional dance companies and universities throughout Europe and was rehearsal director at Norrdans in Sweden for two seasons. He is currently acting professor for dance at the HfMDK in Frankfurt.

Dino Spiri works as a production manager with Sasha Waltz & Guests, Martin Nachbar, The Shakespeare Company Berlin, Tanzkongress Hannover (WILSON*BORLES Arts Management), Biennale Tanzausbildung (Konrad Ekhof GmbH/ Buero Boragno), Performing RomArchive Festival (sauerbrey | raabe gUG), FELD Theater für junges Publikum, Dan Armon, Britta Wirthmüller, Joerg Hassmann and Hanna Hegenscheidt.

He is since November 2020 in charge of the organizational management for the Biennale Tanzausbildung.

Nicola van Straaten is a South African artist, writer and performer who works across multiple mediums with a background in Western classical and contemporary dance. She completed an MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship in 2019 and currently works as a freelance artist in Berlin. She is concerned with the ways in which belief shapes practice and approaches the body/bodies as sites for confronting and transforming inherited imperial contracts. 

Diana Thielen is a dancer, performer and blogger, and teaches the methodologies of dance, performance, body politics and yoga. Diana completed her degree at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) and studies Gender Studies and Educational Science in Berlin. Her work encompasses interdisciplinary perspectives related to her interest in queer theory, intersectional feminism and postcolonial studies, as well as her lived experience as a queer woman*. Diana co-authored the book “Nicht nur Mütter waren schwanger- unerhörte Perspektiven auf die vermeintlich natürlichste Sache der Welt” (“Mother’s weren’t the only ones who were pregnant – unheard perspectives on the supposedly most natural thing in the world”, edited by Alisa Tretau) and, along with Florence Freitag, curates the DIY performance series “The Urge to…” in Berlin.

Susanne Triebel is coordinator of the internationally oriented MA Contemporary Dance Education (MA CoDE) and lecturer at BAtanz. Before completing her MA in Contemporary Dance Education in 2009, she danced for several years at city and state theaters and in the freelance scene. Since 2012, she has supervised teaching projects and teaching rehearsals in MA CoDE and teaches in BAtanz. In the expert commission Body and Movement at HfMDK she is responsible for the organization and content of the offers of THE ARTIST’S BODY and advocates for the implementation of movement in artistic education. She has been a member of the AK|T speaker group since 2017 and 1st speaker of the Dance Education Conference since two years.

Lina Venegas (COL/PE/AT) Dancer, performer and choreographer with engineering background and Colombian – Peruvian roots, based in Austria. Her artistic work focuses on cultural and social contents and it has been presented in diverse contexts in Austria (Odeon Theater Wien, Argekultur Salzburg, Festspielhaus St Pölten, Schlossmuseum and Landesgalerie Linz, a.o.), Colombia (Alzate Avendaño Theater, Delia Zapata Theater, Artestudio Bogota), Japan (Saitama Arts Theater), Peru and Ghana. She holds a BA and MA in Contemporary Dance, Movement Research and Pedagogy from the Bruckner University in Linz, and an MS in Engineering from Los Andes University in Bogota. In Colombia she has collaborated on sustainable development projects with the Ministry of Environment, United Nations and NGOs, and coordinated the cultural space Artestudio Bogota. She has danced with Odeon Theater Vienna, featured in performances by Amanda Piña/nadaproductions, Kandis Williams, Fanni Futterknecht, Renato Zanella, Tanzfabrik-wien, ObjêtsFax Co, a.o., and has taught dance in different artistic and community based contexts. 

Prof. Jens Weber was born in Berlin, where he completed his dance studies at the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin. After graduation, he joined the ballet company of the State Opera Berlin. In 1998, he was appointed principal dancer by director Michaël Denard. Weber has performed with numerous international ballet companies, including Ballet Zurich, Queensland Ballet (Australia), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Morphoses in NYC. Additionally, he studied acting in NYC, Los Angeles and Berlin. During and after his active dance career, Weber taught ballet classes at the Architanz Studio in Tokyo, the Peridance Capezio Center in New York and the Center of Dance in Berlin. In recent years he has been engaged as ballet master at the Staatstheater Augsburg and the Theater Plauen Zwickau. He is a constant guest teacher with Theater Koblenz and the Friedrichstadtpalast Berlin. Weber completed his studies as a dance pedagogue at the Centre National de Danse in Paris and the Palucca Hochschule in Dresden. In Sept. 2021 Jens Weber was appointed Professor for Classical Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

conceived in lisbon and born in berlin, johannes wieland earned his bfa at the amsterdam university of the arts, and worked thereupon in various companies with an extensive array of choreographers. after performing with the béjart ballet lausanne, he relocated to new york city where he received his mfa in contemporary dance and choreography at nyu / tisch school of the arts. while running the company ‘johannes wieland’ in new york, he built from scratch what is now known as the contemporary dance company at the staatstheater of kassel, germany for 15 years, holding positions as a resident choreographer, artistic director and director of the dance department.

his continued cinematic interest led him to making movies and he continues to create multi-disciplinary work through his berlin company mind eraser/johannes wieland. aside from being commissioned and teaching for companies and universities, his critically acclaimed pieces have been invited to tour internationally to festivals and events. johannes is also directing and curating b12 – the festival for contemporary dance and performance art (www.b12.space), which runs annually in berlin.

he is a 1st prize winner of the kurt jooss prize, and has been awarded numerous other prizes, recognitions, scholarships, and grants. johannes is a nominee for the german theater prize der faust in 2016 for his creation you will be removed. he works on non-categorizing art. (www.minderaser.johanneswieland.org) 

Britta Wirthmüller is achoreographer and dancer. In her work she attends to that which usually remains invisible, e.g. bodies lacking social visibility, the forgotten dances of Jean Weidt (“Physical Encounters”) or the hidden layers of a city’s history in “The Silent Walk“. She holds a position for artistic research and teaching at the HZT Berlin.

Zuzana Žabková is doing art, dance, and choreography in the frame of performance, video, and installation. She pokes failing utopias and really likes to move as a reptile. She works alone and together with friends on platform bjornsonova. Zuzana holds M.A. in Academy of Fine Arts and Dance Academy in Bratislava, Slovakia, M.A. program Choreography in Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany and postmaster in Collective Research program in Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm. 

Arkadi Zaides is an Israeli independent choreographer and visual artist of Belorussian origin, currently living in France. In Israel, he performed in several companies such as the Batsheva Dance Company and the Yasmeen Godder Dance Group before embarking on an independent career in 2004. He obtained a master’s degree at the AHK Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam (NL), and currently obtaining his practice-based PhD degree at the UAntwerp and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (BE) . His performances and installations have been presented in numerous dance and theater festivals, museums, and galleries across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Over the years he has curated projects such as New Dance Project (2010-2011) with choreographer Anat Danieli, Moves Without Borders (2012-2015), and Violence of Inscriptions (2015-2018) with the scholar, curator, and dramaturge Sandra Noeth. The latter gathered artists, thinkers, and human-rights activists to negotiate the role of the body in producing, maintaining, legitimizing, representing, and aestheticizing structural violence. He is a recipient of numerous prizes, among them a prize for demonstrating engagement in human-rights issues, awarded to Zaides by The Emile Zola Chair for Interdisciplinary Human Rights Dialogue (IL).