The Artists
Meet the artists who are taking part in one of the vibrant Visiting Artist Programme encounters at our partner festivals.
A – E
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Abigail Agius is a Maltese artist. Rooted in slow, sensitive and listening-centred methodologies, she investigates the intersection between embodied knowledge and site-specific practice. Her process and output moves fluidly between choreographic practice, performance-making, drawing, field-working methodologies and sound.
Her recent work includes Variations on Dusk (Notte Bianca, 2025), Għabex (Dance Festival Malta, 2025), and Seismo-body (Marosi Stromboli, 2024). In 2024 and 2025, she was selected as Artist in Residence at ŻfinMalta.
w: abigailagius.xyz
i: @abiagius -
Adrijana Danchevska Rovchanin is a choreographer, dancer, and associate professor at the Department of Contemporary Dance at “Goce Delchev” University in Štip. One of the first emerging choreographers from the Skopje Dance Theater, she completed her ballet training at DMBUC “Ilija Nikolovski-Luj” and holds a master’s degree in choreography from the University of Audiovisual Arts ESRA Skopje–Paris New York under the mentorship of Prof. Dr Risima Risimkin. She has collaborated with the Skopje Dance Theater on numerous works including "Symbol" (with Aleksandra Petrushevska), "D.O.L.", "H me", "Don’t Touch My Eyes", and "Go Figure It Out". Her choreographies have been performed widely, at festivals such as Contemporary Dance Week (Zagreb), Laiks Dejot (Riga), SHARE Festival (Bratislava), Silk Road Festival (China), and Holland Dance Festival (The Hague).
As a dancer, she has performed internationally at events like the Battery Dance Festival (New York), Meet in Beijing (China), Tanec Praha (Prague), Tanzmesse (Cologne), and Ankara Solo Dance Festival, among others. She was also part of the Balkan Dance Project Vol.1 with Igor Kirov and Aleksandar Ilić, and performed at Masdanza Festival in the Canary Islands. Her choreographic work extends to institutions such as CODARTS in Rotterdam and the Zurich University of the Arts. She directed and choreographed "Home", the first Macedonian dance film. In 2023, she created the segment "Interweaving" in the ballet project "Prayers of My Body", honouring poet Aco Šopov. Danchevska is a co-founder of the collective Tanc Bunker and the festival TancBunker – Platform 01, dedicated to contemporary art and dance experimentation in North Macedonia.
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Agnieszka Sikorska is a Polish performer and choreographer whose work moves between body, nature, and presence. Educated in Łódź, Prague, and Warsaw, she deepens her somatic practice through Feldenkrais Method. Her pieces—Kambium, Dive in, Not a Place but a State—blend physicality and poetic attention. Presented across Europe, her work invites intimacy and reflection. She is agrantee of national and international art programs.
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Agnija Šeiko is a renowned Lithuanian contemporary dance choreographer known for her interdisciplinary approach and innovative use of various art forms. She explores themes of identity, dance archaeology and time, and creates a unique dialogue between dance and nature.
She has created over 40 works, which have been showcased at numerous dance festivals and venues in Lithuania and internationally. Often staging her works in unconventional locations, she challenges traditional concepts of dance and invites the audience to reconsider their relationship with nature. Agnija Šeiko also leads the Šeiko dance company and the Contemporary Dance Association of Lithuania.
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Anastasiia Rembetska is a Ukrainian performer, improviser, and dance teacher exploring embodied presence and instant composition. She participates in international projects and develops her own performances and workshops in Ukraine and abroad. Her work focuses on the body as a space of memory, connection and unpredictability, weaving contact improvisation, somatic awareness, and daily life into living movement.
i: @rembetska_
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Anca Stoica is a performer and emerging choreographer based in Bucharest, Romania. Her artistic practice focuses on the social implications of art and on developing an unusual, even grotesque body. She collaborates with Sergiu Diță as an artistic duo under the name Platforma 13, an independent initiative dedicated to multidisciplinary experimentation with a focus on contemporary dance and performance.
Anca Stoica holds a BA and an MA in Choreography from the National University of Theatre and Film Bucharest. She also studied at the Academy of Dance & Performance in Bucharest, where she was mentored by the following artists: Lucas Viallefond, Irina Botea Bucan, Galina Borissova, Jan Burkhardt, Simona Deaconescu, Laura Aris, Iva Sveshtarova, Sigal Zouk, Marko Milić, Gisela Müller, Valentina De Piante, Marta Coronado, Noa Zuk, and Miriam Althammer.
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Andrea Jiménez Vázquez graduated in Choreography and specialized in Spanish dance at the Institut del Teatre. Since 2019, she has been teaching in the departments of Pedagogy and Choreography at the Higher Conservatory of Dance of the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. She develops national and international projects and continues her research through the Ancorae project, which integrates her expertise in Spanish dance, flamenco, and other folk dances and music, along with writing and the analysis of the body through geometry. Currently, she also assists local and national researchers, choreographers and musicians in research and creative processes, while pursuing a Master’s degree in Flamenco Analysis and Research at the University of Granada.
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Anna Borràs, based in Malmö, is a Spanish dancer, choreographer, and dance filmmaker. She is founder of Anna Borràs Produktion and co-founder of Indra Dance Company. Her work explores inner experience through movement, often in relation to natural contrasts. She has performed internationally and created works for companies and festivals across Europe, Asia, and Latin America since 2014.
w: annaborras.com
i: @aborras14 -
Anton Ovchinnikov is a performer, choreographer and organiser of the dance festival Zelyonka Space UP in Ukraine since 2010.
In 2008, after ten years of trips to international workshops and festivals, Ovchinnikov established the Black O!Range dance productions company in Kyiv. It has been recognised as one of the most distinctive and original dance projects in Ukraine.
Between 2016 and 2021, Ovchinnikov presented several solo performances and created four multidisciplinary projects.
In November 2022, he relocated to Lithuania.
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Aura da Fonseca (Porto - London) is a transdisciplinary artist and co-founder of Asterisco. Her work has been presented at The Place, Nottingham Contemporary, Centre for Live Art Yorkshire, Stockholm Fringe Festival, Municipal Theatre of Porto, Municipal Galleries of Lisbon, schuur, Derida DanceCenter, Maia Contemporary Art Biennial, among others. She holds an MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths and a BA in Fine Arts and Intermedia from ESAP and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.
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Azucena Moya Morcillo is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores body practices, ecology, relational geographies, and community art. In 2019, she founded her company, Irregulars, dedicated to contemporary dance and performance in public space. Her passion for walking and cross-disciplinary creation drives her to develop hybrid performative and documentary forms, placing relational aesthetics, body and landscape at the core of her practice.
Azucena’s interest for public and common spaces led her to do the Master of Art in Public Space at the FAI-AR school in Marseille. She also has a strong academic background in the field of philosophy of dance.
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Barbora Janáková is a contemporary dance activist. She studied modern, classical, and folk dance at a conservatory and dance pedagogy at VŠMU. She trained internationally (Dijon, Brussels, China, St. Ermé & others) and has managed dance organisation mimoOs for nine seasons, producing 14 original dance projects. She collaborated with B in Motion, Reserva, ME-SA, Bratislava in Movement and others.
Her works include NO ON, Genius loci, Metamorphosis, and recently ANSWER_ring which premiered in May 2025. She leads the Telohra project, the Body-Voice-Community workshop series, and teaches at the conservatory and VŠMU.
w: mimoos.sk
f: @BarboraJanak
i: @Barbora.Janak -
Besjana Bytyqi is a professional dancer and choreographer with a strong foundation in both classical ballet and contemporary dance. She holds a degree in Choreography from the University of Arts in Tirana and completed her ballet training at SHMM “Lorenc Antoni” in Prizren. Besjana has performed in acclaimed productions across Kosovo and Albania, and worked with renowned choreographers. Her artistic journey is shaped by diverse stage experiences and international workshops.
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Birta Ásmundsdóttir is an Icelandic dancer and choreographer. Her main interests are using femininity as a tool to connect with the audience, through choreography and vulnerability. Birta graduated with a BA degree in dance and choreography from the Icelandic University of Arts in 2022. Her newest piece “When a duck turns 18 a boy will eat her” was premiered at Reykjavík Dance Festival in 2024. Birta has worked in many residencies abroad as well as attended Tanzmesse 2024 as a representative for the Icelandic dance scene.
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Carl Aquilizan (they/them) is a Norwegian/Filipino dance artist based in Oslo. Their artistic work explores decolonial, queer and transformative practices. They are interested in queering and bending social norms and binary thinking, and in reimagining social structures as a way to create safe and inclusive spaces. Through questioning and disrupting cultural norms and traditional spaces, Carl seeks to create discourses that inform, challenge, expand and decolonise our ways of thinking.
Carl is currently developing the projects Out of Place, SIYA and Elsewhere, which further explore these themes.
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Carlo Massari is a trans-disciplinary creator, choreographer and performer, renowned for blending dance, theatre and opera into hybrid and innovative works. His unique style transcends the boundaries of traditional performance, shaping a fluid and 'amphibious' approach to art.
Founder and Artistic Director of C&C Company, he has long been at the forefront of research and production in dance theatre. His work has earned international recognition and collaborations with prestigious cultural institutions.
In 2019, he founded ANFIBIA, a training programme for contemporary performers aimed at fostering a new generation of creators.
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Carlota Grau Bagès is a stage director, dramaturg and dancer. She works with the hybridisation of artistic languages such as dance, performance, theatre, film, and visual arts. She and her artistic partner, Raquel Cor, founded Banda Esfèrica, a Barcelona-based performing arts company. Graduated in Performing Arts (mention in Stage Direction and Dramaturgy) by Institut del Teatre de Barcelona and graduated in Audiovisual Communication by the URV/UdL. She also trained in Fine Arts, and contemporary and urban dance in Barcelona.
She has been the stage director to Frogs in the sky, water on earth! (Fira Tàrrega, 2025), Lot 5/6 Pedra (Sala Trono de Tarragona, 2023), Tsunami or something's gonna happen tonight (TNT Festival, 2022), Ahir by Animal Religion (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, 2020). She has also collaborated as a dramatist, coreographer, performer and dancer in companies of different disciplines.
i: @antcacao
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Cécile Da Costa Pereira is a Prague-based singer, performer and choreographer of French-Portuguese origin. She has performed in performances of Farm in the Cave company, of which she had been a member for five years, and now she has been cooperating for several years with Spitfire Company. She leads physical theatre workshops in the Czech Republic, France, Poland and Greece.
In her work, Cécile seeks voices that can move the body and bodies that can move the voice. Her solo performance "The Narrator", directed by Petr Boháč, won the Dancer of the Year 2018 award and the nomination for Total Physical Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017. Her first work is the solo "Roselyne" (2019), which was selected as one of three Czech productions to be part of Twenty21 by Aerowaves – a selection of 20 top works of 2021 in the field of physical theatre.
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Chandra Grangean and Lise Messina are Les Idoles. They met in 2012 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. Driven by artistic affinities, they began collaborating during their years of study. Later, they worked together with Maguy Marin and in 2022, they founded Les Idoles, which is part of La Feat: an artistic platform where they exchange and collaborate with two other collectives, Hoods Flakes and Dikie Istorii.
Les Idoles’ approach is searching, stealing references, slipping into someone else’s shoes. They are a tribute collective, criss-crossed by a myriad of cinematic, photographic and musical references. This unique and offbeat workspace allows them to question the images that surround them, from the most popular to the most elitist. Which ones do we forget, or which persist over time? Through bodily and musical research, they create projects, and hybrid, quirky, and anachronistic performances. They enjoy playing with codes and changing perspectives. Thus, the question of gaze and the relationship with the audience runs through their work.
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Chara Kostali is a dance maker, performer, and teacher based in Greece. She graduated from Rallou Manou Professional School of Dance, where she currently works as a teacher of contemporary dance, along with Marmarinou Professional Dance School, while she has been a guest teacher and choreographer at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD).
She explores choreography and performance through an expanded approach, attempting to involve methodologies from anthropology, documentary art, music, and other performing languages while being particularly concerned with the politics of sound and movement. Her practice includes writing, field recordings, and DIY sound composition. Her work has been presented in venues in Greece and abroad, and she has been selected as one of the Twenty24 Aerowaves artists.
w: www.charakotsali.com
i: @charakotsali -
Charlotte Goesaert is a Belgian choreographer and performer.
Starting in 2016, she created her first works, EPIC FAIL (2016), Loophole (2018), ChitChat (2019) and I-object (2021).
In 2020 Charlotte embarked on the large-scale research project CRIP.
In 2022, Charlotte created the performance whatchamacallit, a performance-exhibition featuring a diverse cast of four performers.
In 2025, Goesaert premiered a physical documentary performance titled BAKENEKO about the construct of child abuse.
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Clara da Costa graduated in SEAD (Salzburg) and NYU's Tisch School. She's an accomplished performer and choreographer, with experience across musical theatre where she is choreographer and director, audiovisual projects, and workshops, including Cirque du Soleil. Since 2003, she has led her "Corpo Único" workshop internationally. Her recent works include a collaboration with Ukrainian choreographer Yana Reutova, "Womanhood", and the premiere of her solo "Peel the Onion" at Tanec Praha's opening season.
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Daniel Navarro Morales is dancer, choreographer, and teacher born in Gran Canaria, and has trained in Urban and Contemporary Dance since 2002. His vision focuses on the transmission of thoughts, sensations, and experiences applied to the mechanics of the body, touching and questioning realities in an attempt to transform them through the beauty of the stage. A physical language rich in content that moves away from virtuosity, allowing the body itself and its authenticity to shape the form of his works.
In 2014, he began creating his own performances, with which he has received special mentions at national and international competitions such as the International Solo Dance Competition at the Gdansk Dance Festival (Poland), where he was awarded second prize in 2017 and first prize in 2019.
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Daria Koval is a Ukrainian contemporary dance artist and choreographer based between Ukraine and Tenerife, Spain. Her work explores war, memory, resilience, and political embodiment. She is also a certified teacher of DP method and a creator of the Safe Space movement method. From 2022, she has been a dancer in MK dance company, where she has toured internationally with different works including Resistance Movement and Every Minute Motherland.
i: @dara_koval
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Dejan Bitrovski is a contemporary dancer and choreographer rooted in hip-hop and urban styles. Under the mentorship of PhD Risima Risimkin, he earned his Master’s in Contemporary Dance Education at “Goce Delchev” University. Since 2014, he has been part of Skopje Dance Theater as dancer and choreographer. His works, including Me and Us, Contour, and Abandoned Future, explore social themes, multimedia, and collaborations with artists across Europe and Asia.
In 2022, he co-founded the contemporary art collective Dance Bunker, developing new platforms for dance and performance.
i: @__debit__
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Deva Schubert is a choreographer and dancer based in Berlin. In her artistic practice, she concentrates on experimentation with the voice. She studied dance in Salzburg, Kassel, Copenhagen and at the HZT Berlin as well as visual arts at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Her works explore the crossroads of dance, installation, and digital media, often highlighting the topics of intimacy, collectivity, and the synergies between transdisciplinary practices. They have been presented in renowned institutions such as Haus der Kunst Munich, Kunsthalle Zurich, Gessnerallee Zurich, Uppsala Art Museum, Radialsystem and the Sophiensæle in Berlin as well as at the Transart Festival in Bolzano. Her piece Glitch Choir was awarded the ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award in 2024.
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Dorian Mallia is a highly regarded dance practitioner, scholar, choreographer, educator and performer. As the Founder and Artistic Director of MOVEO Dance Company, he has made significant contributions to contemporary dance.
Mallia began his ballet training at JCDC Malta before advancing his studies at the Central School of Ballet in London, where he earned a degree in Professional Dance and Performance. His academic journey continued at the University of Malta, where he obtained a Master's degree in Performing Studies (Dance).
His career has been marked by prestigious achievements and collaborations. He has performed at top international venues with renowned companies such as European Ballet (UK), RBR Dance Company (Verona, Italy), LaMov Compania de Danza (Spain), Paganini Dance Company (Rome), and Mavinkhoodance (Singapore). His work as a choreographer and performer has been showcased globally, receiving acclaim at esteemed venues worldwide.
In 2008, Mallia founded MOVEO Dance Company, which has gained recognition both locally and internationally for its diverse repertoire. Under his leadership, MOVEO Dance Company, alongside Diane Portelli, who became a Director in 2017, was honored with the prestigious Premju Għall-Arti award as Artists of the Year in 2018. This recognition further solidified their artistic excellence and contributions to the field. Additionally, in 2020, MOVEO Dance Company received the Best Creative Enterprise Award, further highlighting their innovative and outstanding work.
Beyond performance and choreography, Mallia is a dedicated educator and researcher. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta and MCAST, where he shares his expertise with aspiring dancers and contributes to the development of the field. His academic pursuits include the essay Queer Dance and Ambiguity – Unveiling Fluid Expressions on Stage, which was featured in the publication Breaking the Silence – Homosexuality in Maltese History, further showcasing his engagement with critical discourse in dance studies.
Dorian Mallia’s multidisciplinary career spanning performance, choreography, education, and research has established him as a leading figure in contemporary dance. His commitment to pushing boundaries and exploring new narratives continues to shape the field, while the accolades and awards received by MOVEO Dance Company underscore their exceptional artistic achievements.
w: www.moveodancecompany.com
i: @dorianmallia
i: @moveodancecompany -
Nea is a dancer, choreographer and digital artist. She has created interactive performance works for stage, the web, VR and mobile phones. Nea’s work deals with human digital presence and its affect on our bodies, minds, and interpersonal relationships.
Previous works include “desktop.dreams”, a live streamed computer desktop performance where programs such as Excel, Chrome, and Photobooth act as extensions of body and mind, “Mobilized - An essay pretending to be a game”, a participatory performance centered around power, smartphone use, and collective movements, and “OTHER”, an intimate physical meeting between two participants connecting via a custom built browser app.
Her work has been shown online and around Sweden at venues such as Tekniska Muséet, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, iMKonsthall, Inter Arts Center, DansPlats Skog, PlayLab Skövde, through Riksteatern and at Polygon Palm. From 2022-2024, Nea was an incubator artist at SITE Sweden production house.
w: nealandin.com
i: @nealandin -
Elinor Tollerz Bratteby, born 1990 in Uppsala and living in Stockholm, works with dance and choreography. Since 2012 she has been working in Scandinavia, Europe, North America and East Asia, in various constellations of brilliant independent artists.
Her artistic practice approaches relations, materials and situations with a deliberate interest for ‘what is already there’. In her works, dance and choreography find their way into other fields of knowledge, like feminism, philosophy, or metaphysics, and other art forms, like poetry, architecture, or photography, as a way of relating to the ‘there’ that is yet to be familiar.
w: elinortb.com
i: @elinortb -
Enad Marouf is a Syrian/ artist based in Berlin. His works include choreography, video, text and installation. He finished his MA in choreography and performance in the institute for theatre applied science Giessen/ Frankfurt in 2014. In his work, Marouf explores the fragmentary nature of memory, loss, and desire—their temporality and the ways in which they are embodied through poetry, video, installation and choreography. In 2023 he was awarded the Will Grohmann prize at the Akademie der Künste Berlin.
i: @enadmarouf
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Femke Gyselinck is a Brussels-based dancer and choreographer known for her distinctive movement language and interdisciplinary approach. A graduate from P.A.R.T.S. (2006), she began her career as a freelance performer, collaborating with Eleanor Bauer and Andros Zins-Browne and participating in Deborah Hay’s Solo Commissioning Project. From 2010 to 2018, she was the artistic assistant to Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Rosas before pursuing her own choreographic career.
Her work intricately weaves dance with music, balancing subtle performativity with expressive movement. Gyselinck is one of four artistic directors of GRIP, alongside Jan Martens, Cherish Menzo, and Steven Michel, and is a faculty member at P.A.R.T.S.
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Born in Torino in 1993, Francesca Chiodi Latini is a performer and choreographer based in Leuven, Belgium.
Since her graduation from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in 2017, she’s been working as performer and rehearsal director for Voetvolk/Lisbeth Gruwez.
Since 2022, Francesca has been an associated artist with KAAP and was previously supported by wpZimmer.
She is active in the Belgian scene as a maker, creating HOLDERS (2025) and JARDIN POILU (2020).
She teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, and she previously collaborated with ZONZO and performed for Virgilio Sieni, Marcelo Evelin and Corinne Lanselle.
w: @francinis
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Gaetano Palermo and Michele Petrosino are an artistic duo working across choreography and visual arts. Their research investigates the ontology of performance at the boundary between reality and fiction, through the lens of movement and stillness. Their work has been supported and presented by festivals and institutions including La Biennale di Venezia, Triennale Milano, Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale, MAMbo Bologna, Teatro Regio Parma, Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Santarcangelo Festival, Gender Bender Festival, IRA Festival, Fondazione Armunia, Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria, Festival Danza in Rete, Sardegna Teatro, and Kilowatt Festival. Since 2023, the duo has been supported by the national dance production organisation KLm – Kinkaleri, Le Supplici, mk.
w: www.palermopetrosino.com
i: @gaetanopalermo_
i: @michele.petrosino -
Giorgia Lolli (1996) is an Italian dance artist with an MA in Choreography from Helsinki Uniarts. Her work, centred on the agency of female-identifying dancers, has crossed platforms such as Romaeuropa, Gender Bender, Operaestate and Aterballetto.
She teaches Dance Well – Movement Research for Parkinson’s and regularly engages in community-based projects.
w: giorgialolli.com
f: @georgialolla
i: @georgialolla
y: @geogialolli -
Guilhem Chatir is a French dancer and choreographer of Moroccan origin, based in Brussels. His practice unfolds within the field of dance, at the intersection of choreographic writing, radical physical commitment, and a close dialogue with live music. He trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and later continued his studies at P.A.R.T.S. As a performer, he has notably danced for Wim Vandekeybus, Akram Khan, Yoann Bourgeois, Boris Charmatz, and Serge Aimé Coulibaly. In 2022, he created Vertiges, a duet with violinist David Petrlik set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor. This project marked a foundational step in his work, affirming his interest in the relationship between dance and live music, as well as in bodily states shaped by falling and momentum. In 2025, he created Ni Ni Ya Mo Mo, a piece for three dancers. Guilhem Chatir is an associate artist at the Concertgebouw Brugge from 2025 to 2027.
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Guillem Jiménez is a choreographer and performer based in Barcelona. He graduated in Choreography from the Conservatorio Superior de Danza of the Institut del Teatre (Barcelona) and since 2019, has led the dance project/company laSADCUM, with which he develops most of his choreographic practice. He also collaborates with artists such as Luqui Lagomarsino, YesSi Persé, Meritxell de Soto, and Amaranta Velarde.
His work has been seen in venues and contexts such as Teatros del Canal, Sonar Festival, Festival Tanečnon, Teatro Réplika, Frascati, CCCB, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Dansa Metropolitana and Dansa Valencia. He has done workshops at venues such as the School of Arts / Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, Espai la Granja, Tabakalera and Act Festival. He received the 2021 ACT Award for Best International Dance Piece and the 10 Sentidos Festival Jury Award for THE LESSON (2020) laSADCUM, the 2024 DansaCat Award for Best Choreography for ACLUCALLS (2022) laSADCUM and the 2024 Pedra Viva Award and the 2024 DansaCat Award for Best Show for NAVAJA (2024) laSADCUM.
w: lasadcum.com
i: @lasadcum / @guillemjiménez -
Henri Hütt is an artist, performer and curator working in various forms. He has created and directed numerous performative acts, staged exhibitions, sound performances, and other time-and-space formats on various stages in Estonia and internationally. Henri often finds himself at the beginning of pioneering something significant, although his life motto revolves around “The more you do, the less you will be remembered”.
Lately, nature drives him more than artificial environments. We’ll see where it takes him.
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Inaja Katharina Skands is a dancer, and choreographer based in Copenhagen, working with dance and scriptwriting as a means to generate choreography and contemporary theatre through written material. Her interest lies in exploring flatscapes, myths, stories and other fantastical themes. Her working process is deeply physical, yet she is a daydreamer at heart. The play with fantasising and daydreaming is an incredibly important aspect of both her practice and creation process. Through her current work, she is exploring the body, as a vessel for the creation of endless fiction.
Her latest works are: Some Thing for me to believe (2025), GODS DEEPEST HOLE (2025) and But, I am shaped like a star (2025).
Inaja is currently studying the MFA of Choreography at The Danish National School of Performing Arts and holds a BFA in Dance & Choreography from the same institution.
i: @skarpt_objekt
w: ddsks.dk/da/studerende/inaja-katharina-skands -
Inês Melo Campos is an interdisciplinary artist working in the fields of choreography, film, music and visual arts. Through her work, she explores the body and its symbolic place through pragmatic-poetry imagery.
Inês has created works with Teia Campos ("coexistimos", "Artificĭu, fio ^" and "Castōr e Pollūx") and Vahan Kerovpyan ("frente-a-frente:). She has collaborated with Tânia Carvalho, Flora Détraz, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, Kalle Nio, Catarina Vasconcelos, Cláudia Varejão, Marco Martins and Capicua, and she composes, sings and designs for Sopa de Pedra and Tigre.
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Ixchel Mendoza Hernández is a Mexican choreographer based in Berlin. Her work explores the concept of the "Visual Ghost," examining presence, absence, and the correlation between perception and inner virtuality. Her choreography examines how invisible phenomena manifest and how realities are reshaped through interaction.
Her latest work, “The Infinite Gesture”, premiered in December 2024 at Radialsystem, and her upcoming project, “A Scenario Of A System Off”, will premiere in December 2025 at Radialsystem.
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Jakub Mędrzycki is a dancer and choreographer based in Warsaw. He graduated from Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam. From 2015 to 2019 he was a member of the Swedish contemporary dance company Norrdans. He collaborates with director and choreographer Jo Strømgren in Oslo and has performed as a guest with the Norwegian National Ballet. He has created several works presented in Poland and internationally and is the president of the Moving Lands Foundation.
w: jakubmedrzycki.com/bio
i: @jakubmedrzycki/
f: @jakub.medrzycki.7 -
Jean-Baptiste Baele is a freelance Belgian choreographer based in Kristians and Norway. Originally from Madagascar, he grew up in Belgium with his adopted family, and started to dance at the age of 19. Under the mentorship of Valérie Matthieu and Talina Jager, he evolved as a dancer in Belgium for 3 years before moving to London to study at Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance. After graduating in 2015 with the Marion North Award for Outstanding Performance, Jean-Baptiste presented his piece Rhetorical is the good word, a duet with young Belgian artist Malik Zaryaty, in the Bonnie Bird Theater. He has performed for several choreographers such as Mia Habib, Daniel Mariblanca, Fred Gehrig (Synchronicity, UK), among others. In 2021, Jean-Baptiste created his first auto-biographical solo piece, Nabinam, part of Aerowaves Spring Forward 2023. In 2022, Jean-Baptiste created his own company, Nabinam Dance Company, of which he is now the artistic director. When it comes to choreographing, Jean-Baptiste focuses on investigating the complexity of social behaviours, the historical background of a body and its memories, and physicalities that evolve through space.
w: nabinam.com
i: @nabinam.co -
Jens Jeffry Trinidad is a Filipino-Norwegian dance artist based in Oslo. He is rooted in club and streetdance, and works on projects within contemporary dance and performance. He has worked with choreographers such as Hooman Sharifi, Elle Sofe Sara, Manuel Pelmus, Rosalind Goldberg and Harald Beharie, to name a few. Trinidad approaches choreography from a performer-centred perspective, where the performing body is central both in the process and on stage.
He was awarded Rolf Gammeleng’s in 2024 for meritorious efforts in stage performances and Gulljerven for Artist achievement of the Year in 2025 by Scenekunstbruket.
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Jérôme is a Lyon-based dancer and choreographer, trained at a dance school in Lyon, with the rest of his artistic path self-taught. He blends contemporary dance, B-boying, and House into a unique, musical movement. His work is versatile, raw, energetic, yet sensitive, exploring the balance between power and delicacy, and creating performances that connect physically and emotionally with audiences.
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Juraj Bilený is a dancer and performer exploring intersections with visual art. He only began dancing as an adult while studying Economics and Swedish. His work focuses on themes of spirituality, queer ecology, humour and fairy tales. Last year, he completed his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts and also undertook an internship at the Department of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
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Juulius Vaiksoo is an Estonian dancer who got his BA degree in contemporary dance from Iceland University of the Arts in 2024. After his graduation, he has been busy with work in both of his home countries as well as elsewhere in Europe – either working or taking workshops. Dance has brought him to people such as David Zambrano, Martin Kilvady, Loreen, Ólafur Arnalds, and many Gaga teachers.
His style is minimalistic yet grotesque, with the main focus on improvisation and impulses, which makes his dance unpredictable. He dances mainly in silence.
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Kaide Gonzalez is a dancer, specialising in Hip Hop and House, born and raised in Sweden with Chilean roots. He began his professional dance training at Åsa Folkhögskola (2009) and has returned there over the years to deepen his knowledge of street dance. His journey has also taken him to Broadway Dance Center in New York and later to the Academy of Theatre and Dance in the Netherlands, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in dance pedagogy (2022).
Kaide is one of the founders of the Swedish dance group Majeko as well as a member of the international collective Bakemono. He is also active on the international battle scene while also teaching and performing. In 2025, he is touring with the European project 'Attitudes' with the performance 'Chasing Butterflies' as both a dancer and choreographer.
With respect for the Hip Hop and House dance cultures he is a guest in, Kaide is developing his own freestyle method, Leviathan Flow, focusing on flow and full-body engagement. He also shares insights on dance, mindset, and long-term practice on his YouTube channel Road to Infinity.
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Kara graduated from the Iceland University of the Arts in 2011 with a BA in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography. Since then, she has built a multifaceted career as a choreographer, producer and cultural leader within performing arts in Iceland.
In 2016, she founded the collective Trigger Warning, where she has created and produced her own works. Her debut piece 'Hún pabbi' premiered at the Reykjavík City Theatre in 2017, followed by 'Velkomin Heim' at the National Theatre of Iceland in 2019, later adapted for Radio Theatre in 2020. In 2020 she premiered 'BRUM', which was restaged in 2021, most recently Stroke at Tjarnarbíó in 2023 and she has two new works in development.
Alongside her own artistic practice, Kara has served as Executive Producer of Reykjavík Dance Festival since 2015, collaborating with a wide range of local and international artists. From 2020 to 2024, she worked as Project Manager and Head of Marketing at the Reykjavík Arts Festival, overseeing major projects and audience development.
In 2021, Kara founded the production company MurMur, through which she has produced numerous works across dance, opera, theatre and music in collaboration with independent artists and ensembles.
In 2025, Kara took a role as a Producer at the Iceland Dance Company.
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Katerina Goga has academic training in contemporary dance and choreography from the University of Arts, Albania, and studies in movement technique, composition, improvisation, and performance.
She has participated in dance festivals in Italy, and has worked with choreographer Gjergj Prevazi as well as performances and choreographic projects as part of university productions.
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Kateryna is a Ukrainian contemporary dancer and choreographer, born in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region) and currently based in Ukraine.
She began dancing at 16 and quickly entered the professional field. Kateryna graduated in Contemporary Dance Choreography from Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. She started her career in Ukraine and China’s commercial dance sectors before establishing herself in the theatrical world of contemporary dance, working for six years as a leading soloist at Kyiv Modern Ballet while collaborating with independent companies such as Baza Art People and Ukrainian Dance Theater.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kateryna expanded her international experience, participating in NDT Summer Intensive (Netherlands) and collaborating with Holstebro Dance Company (Denmark) and Hannover State Opera (Germany). She also developed her independent artistic voice through residencies in Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, and Ukraine. In late 2022, together with her husband Illia Miroshnichenko, she co-founded INSHA Dance Company, as a platform producing contemporary dance works and supporting emerging Ukrainian artists.
Kateryna also develops her pedagogical work, offering lectures and classes in Ukraine and Europe. In 2024, she obtained her certification in Pilates, which she integrates into her dance and teaching practice, collaborating with schools including TOTEM Contemporary Dance School and Kyiv Ballet College “Kyjanochka.”
Her artistic path has involved exploring different approaches to movement – from idealising form and meaning, to moving for the sake of movement, to following or resisting the flow and energy of the body. These experiences helped her realise that the art of dance is much more than movement: it is a lifelong practice, a way of living and being in the world.
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Khamlane Halsackda was born in Laos, grew up in the UK, and now lives in Malmö, Sweden. He has worked within dance for 30 years, and this, as well as turning 50 recently, ignites his reflections on ageing, queerness, connection, community, ecology, and sustainability.
Khamlane’s work questions, "How can all our perspectives exist in one place at the same time?" He leans on this philosophical question as a way to welcome diverse perspectives and lived experiences into his creative work, embracing dialogue and curiosity.
w: nyarorelsen.com
i: @khamlane -
Kinga Jaczewska is a choreographer and dancer whose work explores the politics of visibility. With her work, she aims to draw focus to subjects which, in her experience, are placed at the periphery or have been overlooked.
Her work unfolds through research clusters which are defined by specific questions, and experiments with various methods, forms and approaches to movement. Characterised by choreographic precision, Kinga’s work is always departing from the body as a site of inquiry, reflection and a vessel for emotional depth and lived experience.
Kinga studied in London Contemporary Dance School (UK), Northern School of Contemporary dance (UK) and P.A.R.T.S. (Research Cycle) in Brussels (BE).
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Kosta Karakashyan is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, choreographer, and writer exploring empathy through movement and storytelling. He creates bold, concept-driven productions across stage, film and immersive experiences that move, provoke and connect. His work has been presented by the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, One Dance Festival, The Gabrovo Biennale of Humor and Satire, and he is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree and a member of the European Film Academy.
w: studiokarakashyan.com
i: @kostakarakashyan
f: @kosta.m.karakashyan
t: @kostakarakashyan -
Laura Alcala Freudenthal is a creative director, choreographer, and movement director. She co-directs the dance company LaSúbita. Among her most recent projects are POP. A Dance Monologue (2023), Flesh and Flowers for Tanzkollektiv Bremen (2024), and ONA, a dance and live music performance for early childhood (2025, Mercat de les Flors), as well as the choreography for Rigoberta Bandini’s latest music video directed by Cèlia Giraldo. She is also a lecturer at ERAM and Shifta by Elisava.
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Lilian Steiner is an Australian dancer and choreographer, now based in Stockholm. From 2010, Lilian worked in Australia as a major performer/collaborator with Lucy Guerin Inc. Company, and many independent choreographers and artists working with live performance and film in the fields of visual arts, experimental sound and architecture/design. Since 2023, Lilian has been working with the renowned company Cullberg, performing works by Alexandra Bachzetsis, Hooman Sharifi, Alma Söderberg, Halla Ólafsdóttir and Renan Martins. Lilian’s choreographic practice spans live performance, text, sculptural installation and teaching. Her work has been presented in Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Latvia, Sweden, the UK, and Hong Kong.
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Linda Wardal is a choreographer, dancer and pedagogue, living in the country side of Sweden. She holds a master's degree in choreography from Stockholm University of the Arts and a bachelor's degree in dance education. Linda has created more than 20 dance performances and believes strongly in community. She makes group performances as well as solo work. Linda wants to create an outdoor performance festival in the village where she lives.
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Originally from Lyon, Malika Djardi trained in contemporary dance at UQAM in Montreal and the National Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers (2009 – 2011). She has performed for Mélanie Perrier, Joris Lacoste, Ola Maciejewska, Alexandre Roccoli, among others, and collaborates with Pierre Droulers. Developing her work with the solo Sa prière, created in April 2014 at La Raffinerie in Brussels, she continues to explore performance as an object of documentation, notably by interviewing her mother, who converted from Catholicism to Islam.
The duo Horion was created at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales of Seine-Saint-Denis (France) in May 2016. For the Charleroi Dance Biennale (Belgium) in 2017, she conceived the piece-lecture 3, addressing the genre of science fiction and the issue of emotions in a disenchanted fertility ritual. She was in residence for creation at the National Center for Dance (France) in 2019 – 2020 for PIER 7, which starts with a dialogue with professional skateboarder JB Gillet. Her latest piece, Martyre, a tribute to her mother suffering from Alzheimer’s, premiered on March 27, 2024, as part of the Le Grand Bain festival with the Gymnase CDCN in Roubaix.
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Márcio K. Canabarro was born in 1985 in Brazil. He is a dancer and choreographer with a BA in Social Communication, a Performing Major from SEAD, and a certified Embodied Myoreflex Therapy Practitioner.
Márcio is interested in exploring the intersections of narratology, performance and mindfulness practices. His work focuses on the so-cio-emotional implications of accessibility, specifically how cultural biases around vision shape the intimacy, self esteem, and social roles of the blind and visually impaired community.
Márcio also works as a freelance dancer for Hodworks (HU), CRANKY BODIES/a company (DE) and Meg Stuart/ Damaged Goods (BE/DE). In the past he has collaborated with Benoit Lachambre, Sara Shelton Mann, Mark Thompkins, Keith Henessy and others.
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María is an artist from La Rioja, Spain, whose work is based on research into the body, the moving image, and the expressive power of hybrid languages. Trained in Fine Arts and Contemporary Dance, María's work moves through dance, performance, audiovisual media, and visual dramaturgy.
In 2025, she received the Performance Award at Festival Microdansa Itinerante15m2 with her dance solo CAMPO ABIERTO.
Recently she was also a guest artist for Enproceso Creation Residency supported by Satis.FACTORY Art Space and Iberescena, selected with her project PNEUMA as part as LAS MAÑAS, the scenic collective she co-funded.
María researches composition through the moving image. Her practice is motivated by the relationship between elements and bodies in the scenic space and the expressive ways they affect each other.
i: @mariagazpi
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Maria Solei Järvet is an Estonian choreographer, dancer, and researcher working and creating across Europe. She studied in Copenhagen and has performed at the Estonian National Opera, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, Dansekapellet, Aveny-T, Centro Coreográfico de La Gomera, and Dansverkstæðið.
Her work explores the body as a living archive – using movement to reclaim empathy and uncover what lies beneath the surface.
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Mariia is a choreographer from Ukraine. In her artistic practices, Mariia questions art’s f_utility during significant crises and gross human suffering. A substantial part of her exploration of bodily movement is the potency of the mixed-ability dance practice. Her recent works incorporate auto-ethnographic elements and storytelling about the politics of touch and the weight of time. She is a certified DanceAbility teacher and holds an MFA degree in Experimental Choreography from the University of California Riverside.
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Marion Darova is a choreographer and performer from Sofia. Her interests include philosophy, psychoanalysis, social issues, and gender. Her works are characterised by minimalism and repetition of movement. Marion explores the inclusion of the body in the question of identity and the problematisation of the natural-social relationship. She graduated in “Philosophy” at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”. From 2008 to 2011 she studied “Directing for Drama Theater” at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov”. In 2015 she completed a one-year training programme in contemporary dance, “Derida Port Derida”. She graduated the programme “Artistic psychosocial practices and psychodrama“ at New Bulgarian University. She made her choreographic debut in 2016 with “Mainstream”.
In 2017 she participated in the Bulgarian showcase of the European Festival of Contemporary Dance and Performance “Airwaves” with the show “Trauma”. 2018 is the premiere of “Corpus meum”, which aims to provoke a debate on the legalisation of euthanasia. Her performance “Hating machine” explores the genealogy of hatred and its formation in the ideology of groups. Marion participated as a performer in biotope performances of the Dutch company “United Cowboys” in 2019 and 2022. In the spring of 2020 she participated in a joint exhibition of the “Bulgarian Women’s Fund” with the installation “Spill” based on the film “Person” by Ingmar Bergman . For her performance “WO MAN” (which highlights gender issues) Marion was awarded the prestigious IKAR Award 2020 in the category “Contemporary Dance and Performance”. In 2022 “FREEFALL” premiered at One Dance Festival. It is nominated for IKAR award 2022. Her latest pieces are “Code Red” and “Never ever Monday” (2024).i: @mariondarova
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Martina Apostolova is a theater and film actress. More than a decade she is part of the underground art scene in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has taken part in more than 30 theatre plays and dance performances. Her feature film debut as Irina, in “Irina” (dir. Nadezhda Koseva, 2018) has bring her numerous international best actress awards and in 2020 she is chosen as one of the ten Shooting Stars at Berlinale International Film Festival. “Phi 1.618” (dir. Theodore Ushev), “Whole” (dir. Slava Doytcheva), “With river at heart” (TV series), are among her memorable roles. She also works as acting-coach in film productions. She was a part of the juries of numerous international and Bulgarian film festivals. Since 2020 she is a teacher and trainer at New Bulgarian University’s theater department.
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Mateusz Kowalski is anctor associated with the Wrocław Mime Theatre since 2007. Since 2010, he has been leading movement theatre classes at the Art-Play studio of Dorota Pomykała and Danuta Schlette. Associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, he was responsible for stage movement as an expert in diploma projects. He has carried out artistic and educational activities on many stages in Poland, as well as in countries including Norway, Cuba, Russia, Ukraine, Tunisia, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Serbia, Germany, and Portugal. Currently, he collaborates with the Rozbark Theatre in Bytom
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Maurícia Barreira Neves (Portimão – Portugal, 1989) is a choreographer and performer. She has produced her own dance, performance, installation and music creations, also venturing into costumes and lighting design.
She created the pieces WHAT TOOK YOU so long? (2023); FODAM-ME TUDO menos o coração! (2021/2023); and STILL we MOVE in collaboration with Joana Castro (2021); anesthetize (2019); This is not for sale e é um manifesto (2018); I can’t see the sea (2018); We are NOT so pretentious in collaboration with António Torres and Barbara Carlos (2017); The power of unknown CHAOS (2016); WE WILL USE SMOKE MACHINES (2016); I’m not comfortable talking to you from up here (2015); and This is not a love story. This is A and B (2015).
w: cargocollective.com/MauriciaBarreiraNeves/
i: @mauricia_barreira_neves -
Maya Oliva is an Italian dancer and choreographer. They are interested in dances that create temporal collapses and channels toward multi-layered and dissonant emotions. Maya works through rich slowness and different movement rhythm temporalities, drawn to emotions present in the pre-word, the moment before a sentence is uttered. Maya graduated from P.A.R.T.S in 2015 and from Uniarts Helsinki (MA in choreography) in 2022. They received the DanceWEB Impulstanz scholarship in 2025.
w: www.mayaoliva.com
i: @maya.oliva -
Michiel Vandevelde studied dance and choreography at P.A.R.T.S., Brussels. He is active as a choreographer, curator, writer and editor.
Currently he is the artistic director of CAMPO, an arts centre and production house in Ghent (BE). Previously, as a programmer/curator he worked for International Arts Centre DE SINGEL, Extra City Kunsthal, Bâtard festival, Precarious Pavilions.
Vandevelde’s artistic work is presented and supported throughout Europe by Münchner Kammerspiele, Kaaitheater, Concertgebouw Brugge/Dans in Brugge, Platform-K, PACT Zollverein, Wiener Festwochen, steirischer herbst, STUK, Viernulvier, Theater Neumarkt, among others.
From 2017 to 2021, Michiel Vandevelde was artist in residence at Kaaitheater (Brussels, BE). In 2021-2022, Vandevelde was Creative Ambassador of the city of Leuven (BE). From 2023 to 2025 he had a Maker Trajectory at Dans in Brugge (Brugge, BE).
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Ming Jou Chen is a choreographer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam. A graduate of the SNDO (School for New Dance Development) at the AHK and a dance degree at the University of Taipei, her artistic practice is deeply influenced by her fascination with underwater ecosystems and nonhuman phenomena. Drawing on her experiences as a scuba diver and her observations of coral reefs, she uses body movement, visual media, and sound to create immersive, otherworldly spaces for her audiences. By integrating diverse sensory elements and nonlinear storytelling, Ming Jou invites viewers to reconsider traditional narratives and connect with a range of perspectives and lifeforms. Her work explores the potential for connection across human and non-human experiences, continually seeking ways to decentre the human spirit and discover the beauty of our interconnected world.
In recent years, her work has been showcased at venues such as Frascati, Brakke Grond, Cinedans, CTM Berlin, and Miaobei Art Center in Taiwan.
Ming Jou Chen’s recent work, The Terrestrial Gathering of the Mermaids - PURE, dives into East Asian female self-consciousness, inspired by her personal experiences and cultural roots. In this piece, she crafts an oceanic landscape filled with love songs, struggles, moments of disorientation, and healing rituals. Through this evocative setting, she challenges and reinterprets societal narratives, creating a space where political and personal identities seamlessly intertwine.
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Nataša Kustura is a dance artist and researcher based in Croatia. She enrolled in the BA programme in Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, graduating in 2022. During her studies, she developed her technical and performative practice by working with various Croatian and international dance artists.
Since 2015, she has been an active member of the Zadar Dance Ensemble. She has also performed in works by Ida Jolić, Matea Bilosnić, Josipa Štulić, among others. In 2022, she co-authored and performed Melusine , presented at the Perforations Festival in Buenos Aires in collaboration with the Zagreb-based Domino Association. That same year, she performed in the Croatian Pavilion at the 59th International Exhibition of Visual Arts – La Biennale di Venezia.
In addition to her artistic and academic work, Nataša is a co-founder of OS, an artistic organisation that focuses on creating contemporary and interdisciplinary performing art practices.
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Neda Ruzheva is the artistic director of Amsterdam-based choreographic label Trevoga. From hope-fanatics to doomers and affect aliens of all kinds, Trevoga is a chaotic intersection of performance artists who move against the flow. United by a desire to most literally be stressed – to let the present crawl under their skin and feel the world pressing against them – they channel anxiety not as a metaphor but as an embodied, visceral experience, where the future is still up for grabs – raw, uncertain, alive, and still worth losing sleep over. For Trevoga, the capitalist body is not a temple – it is an abandoned shopping mall, littered with consumerist relics, synthetic chemicals, and sexually suggestive imagery. Their work scavenges for the most unsettling undertones beneath the glossy surface of urban hyperreality. Twisting popular tropes and cultural symbols into sensuous, dissonant forms, they stitch together reflections of a perplexingly grotesque present – dissecting themselves as symptoms of its countless addictions and using the stage as a means to disentangle its many dissonant processes and conflicting forces. Trevoga is an Aerowaves Twenty24 Artists. Their debut performance “11 3 8 7”, co-produced by ICK Amsterdam and One Dance Bulgaria, was awarded “Best of Amsterdam Fringe Festival” and was mentioned in NRC NL as part of their critique’s top 5 performances of dutch season 23/24. Trevoga's second work "Xx-63" will premiere during Julidans Festival 2025.
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Nela is a performer and choreographer. She studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Dance Theatre and Performance, Choreography). As a performer, she has participated in projects by S. Kúdeľová (Intensive Tense), B. Janáková (ANSWER_ring), S. Vlk Vlčeková (Veľký nádych), M. Štefančíková (Offline assemblages), amongst others.
Her choreographies were presented at festivals as Tanečno, Kiosk, Movefest Ostrava and NuDanceFest. She is part of Tantelab curated by the Tantehorse company.
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Patryk began his dance career in 2007. He works in contemporary dance, dance improvisation, and hip hop street dance, where he first began. He uses the techniques and knowledge provided by each of these disciplines, allowing him to create his own movement language which is reflected in his work.
An active dancer, he collaborates with choreographers and directors from the Polish theatre and dance scene. As an independent artist, he has produced performances such as 'Sport', 'Connected/Disconnected', 'Osiedlowy Dowód Słuszności', 'A Bunch of Crap', 'To-Do List', 'Ściana-biała-papier-las', and co-choreographed performances including 'Panic', 'Craving', 'Kwiat Paproci' (Fern Flower with co-creator: Michał Strugarek), and 'Show' (co-creators: Paweł Malicki and Daniel Michna).
A graduate of Dance in Physical Culture at the University of Physical Education in Poznań with a specialisation in Dance Choreotherapist, Patryk is also currently a lecturer in this field.
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Rachel Ní Bhraonáin is an artist making multidisciplinary shows and short films from her hometown of Waterford. With storytelling at the core, her work combines dance, writing and sometimes aerial, to create vivid and emotionally honest work.
Rachel also works regularly as a dance teacher and a movement director for theatre. She has directed, choreographed and collaborated on a number of shows presented in Ireland and the UK, including most recently The Maker by Dan Colley, MOSH, Losing Your Body, DancingxCrossroads, Clarity and Glimmer.
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Rita Lira is a Ukrainian choreographer, performer, and dance curator. She studied dance in Kyiv. She combines contemporary and street dance with visual and documentary practices. Her work reflects on mental traps, war, and displacement. From 2022 to 2025 she lived and worked in France, supported by La Briqueterie, and was a resident at Cité Internationale des Arts. She completed the Hérodote education programme at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, is a FoRTE 2025 laureate, and was part of Moving Borders 2023—2025 by Aerowaves. Rita worked for four years with the UA Contemporary Dance Platform. Her works have been presented in France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine. In 2025, she returned to Kyiv.
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Rita Mazza is a Berlin-based performance artist, artistic director, and sign language choreographer specialising in visual sign performances. Born in Turin, Rita studied at the University of Music, Performing Arts, Film and New Media before leaving due to limited sign language communication opportunities. They travelled across Europe, gaining stage experience and establishing themselves in the sign language communities of Germany, Italy, and France.
Mazza’s career took a turn when they played the lead role in the award-winning play Children of a Lesser God. Mazza curated sign language art at the Theaterformen Festival in 2023 and currently consults on sign language access for various projects.
Rita’s recent notable works include: Space 1880 (2021), co-produced with SOPHIENSÆLE; Matters of Rhythm (2023), selected for Tanzplattform Deutschland in 2024; The Voice (2024 – 2026), co-produced by Tanz im August, Mousonturm, and Kampnagel.
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Rósa Ómarsdóttir is an Icelandic choreographer, graduated from Iceland University of the Arts and P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Her work explores encounters between human and non-human forces through interdisciplinary practices merging choreography, sound, and scenography. Rooted in feminist dramaturgy, she creates shifting ecosystems on stage. Her work has been presented in 20 countries internationally and received several Icelandic Theatre Awards.
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Rūta Ronja Pakalne is a Latvian freelance dance and film artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. With a deeply curious and evolving artistic practice, she moves fluidly between choreography, performance, filmmaking, and teaching, exploring the body, presence, and everyday experience as sites of artistic inquiry. Rūta plays an important and active role in shaping the contemporary dance field in Estonia. Through her teaching and mentorship, she prepares a new generation of dancers for professional practice, while continuing to create her own distinctive and interdisciplinary works.
Since 2019, she has been a guest lecturer in contemporary dance technique and dance filmmaking at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM). She has also been teaching at the Latvian Academy of Culture and frequently leads workshops in Estonia, Latvia, and internationally. Her commitment to education as an integral part of her artistic growth is reflected in her ongoing teaching at the Tallinn Ballet School (MUBA) and the contemporary dance school ETA.
Rūta holds a BA degree in Choreography from the Latvian Academy of Culture. She also completed further training at the prestigious contemporary dance school P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Belgium — an experience that continues to inform her artistic approach. Following this, her path lead to film and she graduated with an MA (cum laude) in Film Arts from Tallinn University BFM. Over the past decade, Rūta has collaborated with numerous artists across disciplines, contributing to a wide range of innovative and boundary-pushing projects. Her recent performance/dance works include: "BODY OF DREAMS" (2023), "FREEDOM TO LOSE CONTROL TOGETHER WITH THE MANY" (2023), dance film "H61" that is part of a project Dance+City by the Lithuanian Dance Information Centre and ARTE channel and dance film “CENTRIFUGAL" (2024). In parallel with her performance work, Rūta is active in the field of audiovisual art, creating short interdisciplinary projects and experimental dance films that explore the intersections of movement, image, and embodied storytelling.
Her artistic voice is shaped by a deep attention to the present moment, and a belief in the power of movement as both expression and research.
w: www.rutaronja.com
i: @rutaronja -
Sarah is a dance artist and dance/movement therapist from Malta. After 12 years based in Berlin, Sarah moved back home, continuing her artistic practice spanning initiating, leading and supporting performing arts projects, and taking on various roles as a performer, choreographer, collaborator, producer and educator. Sarah is also an active community artist, bringing movement to various age groups, settings and communities.
i: @vella_sarah
f: @sarahvella -
Semela Skënderasi is a contemporary dance artist whose work unfolds between choreography, performance, and pedagogy. Rooted in movement research and interdisciplinary dialogue, her practice navigates the relationship between body, space, and cultural context. Based in Tirana, she performs and creates work nationally and internationally, while remaining deeply engaged in education, festival coordination, and community development. Through her artistic and pedagogical activities, she seeks to expand contemporary dance practices and foster international exchange within the Albanian dance landscape.
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Sergiu Diță is a performer and choreographer based in Bucharest. He holds BA and MA degrees in Choreography (UNATC) and completed the Academy of Dance and Performance (CNDB). His work uses pop culture as social critique through recycling, sampling, and remixing. His piece MANual (2023) was shown at Mittelyoung 2024, and MEMETICS (2024) was nominated at the 2025 UNITER Awards. He works with Anca Stoica as Platforma 13.
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Shannelle ‘Tali’ Fergus is a London-raised creative working within the dance community and industry across performance, choreography, teaching and talent management. Her style is a blend of street styles and contemporary, leaning towards gesture & pedestrian movement. Tali is the founder, producer and lead facilitator of identity. ideas. industry. (iii) , a programme designed to encourage artists’ curiosity about their creativity and the industry at large, through movement, conversation & literature.
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Soili Huhtakallio (she/they) is a choreographer, contemporary dancer, and producer who works between the precision of gesture and the wildness of sensation. Her practice moves through the body's gravitational intelligence and traces how thought, emotion, and awareness become visible in movement.
She creates collaborative works that explore embodied knowledge, often materialising as group choreographies or participatory performances. Her work has been presented in Zodiak, Theatre Universum and music festivals like Barokki Kuopio and Time of Music.
Trained in dance since the age of four and shaped by decades of practice across styles, Soili holds a BA in Dance and an MA in Choreography from Uniarts Helsinki, where she graduated in 2016. She has worked with choreographers such as Kirsi Monni, Petri Kekoni and Sonja Jokiniemi, and a collaborative article written with Aliina Lindroos has been published in Uniarts Helsinki’s publication series. Irish dance remains her enduring hobby and a counter-rhythm to her daily life.
w: soilihuhtakallio.com
i: @soilihuhtakallio
f: @soili.huhtakallio -
Soňa Kúdelová is a Slovak choreographer, dancer, and performer. She explores themes of interpersonal relationships, society, and psychology through body-mind research and everyday performativity. She created the solo trilogy "Autopilot", "Autocorrect", "Autonomy", and the trio "Intensive Tense". She is the founder of the NGO CHAOSMOS and a board member of PLAST - Slovak Contemporary Dance Platform, where she also coordinates the Dance Residencies Centre TELOCVIČŇA.
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Stanisław Bulder is a Polish performer, dancer and choreographer. He is a graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw and of the Contemporary Dance programme at Opus Ballet in Florence. He recently received his master’s degree with honours from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In his work, he uses movement (and its absence) to question dominant narratives of power and exclusion. He advocates for the rights of “farm” animals, striving to create emancipatory artistic works that promote the interests of non-human animals.
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Stephanie Handjiiska is a Bulgarian dance artist & choreographer based between Sofia (Bulgaria) and London (England). Her work is curious, playful, as well as beautiful, grandiose, visual and physical. She explores topics like femininity, capitalism, the state of the human condition of today, as well as ritual, family and heritage.
Stephanie's work has been presented at Dance Umbrella, ImPulsTanz and Resolution Festivals amongst others. Stephanie is Co-Artistic Director of Surdce Dance Collective, a British-Bulgarian dance company exploring ritual and myth through a feminine gaze.
w: www.surdce.dance
w: stephaniehandjiiska.com
i: @stephaniehandjiiska -
Sunniva Moen Rørvik (aka Big Papa Slug), is a choreographer, dancer and drag artist working in Oslo and London. Their choreographic practice looks at queerness in Norwegian pop-culture as a site to explore their mantra, "sillyness is a revolutionary act". In their work, they aim to entertain and encourage action. Their work has been performed on stages such as Det Norske Teateret, Black Box Theatre, The Place Theatre and Bonnie Bird theatre.
i: @sroervik
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Suvi Kemppainen is an internationally working choreographer, dancer, performer, and performance maker. Kemppainen's artistic works are anchored in their practice around fantastic psychopoetic corporeality, embodied knowledge, immaterial ownership and reframing the concept of spectacle.
After graduating as a dancer from North Karelia College Outokumpu in Finland Suvi Kemppainen continued their choreography studies at the University of Arts Berlin HZT. Their works have been presented at the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki; Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Turku; Sophiensaele, Berlin; Zodiak Center for New Dance, Helsinki.
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Tetiana Znamerovska is a Ukrainian choreographer, performer, and dancer working with current, urgent social topics at the intersection of contemporary dance and dance theatre. Through the dimension of movement, she processes reflections on war, postcolonialism, identity, national memory, migration, and the place of women in society. Tetiana explores diverse methodologies of dance-making and choreographic dramaturgy using hybrid approaches. Within these approaches, movement and dance are understood as an archive of collective and individual experience, as testimony to historical and social backgrounds, and as a tool for constructing new realities through multilayered work with the body, text, and multimedia technologies, where movement, documentary materials, and digital tools form a unified language of expression. Since 2022, she has been creating, presenting, and performing at the Pina Bausch Zentrum in Wuppertal (Germany), where she arrived as a resident (2022-2023) of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
i: doggy.tz
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Thjerza Balaj is a dancer and choreographer, educated at the Danish National School of Performing Arts and the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. She is currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Immediacy and intimacy are key elements in her work. Her choreographic practice deals with the female gaze, power dynamics, and the uncanny. Playing with shifting intensities is a consistent approach within her hardcore yet ephemeral practice. She has previously presented her works at venues including Bergen International Theatre, Sardegna Teatro Cagliari, L’Abri – Geneva, Ballet National de Marseille, Dansehallerne, and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen. In 2022, Thjerza received the danceWEB scholarship at ImpulsTanz, in Vienna.
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With a career spanning more than 30 years, 7 companies, 5 countries and 3 continents, Toby Kassell now teaches his own methods of improvisation, creates and performs on the Göteborg free scene and co directs the performing arts organisation No Deadline which presents the Rabbit/Duck multi disciplinary festival and Creative Currents choreographic series.
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Tomáš Danielis is a choreographer, media artist, and curator. His philosophy of “total perception” (body–text–image–sound–space) fuses choreography with technology into integral artworks. A non-conformist Slovak voice, he links sociology and art through ongoing research, launching Radical Empathy. Works incl. Custom View, 21&Counting, Mainly Love, and Carry have toured 20+ countries. He has performed with cie. Willi Dorner, Olivier Py, Sasha Waltz & Guests, cie. Felix Ruckert, Freyer Ensemble, and Granhøj Dans.
Radical Empathy is an artistic collective founded in 2021 by choreographer Tomáš Danielis, responding to current social and political shifts. It creates and presents contemporary art as sociological probes, examining relationships, power structures, otherness and empathy. Working across borders, it focuses on performative, intermedia, digital and visual works, plus texts and photography, with a critical reflection on Eurocentrism. Early works include Beautiful Lecture, Carry, Mainly Love and Custom View.
w: www.r-e.space
i: @tomas.danielis
i: @r.adicalempathy
f: @tdanielis
f: @RadicalEmpathyTD
U – Z
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Ugnė Irena Laurinavičiūtė is a Lithuanian dance artist whose work bridges contemporary, street and club styles. A graduate of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, she performed with the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company and worked with artists like William Forsythe and Thomas Hauert. Her practice explores gaze, gender, and cultural conditioning through a feminist lens, merging research, improvisation, and community to expand contemporary dance in Lithuania and beyond.
i: @ugne_laur
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Vaiva Paukštė is a Lithuanian dancer and choreographer. She received a BA in Dance from Codarts Rotterdam in 2021, then completed a Master’s in Theatre Directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where she created the artistic research performance ‘Dreaming Beauty’, which was nominated for the Emerging Artist category at the Lithuanian Golden Cross Awards. Now she teaches, lectures, creates dance works, and collaborates on film and video projects.
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Valgerður is an Icelandic dancer and choreographer. She danced for many years with the Iceland Dance Company and with EASTMAN / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, and Erna Ómarsdóttir. Alongside her performance career, she has developed an independent artistic practice spanning choreography for dance, theatre and film, working with professional and non-professional performers across generations. Her latest work, The Dance Gene, is a choreographic research expedition exploring a rumoured human gene: the one that makes people dance.
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Xenia Koghilaki works as a dancer and choreographer. Her practice engages with issues of re-examining the moving body’s aesthetic political and social aspects. She studied dance at the Greek National School of Dance, architecture at the University of Patras, and she holds an MA from HZT Berlin/ MA SODA. Her work has been presented at Onassis Stegi, Sophiensaele, ImPulsTanz, Oktoberdans and other venues and festivals in Europe. Xenia has received a Danceweb scholarship in 2021 and the SNF ARTWORKS Fellowship in 2022.
w: www.xeniakoghilaki.com
i: @xeniakoghilaki
f: Xenia Koghilaki -
Since 2022, Yana Reutova has been active in Prague as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher. She created the triptych Together Alone, children’s performances 'On the Way and Childhood Time', and choreographies 'Womanhood and Paradoxical Bodies'.
Her work has been presented at the Czech Dance Platform and festivals in the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Italy, Spain and Lithuania. She participated in residencies and projects such as Big Pulse Dance Alliance, EFFEA, Aerowaves, Moving Borders, Let the Body Speak, and others.
Encounters ‘21 – ‘24
Emerging out of the successful Big Pulse Dance Alliance project, 93 artists have benefitted from 16 Visiting Artist Programme encounters at festivals across Europe between 2021 and 2024.
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Natálie Podešvová
Philip Connaughton
Áine Stapleton
Greta Grineviciute
Aloun Marchal
Marcella Quinchavil Steen
Takuya Fujisawa -
Janina Rajakangas
Andreas Hannes -
Yana Reutova
Tiia Kasurinen
Denisas Kolomyckis
Linda Wardal
Alexandra Svensson
Kyrie Oda -
Katerina Jabûrková
Mia Jaatinen
Tatjana Mahlke
Niels Claes
Shanti Vera
Poliana Lima
Gaston Core
Reinaldo Ribiero
Yeinner Chicas
Júlia Godino Llorens
Nidia Martinez Barbieri -
Catherine Young
Eulàlia Bregadà -
Deyan Georgiev
Lisa Bysheim
Mari Carrasco
Olha Svidina
Anders Duckworth
Theo TJ Lowe -
Natálie Vacková
Adrian Carlo Bibiano
Achy Ouafik
Magí Serra
Nicole Neidert
Erik Valentin Berg
Jessica Greer -
Hanne Os Wold
Barbara Cappi
Alyssa Briteramos
Liv Aira
Mia Hellberg
Agata Siniarska
Marie Rechsteiner
Eulàlia Bergadà
Linda Remahal -
Yanitsa Atanasova
David Králík
Marika Peura
Mathilde Caeyers
Angel Duran
Viktorija Khoroshylova -
Eeva Juutinen
Jessie Thomson
Emanuele Rosa
Maria Focaraccio
Oksana Griaznova
Raquel Gualtero
Gabriella Engdahl
Liza Penkova -
Jitka Čechová
Mikko Nimisto
Junior Yusuf
Adriano Bolognino
Rosaria Di Maro
Andrea Hannes
Geir Hytten
Ester Guntín -
Hanne Os Wold
Barbara Cappi
Alyssa Briteramos
Liv Aira
Mia Hellberg -
Aleksandar Georgiev
Žaneta Musilová
Karoliina Loimaala
Isabella Oberländer
Ugné Kavaliauskaité
Anna Johansson -
Martijn Joling
Amy Pender
Núria Guiu Segarra
Lotta Gahrton -
Samuli Emery
Sheena McGrandles
