Who-is-Who
Steven De Belder studied philosophy and theater studies in Antwerp and Ghent. Between 1999 and 2003 he worked as research assistant at the Department of Theatre Studies in Antwerp. He started working at P.A.R.T.S. in 2003 and is currently coordinator of the Research Cycle and coordinator of the Départs network. He was member and president ad interim of the Flemish Dance Council (2001–2003) and is on the board of directors of several Flemish dance companies.
Christiane Berger, PhD, studied philosophy and theater studies in Tübingen, Giessen, and Berlin and completed her doctorate in theater studies at the FU Berlin. Her dissertation, Körper denken in Bewegung, was published by transcript publishing house in 2006. She researches theory and practice of professional and formal dance in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the role of the audience in contemporary dance. She has worked on numerous theater and dance productions as a choreographer, dramaturg, and production assistant. Since October 2008, she has been teaching for the master’s program in choreography at the Inter-University Center for Dance (HZT) in Berlin.

José Biondi, Prof., trained at the Escuela de Aspirantes del Ballet Clasico Nacional in Madrid, (Spain). He was a member of the Ballet Contemporain de Bruxelles (Belgium) and of the S.O.A.P. Dance Theatre Frankfurt (where, for five years, he was assistant and director of training with the company under Rui Horta). From 1998–2000 he was rehearsal director for the Carte Blanche Danseteater Bergen in Norway. In October 2000 he was appointed professor of modern dance at the University for Music and Drama Hanover; as of September 2004 he became professor of contemporary dance at the Palucca Schule Dresden and director of the Teacher Training (Tanzpädagogik) program. From September 2006 to August 2009 he was prorector for academic affairs (Lehre und Studium) and since September 2009 he has been director of the master’s program for choreography. He also works as a freelance choreographer and guest teacher for various international workshops and dance companies.

Edith Boxberger is a dance journalist, author and translator. Following a two–year editorial traineeship with a newspaper, she studied sociology and social psychology in Munich before working as a teacher at the university and in the area of adult education. After studying at the Drama Department of New York University, she began, first in Munich and later in Frankfurt, to write about dance for various newspapers—including many years for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung—and specialist magazines. She has lived in Hamburg since 1995 and also works as a translator (Postmoderne Ethik and Die Krise der Politik by Zygmunt Bauman, among others). In 2006 she began working for the Berlin office of Tanzplan Deutschland and for the project K3 at Tanzplan Hamburg.

Rose Breuss, Prof., studied at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, at the Theaterschool Amsterdam, at Temple University Philadelphia, and at the Labanotation Institute at the University of Surrey. She has won several awards for her choreographic work (Max Brand Award for experimental music, the Theodor Körner Prize for Science and Art, and the Federal Chancellery Award (Prämie des Bundeskanzleramtes) for her choreography Drift). In addition to teaching assignments at the Vienna State Opera Ballet School and the University of Salzburg’s Department of Music and Dance, she is director of the Institute for Dance Arts at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz.

Jacalyn Carley received her Bachelor of Dance Education at George Washington University, USA. Her teachers in the United States included Wigman students Maida Withers and Brigitta Herrmann. She danced professionally with Group Motion (Berlin) in Philadelphia, and in 1978 she co-founded tanzfabrik berlin. There she taught, choreographed, and co-directed from 1978–1997; during that time her works toured extensively throughout Europe and the United States. She also directed and organized the symposium Dance in Berlin, 1981. In 1998 she turned to writing. Her fiction works include Was sagt das linke Knie zum Rechten, and Almas Tanz (Eichborn). She co-authored, in 2010, Royston Maldoom’s autobiography Tanz um Dein Leben (Fischer), and wrote Royston Maldoom—Community Dance Handbook (Henschel). She teaches for a U.S. study abroad program and lectures occasionally on German dance history at U.S. universities.

Gill Clarke studied English and Education at York University before becoming an independent dance artist, performer, teacher, advocate, and movement researcher—and recently received an MA in Social Sciences. She was a founder–member of the Siobhan Davies Dance Company and has performed and collaborated with many other choreographers, including Rosemary Butcher, Rosemary Lee, and Janet Smith. She teaches masterclasses and workshops internationally for students, independent artists, and professional companies. She was director of Performance Studies at LABAN London 2000–2006 (where she is now a consultant), received a fellowship from NESTA, a London Dance and Performance Award, an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire), is visiting professor at Ulster University, and co-director of Independent Dance—an organization supporting professional dance artists in London.

Franz Anton Cramer, PhD, Fellow of the Collège international de philosophie in Paris, is a dance scholar and publicist. He studied Hispanic languages and literature, art history, and theater studies at the FU Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1998. From 2003–2004 he was managing director of the Tanzarchiv Leipzig, and from 2004–2006 Research Fellow at the Centre national de la danse, France. In 2006 he contributed to the development of the Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography pilot study program as part of the Cooperative Dance Education Centre Berlin, where he was guest professor until 2010. He is the project coordinator of Kulturerbe Tanz (Cultural Dance Heritage) for Tanzplan Deutschland and has written numerous publications, lectures, and workshops on aspects of contemporary dance, archiving, cultural policy, and the history of movement cultures.

Alan Danielson creates and teaches contemporary dance in the Humphrey/Limón tradition. His company, Dance by Alan Danielson, is based in New York City and has performed throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia. His choreography has been commissioned by Danspace Project (NYC), Gala Arte (Mexico), Institut del Teatre (Spain), and F.E.D.E Danza Laboratorio (Italy) among others. Danielson is the school director of the Limón Institute in New York City. He is an internationally acclaimed master teacher of dance, music, and the methodology for teaching Contemporary Limón Technique. He has taught professional classes in New York City since 1984, and has been on faculty at New York University, Florida State University, and the Alvin Ailey School. Danielson was a professional musician before he began dancing, and worked as a conductor and music director in a variety of venues—from orchestra to rock band. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Choral Conducting, and an MFA in dance from Florida State University.

Scott deLahunta has worked as writer, researcher, and organizer on a range of international projects bringing performing arts with a focus on choreography into conjunction with other disciplines and practices. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Coventry University/R-Research Director Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, and program and research coordinator for Motion Bank/The Forsythe Company. He serves on the editorial boards of Performance Research, Dance Theatre Journal and the International Journal of Performance and Digital Media.

Susanne Dickhaut is a freelance dancer, holds a graduate degree in sports science, and is lecturer for the Pilates Method at the Centre for Contemporary Dance at the University for Music and Dance, Cologne. As a dancer, performer, and choreographer she has participated in numerous independent dance theater productions and multimedia events. Since 2001 she regularly assists Jennifer Muller in Europe. Parallel to her artistic activities, Dickhaut has specialized in working as a Pilates instructor. Her international Pilates and dance teaching includes work with professional dancers and non-dancers of all ages, in classes, in personal training sessions, and in workshops as well as lectures and further education e.g., at the University of Wuppertal, the Deutschen Bundesverband Tanz, and the German Sport University Cologne.

Ingo Diehl studied dance in Hanover and New York. He received his second degree in dance education in Cologne in 2003. Since 1988, he has been working as a dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, and choreographic assistant at Dance Forum Cologne, Tanztheater Bremen, Icelandic Ballet in Reykjavik, and at various festivals. He gives practice–related lectures and teaches at various colleges and universities, and has published diverse articles. Ingo Diehl is responsible for all educational issues and projects at Tanzplan Deutschland; he has initiated and (since 2005) overseen institutional exchanges to further dance and dance education in Germany. He was artistic director of the 1st Dance Education Biennale/Tanzplan Deutschland, (co-organized with Bettina Masuch in 2008), and developed the research project and concept for Dance Techniques 2010—Tanzplan Germany, of which he is senior editor (together with Dr. Friederike Lampert). He is a founding member of the Federal Association of Dance in Schools, the initiator of the Dance Education Conference, and since 2009 has been a member of the committee of experts for art, music, and design at the ACQUIN accreditation institute.

Anouk van Dijk is choreographer, dancer, teacher, and artistic director of her own company anoukvandijk dc. Her choreographies are characterized by a virtuosic, unpredictable dance vocabulary and thematically revolve around people managing to stand their ground despite the uncertainties and opposing forces in today’s world. Since 1989 she has created more than forty choreographies, works that have been presented around the world. Not only does her company produce new work, she also initiates co-productions with theaters, festivals, dance academies, and other dance companies both nationally and internationally. In 2009, Anouk van Dijk renewed her collaboration with playwright/director Falk Richter, associate director at the Schaubühne Berlin. In their recent work, she has also resumed dancing. During her career, Anouk van Dijk has developed her own movement system: The Countertechnique. She applies this technique in her own choreographies, and teaches the technique to students and professional dancers all over the world.

Henner Drewes, PhD, studied dance and notation at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance, at Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv, and at the Folkwang University in Essen. His most influential teachers include Amos Hetz (Jerusalem), Tirza Sapir (Tel Aviv), and Christine Eckerle (Essen). In 2002 he completed his doctorate at Leipzig University. Drewes has taught movement notation and movement since 1994, and since 2003 he has taught at the Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv, at the University for Music and Dance, Cologne, and at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. He is a member of and dancer in the RikudNetto Dance Group (Tel Aviv) under the artistic direction of Tirza Sapir. In 2006 he was awarded the North Rhine–Westphalia Dance Studies Prize for his project ‘From Notation to Computer–Generated 3D Animation’. Since October 2008 he has been working as a research assistant on the ‘Visualizing (the Derra de Moroda) Dance Archives’ project under Prof. Dr. Claudia Jeschke’s direction at the Department of Art, Music, and Dance Studies at the University of Salzburg.

Wiebke Dröge is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and project consultant. Trained in sports sciences, contemporary dance, improvisation techniques, and theater education, she was a research assistant and director of the Dance Department at the J. W. Goethe University Frankfurt from 2001–2006. In 2005 she founded the www.ohnepunkt.info label, which consolidates her company, outreach, and text work. She stages productions and cooperates with artists working in various genres. Her ongoing artistic focus is a preoccupation with the topic ‘beginning’. Since 2004 she has been developing workshop formats, texts, and performance series on this topic, including work at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. In 2007 Dröge pursued her ‘beginning’ research in an exchange with work–trends researchers dealing with creative work. She is a guest teacher at universities and art colleges, and since 2006 has been developing and coaching Tanzlabor_21/A Project by Tanzplan Deutschland in the context of the Dance–in–Schools initiative. Since 2008 she has realized projects for the Crespo Foundation.

Claudia Fleischle–Braun, PhD, was a research assistant and gymnastics and dance teacher at the Institute for Sports Sciences at the University of Stuttgart from 1978–2006. In 1999 she completed her doctorate on the history and teaching concepts of modern dance. She is particularly interested in the development of contemporary dance and how it is taught in the context of dance education, and the dance medicine aspects of functional movement and training design. Since 2005 she has been a member of the board of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung (Dance Research Society) and campaigned in various functions and committees for more, and better established dance in the education system.

Lance Gries, while pursuing an early love of music and an economics degree, began formal dance training at Indiana University and later completed his BFA in dance at SUNY Purchase College, New York. From 1985–1992 he was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and was honored for his work there with a New York Dance and Performance Award (‘Bessie’), and a Princess Grace Foundation Award. Since 1990 Lance Gries has created and presented solo and group choreographies in various venues in New York City, including The Kitchen and Danspace, and in cities throughout Europe. He has taught workshops and master classes throughout the world and became a ‘founding teacher’ of P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels in 1994, where he is still a visiting teacher. He has taught for many European dance companies and institutions including Rosas, UltimaVez, Lyon Opera Ballet, London Contemporary Dance, CND in Paris, Toulouse, and Lyon, France, the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, Tanzfabrik in Berlin, The Danish National School of Contemporary Dance in Copenhagen as well as Movement Research, Janet Panetta Studio, and Trisha Brown Studios in New York City.

Nik Haffner studied at the Dance Department of the Frankfurt University of Music and the Performing Arts and the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne and was a dancer with William Forsythe at Frankfurt Ballet from 1994–2000. During this time, he was involved with the develoment and publishing of the CD-Rom Improvisation Technologies. He now works as a freelance dancer and choreographer on stage, film, and installation projects, and as a guest teacher at training institutions such as P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels and LABAN London. He is a member of the board of directors of the Inter-University Center for Dance—a pilot project of Tanzplan Berlin.

Yvonne Hardt, PhD, is a dancer, choreographer, and dance scholar. While training in modern and contemporary release–based dance techniques, she studied history and theater studies in Berlin and Montreal, and in the Körper–Inszenierungen postgraduate program at the FU Berlin, earning her doctorate for work on the political dimensions of free dance (Ausdruckstanz). She then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Theater Studies and contributed to establishing the MA in dance. In May 2009 she was appointed professor for applied dance studies at the University for Music and Dance, Cologne. Prior to this she was assistant professor at the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies of the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her research activities, since 1997 she has constantly been creating her own choreographies with her dance company, BodyAttacksWord, the most recent being Jellyfish and Exuberant Love (2006) and TR_C_NG (2007).

Wibke Hartewig, PhD, studied theater, film and television, general and comparative literature, and art history in Bochum and London. Her dissertation entitled Kinästhetische Konfrontation. Lesarten der Bewegungstexte William Forsythes (epodium) discussed the scope of movement analysis methods for dance studies using Forsythe’s work as an example. While studying for her doctorate, Wibke was an associate lecturer in contemporary dance and movement analysis at Ruhr University Bochum, worked as a dancer and choreographer for tanztheater macasju in Bochum, and then as a dramatic advisor for various (dance) theater productions in Berlin. After several years working as an editor for Henschel, she now works as a freelance dance expert, editor, and author focusing on the performing arts.

Anthony B. Heric, a freelance translator, graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He went on to work for the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, CA. Despite the excitement of QA/QC, he threw away a career with NASA to live in Europe. After permanently settling in Berlin with his husband, Dirk Ludigs, he started working as a translator in 2002. He has co-translated, among other works, the exhibition catalog Albert Einstein—Chief Engineer of the Universe (for the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), The World of Food (Gräfe & Unzer), and Professor Udo Benzenhöfer’s Euthanasia in Germany Before and During the Third Reich (Klemm + Oelschläger). His translations have also appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. When not working, he enjoys yoga and the vibrant cultural landscape that Berlin offers.

David Hernandez studied studio music, jazz, opera, and dance in Miami. He worked as an apprentice for a time with the Trisha Brown Company. He moved to Europe with Meg Stuart to help her start Damaged Goods in Belgium, working as a performer, collaborator, training the company, and assistant to Stuart. Hernandez left the company to return to building his own body of work in Brussels. He has created several pieces including the solos Love letters, the quartet the essence of its going (1998), and the sextet Blueprint (2002). He frequently works as choreographer, dancer, composer, lecturer, and dramaturg and collaborates with Brice Leroux (France), Labor Gras (Berlin), Anouk Van Dijk (Amsterdam), and Rosas (Brussels). He developed the improvisation project CrashLanding (1996–1999) in collaboration with Meg Stuart and Christine De Smet, which crashed down in places like Leuven, Vienna, Paris, Lisbon, and Moscow in major festivals and houses, and did improvisations for several other festivals with many wonderful artists including Katie Duck, Steve Paxton, and Vera Mantero. David Hernandez has also created several multimedia projects and happenings such as Filter, Innersections, and Performance Hotel in visual arts spaces and theaters. He developed and directed The Performance Education Program (PEP) in Leuven in residence at the Klapstuk Festival. He teaches regularly in Belgium and internationally and has been a core professor at P.A.R.T.S., teaching technique, composition and improvisation, rhythm and dance, and repertory projects.

Reinhild Hoffmann was one of the generation of pioneers of German dance theater. She trained with Kurt Jooss at the Folkwang University Essen. In 1978 she founded her own ensemble at the Theater Bremen. The pieces she developed in Bremen (1978–1986) and at the Schauspielhaus Bochum (1986–1995) were shown at many international guest performances and received numerous awards. Hoffmann has been working as a freelance choreographer, dancer, and director since 1995. The focus of her work has shifted to directing musical theater. Norbert Servos’s monograph on Hoffmann entitled "Solange man unterwegs ist—die Tänzerin und Choreographin Reinhild Hoffmann" was published in 2008.

Sabine Huschka, PhD, has been a part–time professor for dance studies at the Institute for Theater Studies at the FU Berlin since 2010, when she finished her postdoctoral research project Tanz und Wissen, Eine kulturhistorische Studie der Episteme choreographierter Körper (sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG)). She was previously a substitute assistant professor for dance studies at the Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Bern (2009) as well as substitute professor for theater studies at the Institute for German Studies II at the University of Hamburg. She studied German language and literature with a focus on theater and media, linguistics, and art history at the University of Hamburg. Her teaching and research focus is on the transmission of physical, representational, and movement knowledge in performing arts (theater and dance in the 18th and 20th centuries), culture theory, and theater theory access to the history of professional dance (dance and knowledge), as well other questions about aesthetics in professional dance and performance. In addition to her research activities, she has worked as a dramaturg at Theater am Turm in Frankfurt and for William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet. Sabine Huschka’s work is informed by her training in integrative dance education and her experiences in bodywork and improvisation. Publications include Wissenskultur Tanz. Historische und zeitgenössische Vermittlungsakte zwischen Praktiken und Diskursen (ed.; transcript publishing), Moderner Tanz. Konzepte—Stile—Utopien (Rowohlt), and Merce Cunningham und der Moderne Tanz (Königshausen & Neumann).

Pirkko Husemann, PhD, is dance curator at Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin. She graduated in theater, film, and media studies at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and wrote her dissertation Choreography as Critical Practice on Xavier Le Roy’s and Thomas Lehmen’s modes of work (transcript publishing). Together with Sabine Gehm and Katharina von Wilcke, Husemann curated the Tanzkongress Deutschland 2006 in Berlin’s House of World Cultures, which resulted in the publication of Knowledge in Motion. Perspectives of artistic and scientific research in dance (transcript publishing, in German and English).

Ann Hutchinson Guest is an internationally recognized expert on dance notation. Her specialty is Labanotation, about which she has written definitive textbooks. Her study of dance notation systems of the past and present produced a history on the subject. In 1940 she was a co-founder of the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City, and in 1967 founded the Language of Dance Centre (LODC) in London, England. Guest’s study of old systems made possible the revival of several ballets such as Pas de Six from La Vivandière, and L’Après-midi d’un Faune from Vaslav Nijinsky’s own notation score. She has received two honorary doctorates and many lifetime achievement awards for her contributions to dance education, including the 1997 Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research award from the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD).

Claudia Jeschke, PhD, studied theater and German studies in Munich, and received her doctorate in 1979. From 1980–1990 she was research assistant at the Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Munich before being appointed professor at the Institute for Theater Studies in Leipzig in 1994, where she also qualified as professor. In 2000 she was appointed professor of dance at the University for Music and Dance, Cologne. Since 2004 she has occupied the Chair of Dance Studies at the University of Salzburg and been a guest professor at European and American universities. Jeschke also works as dramaturg, choreographer, exhibition organizer, and author of television programs about dance. She is the author of numerous scientific publications in which she, as a trained dancer, highlighted the movement–analytical and practice–oriented aspects of dance history. The connection of history, theory, and practice is also documented in numerous re-constructions of dance phenomena of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Irmela Kästner earned a psychology degree as well as an MA at LABAN London. She lives in Hamburg and works as an author, curator, and journalist. Her articles on dance and performance are published regularly in the specialist and daily press. She has also contributed to various books, both nationally and internationally, such as ‘Zufall oder Streben nach kosmischer Ordnung? Das I Ging in der zeitgenössischen Choreografie’, published in Tanz, Bewegung & Spiritualität, ed.: Fischer, Hecht (Henschel), ‘Contradiction as a strategy for a future in motion’ in P.A.R.T.S.—Documenting 10 Years of Contemporary Dance Education, published by P.A.R.T.S. She has also authored film and television projects in cooperation with the German Dance Film Institute Bremen. In 2007 her book Meg Stuart—Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (together with photographer Tina Ruisinger) was published by K. Kieser Publishing House. In 1993 she was one of the co-founders of the Tanzinitiative Hamburg. As artistic director, she curates festivals, laboratories, productions, and also develops concepts and performance formats for dance in public spaces.

Andrea Keiz studied biology, trained to be a teacher of dance improvisation, and since the year 2000 has worked in Berlin in the area of the video documentation of contemporary dance. She has worked on several video/performance projects with various partners, teaches perception and video/dance, and has produced a diverse range of documentations for festivals and training projects in Germany and beyond.

Antje Klinge, PhD, is professor for sport pedagogy and methods in the Sports Sciences Department at the Ruhr University in Bochum. Her research focuses on learning and education in the media of the body, movement, sport, and dance. She qualified as a professor of sports education with a research project on the topic of Körperwissen—eine vernachlässigte Dimension. She is a founding member and current board member of the Federal Association of Dance in Schools and a board member of Tanzplan Deutschland.

Friederike Lampert, PhD, studied ballet at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt and applied theater studies at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Afterwards she worked for ten years as a professional dancer and choreographer. From 2002–2006 she worked as research assistant at the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg and taught dance theory and practice there. Her doctorate was on the topic of Improvisation im künstlerischen Tanz and in 2006 she was awarded the North Rhine–Westphalia Dance Studies Prize for this work. She organizes dance conferences and is the artistic director of the K3 Jugendklub at the K3 Zentrum für Choreographie/Tanzplan Hamburg at Kampnagel. From 2008–2010 she was a research assistant at Tanzplan Deutschland and senior editor (together with Ingo Diehl) of the publication Dance Techniques 2010—Tanzplan Germany. In September 2010 she took on the position of an associate researcher with Jiří Kylián at the Rotterdam Dancy Academy (Codarts). Aside from diverse professional articles, she has also published the following books: Choreographieren reflektieren. Choreographie–Tagung an der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Lit Publishing) and Tanzimprovisation. Geschichte, Theorie, Verfahren, Vermittlung (transcript publishing).

Mia Lawrence, originally from New York, currently works as the coordinator of the First Cycle at P.A.R.T.S., Brussels, where she switches between teaching yoga, contemporary, and creative work. She spent eight years touring internationally as a member of the Stephen Petronio Company. In 1997 she began creating her own work and teaching workshops in festivals and schools in the United States and Europe. In 1998 she received the prestigious New York Dance and Performance Awards (‘Bessie’) for her first evening–length solo Kriyas. She relocated to Munich in 2002 where she continued creating pieces with the support of the Kulturreferat and other institutions. She received the Förderpreis Tanz in 2005 from the city of Munich for her artistic achievement. Lawrence continues to create pieces utilizing movement, text, and sound.

Anna Markard was born in Germany in 1931, eldest daughter of Kurt and Aino Jooss, and grew up in England after her family emigrated there in 1933. She studied at the Sigurd Leeder School of Dance, the Folkwang School Essen, and with Nora Kiss in Paris. She was a dancer at the Düsseldorf Opera House but soon followed her educational interests, becoming an assistant at the Folkwang School before teaching modern European dance in the United States, and from 1960 taught at the Folkwang School. Together with her father, she redeveloped some of his most important ballets for the stage and has been responsible for many productions of the Jooss repertoire all over the world. She set up the Jooss Archive and worked on the publication of partitures from Jooss’s works in Labanotation. Markard lived in Amsterdam and was married to the painter Hermann Markard. She died in October 2010.

Gisela Müller, Prof., studied dance in Paris, Amsterdam (SNDO), and New York. She has been a member of various dance companies and in 1992 founded the Move Company, for which she has also choreographed numerous pieces and received scholarships in Germany and abroad. She has taught at various training and educational institutions and studios in Germany and beyond since 1988, and has been a board member and principal for the Tanzfabrik Berlin since 2004. From 2006–2009 she was a guest professor at the Cooperative Dance Education Centre/Berlin, responsible for the Bachelor of Arts program in contemporary dance, context, and choreography.

Jennifer Muller, an influence in the dance world for over forty years, is known for her visionary approach and innovations in multidisciplinary dance/theater productions incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist–inspired décor, and unusual production elements. She has created over one hundred works including six full–evening productions. Artistic director of Jennifer Muller/The Works since 1974, she has toured with the company to forty countries on four continents. An internationally renowned teacher, she has developed a personalized technique and developed innovative programs in creative thinking. Her choreography has been commissioned by twenty-four international repertory companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Nederlands Dans Theater, NDT3, Ballet du Nord, and Lyon Opera Ballet. Her work for theater includes The Public Theater, Second Stage, New York Stage and Film, and the Metropolitan Opera. Creating work since she was seven years old, she graduated from the Juilliard School, New York City. She danced with the Pearl Lang and José Limón Dance Companies, and was associate artistic director of the Louis Falco Dance Company.

Janet Panetta studied ballet with Margaret Craske, Antony Tudor, and Alfredo Corvino at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. At fourteen she became Margaret Craske’s teaching assistant, which served as on–the–job training for her lifelong career in dance education. Janet Panetta joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1968, and later began her foray into modern dance as a member of Paul Sanasardo’s company. She went on to work with Robert Kovich, Neil Greenberg, Susan Salinger, Peter Healey, and numerous other modern companies, while continuing to teach. In the 1980s she began working internationally. Panetta has been a guest teacher at P.A.R.T.S. and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. In addition, she teaches at Impulstanz in Vienna each summer, and maintains the Panetta Movement Center in New York, where she serves as artistic director of International Dance Dialogues, a program that hosts many European artists’ workshops and lectures.

Chrysa Parkinson is a performer and teacher living in Brussels. She teaches regularly at P.A.R.T.S. and works as a mentor/coordinator for the Second–Cycle students. She also teaches regularly at La Raffinnerie and Danscentrum Jette in Brussels, Panetta Movement Center in New York, and at Impulstanz in Vienna. In 2010/11 she is touring and performing with Jonathan Burrows, Mette Ingvartsen, and Rosas/Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. She is a member of ZOO/Thomas Hauert, and has also worked with Jonathan Burrows, Deborah Hay, John Jasperse, Meg Stuart, and David Zambrano. She was a member of Tere O’Connor Dance for many years in New York where she also performed with Irene Hultman and Jennifer Monson, among other artists. During that time she taught at Movement Research and at NYU. She was awarded a Bessie for sustained achievement as a performer in 1996. In 2008 Chrysa Parkinson worked as a teacher researching performance practices in Montpellier with 6M1L and Ex.e.r.c.e. Based on her work in Montpellier, she created an illustrated DVD essay called ‘Self-Interview on Practice’.

Barbara Passow trained under Hans Züllig as a dancer at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen from 1968–1972, also completing a one–year dance education program specializing in dance for children and amateurs. In 1979 she was awarded a scholarship by the state of North Rhine–Westphalia that enabled her to travel to New York for a year where she studied Limón Technique intensively. She worked as a dancer at the Cullberg Ballet under Birgit Cullberg in Stockholm from 1972–1984, at the Tanztheater Wuppertal under Pina Bausch, and at the Folkwang Tanz Studio under Susanne Linke. Since 1986 she has taught modern dance at various universities and dance companies (Bremen Theater, among others) and workshops for professional and non-professional dancers, as well as working as a dancer and choreographer with Michael Diekamp. Since 1995 she has taught at the Palucca Schule Dresden—Hochschule für Tanz.

Jerry Remkes got his Master of Arts and Arts Administration at the University of Groningen. After his graduation he was a cultural policy manager for the city governments of Eindhoven and Amersfoort and the managing director for theater company Het Oranjehotel. Since 2001 Remkes has been working for anoukvandijk dc, first exclusively as managing director and from 2003 also as dramaturg for Anouk van Dijk’s performances.

Daniel Roberts grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and started playing the piano at the age of seven. He was piano accompanist at various ballet schools. He studied ballet and modern jazz at the CLO Academy in Pittsburgh then took a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at the Ohio State University, with a specialization in performance and Labanotation. Roberts received a scholarship to the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York and apprenticed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC). He joined the company in 2000, and danced in a vast amount of repertory, including films about Cunningham (for example, in Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance in the reconstruction of Totem Ancestor). He left the MCDC in 2005 and taught Cunningham Technique at the Danish National School of Contemporary Dance in Copenhagen. He is currently rehearsal director for Danish Dance Theater. Daniel Roberts has taught the Cunningham Technique at The Place (London Contemporary Dance School), at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, at the National University of Arts in Korea and at various companies, dance schools and festivals in Europe, Russia, the U.S., and Asia.

Theo Van Rompay has a Master of Sociology (K.U. Leuven, 1978). He co-founded the arts center STUK in Leuven, Belgium, where he was director from 1978–1986. Afterwards he worked for Kaaitheater in Brussels (1986–1987) and for the Dutch theater company Maatschappij Discordia, based in Amsterdam (1988). In 1989 he became director of Beursschouwburg (Brussels) and in 1991 program director of the international arts center deSingel (Antwerp). In 1994 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker asked him to assist in setting up a new dance school. Since then he has been deputy director of Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S.), a school for contemporary dance that opened in September 1995. Theo Van Rompay was co-founder (1982) and editor (1982–1991) of the performing arts magazine Etcetera. He was co-founder of the Vlaams Theater Circuit (1980) and later of the Flemish Theatre Institute V.T.I. (1988). He was a member of the V.T.I. board for twenty years, and from 2006–2008 served as president. In 2008 he was appointed by the minister of culture to be a member of the Advisory Board for the Arts of the Flemish Community.

Salva Sanchis is a choreographer and dancer based in Brussels who graduated with the first generation of P.A.R.T.S. in 1998. He has been choreographing his own work since then and presenting it across Europe. He co-choreographed with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker the pieces Desh and A Love Supreme, and has been a guest choreographer for Rosas. He is also a guest teacher of dance technique and improvisation as well as research coordinator for the Second Cycle of P.A.R.T.S., and teaches dance technique in several other schools and companies in Belgium and abroad.

Vera Sander, Prof., studied at the London Contemporary Dance School and the Theaterschool Amsterdam. Before developing her first choreographies as a soloist at the Cologne Danceforum, she danced with the Dansgroep Krisztina de Chatel, with Itzik Galili, and as a soloist at the Saxon State Opera Dresden, among others. She has worked as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher of contemporary dance since 1996. In addition to the invitations she receives to be guest choreographer throughout Germany and abroad, Vera Sander is artistic director of the VeraSanderArtConnects dance ensemble. The artist has been recognized with several awards for her work, including the Cologne Dance Theatre Prize, the Choreography Prize Hanover, and the German Video Dance Prize. Vera Sander is director of the Centre for Contemporary Dance and professor for contemporary dance at the University for Music and Dance, Cologne.

Sylvia Scheidl is a graduate of the Master of Arts program in contemporary dance pedagogy at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt. Her work focuses on movement research and body consciousness. She practices methods of body–mind integration such as the Alexander Technique, Body–Mind Centering, and ideokinesis, and investigates ways of using these in contemporary dance techniques. Supported by the Crespo Foundation, she led a model project at a children’s day care center in Frankfurt in which she enabled teachers and children to access communication and movement through contact improvisation. She works as a freelance artist in her hometown of Vienna.

Katharine Sehnert trained to be a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator from 1955–1963 with Mary Wigman in Berlin. In 1962 she co-founded Motion. From 1970–1974 she danced with the Folkwang Tanzstudio in Essen and assisted Pina Bausch. From 1974–1981 she taught in Frankfurt and in 1976 founded Mobile Frankfurt, which won a prize at the International Choreographer Competition in Bagnolet in 1978. She created productions at the Theater am Turm and held advanced teacher–training courses. Since 1982 she has worked as a dancer, choreographer, and educator in Cologne, which is where she also founded TANZRAUM as a creative center, and the Kontinuum group. She was the first winner of the Cologne Dance Theatre Prize in 1994. In 1992 she initiated the MultiArt—Künstler zu Gast im TANZRAUM series with regular interdisciplinary performances. She has been a freelancer since 2004, working on guest performances and regular seminars, and provided coaching for the A Mary Wigman Evening re-enactment project by and with Fabian Barba at the K3 Kampnagel Hamburg. In 2009 she was awarded the City of Cologne Theater Prize for her life’s work.

Irene Sieben counts Mary Wigman and Manja Chmièl among her most important dance teachers. She danced in the first independent ensembles of the 1960s (Gruppe Neuer Tanz Berlin and Motion), studied somatic learning methods, and has been a Feldenkrais teacher since 1990. In 1981 she co-founded Tanz Tangente Berlin. She has taught applied anatomy and the Feldenkrais method at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Faculty of Music, and has worked as a dance and movement research journalist since 1970. She has been a correspondent for Tanzdrama, ballettanz, Tanz–Journal, jetzt Tanz and is author of Das große Feldenkrais Buch (Hugendubel, with A. Peters), and co-author of Gesundheit, Lernen, Kreativität (Huber) and Wissen in Bewegung (transcript publishing). Sieben also coached Fabian Barba for his reconstructions of A Mary Wigman Evening at K3–Center for Choreography/Tanzplan Hamburg and at the fabrik Potsdam.

Gerald Siegmund, PhD, is professor of dance and director of the choreography and performance program at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. He studied theater, English, and Romance studies at the Frankfurt am Main University. His research focuses on developments in contemporary dance and in post-dramatic theater in the transition to performance and the visual arts. Books he has published include William Forsythe—Denken in Bewegung (Henschel) and Abwesenheit. Eine performative Ästhetik des Tanzes—William Forsythe, Jérôme Bel, Xavier Le Roy, Meg Stuart (transcript publishing).

Martin Stern, PhD, studied sports science, chemistry, educational science, and philosophy at the Free University Berlin. From 2001–2007 he was a lecturer at the Institute for Sport Studies at the Humboldt University Berlin (Physical Education and Philosophy of Sports) as well as a Research Fellow at the ‘Cultures of the Performative’ interdisciplinary research center at the Free University of Berlin. Currently he is a guest professor of education science of sports at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His main research topics are sociological and anthropological dimensions of modern sport cultures, educational dimensions of sports, ethnographic approaches to new performance cultures and contemporary dance, and theories of the social body and gender. Publications include: Stil-Kulturen. Performative Konstellationen von Technik, Spiel und Risiko in neuen Sportpraktiken (transcript publishing).

Patricia Stöckemann, PhD, is a dance author, dance journalist, dramaturg, was editor of tanzdrama magazine (1987–2003) and of tanzjournal (2003/04) and is a board member and program director for the Mary Wigman Gesellschaft. She has also taught dance history and theory at various academies, colleges, and universities, lectured throughout Germany and abroad, and curated dance exhibitions. Her research and publications focus on (modern) dance in Germany and she has published Etwas ganz Neues muß nun entstehen—Kurt Jooss und das Tanztheater (K. Kieser Publishing), among other works. Since the 2004/2005 season she has been dramaturg at the Tanztheater Bremen at the Theater Bremen, and since 2007 director of dramaturgy and member of the directorship of the nordwest/Tanztheater Bremen & Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg.

Yoann Trellu is a multidisciplinary video artist from France who moved to Berlin in 2003. He is active mainly in the fields of dance/theater production, software development, DVD production, and visual arts. For ten years he worked with numerous musicians and performers in France, Germany, and the United States. Main dance collaborations include Motion–Lab, Wire Monkey Dance (USA), Howard Katz, Post Theater, and Ten Pen Chi (Berlin).

Maren Witte, PhD, is a dance scholar and dramaturg. She studied literature and cultural studies in Freiburg, Berlin, and Berkeley (USA), where she also trained in various dance techniques such as Release Technique, Contact Improvisation und Tango Argentino. She completed her doctorate at the Institute for Theater Studies at the Free University Berlin with a work on perception and the effect of movement in the theater of Robert Wilson. Afterwards she worked at the University of Hamburg, contributing to a sociological study about tango and salsa. Currently she is a freelance dramaturg and dance researcher in Berlin specializing in dance and performance outreach methods. In 2008 and 2009 she developed an artistic research project on the topic of Grace—Über Anmut und Gnade with residencies and performances at the fabrik Potsdam, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Dock 11 Studios, and Schloss Bröllin. Since 2009 Maren Witte’s TanzScout project has been introducing non-expert audiences from outside Berlin to the city’s dance and performance scene.

Gabriele Wittmann teaches dance criticism, dance history, and creative scientific writing at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt. She studied music and American studies in Paris and Hamburg, and since 1993 has worked as an independent critic for print media, radio (ARD), and television (ZDF/3sat). She has also written many specialist articles for ballettanz, Tanzjournal, and the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung Yearbooks, among others. Since 1996 she has taught advanced journalism training courses in Hamburg, Hannover, Remscheid, and Bremen, and researched the possibilities of the transfer between movement, language, and text in a series of workshops. Her publications include, ‘Vom Umgang mit Emotionen in der Tanzkritik’ in the Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung in 2006 (Lit Publishing) and, together with colleagues from related disciplines, Anna Halprin. Tanz—Prozesse—Gestalten (K. Kieser Publishing).

Nina Wollny completed an intensive ballet education during her teens and continued her studies in the Netherlands at the Rotterdam Dance Academy, where she switched to modern and contemporary dance. After graduation she joined Anouk van Dijk’s company and since then has been one of the featured dancers in almost all of van Dijk’s creations. Currently she is one of the performers of Trust and Protect me, two of Anouk van Dijk latest collaborations with Falk Richter at the Schaubühne Berlin. Since 2006 she has been van Dijk’s artistic assistant. Wollny is considered to be the embodiment of the Countertechnique and is an enthusiastic teacher of it. Together with Anouk van Dijk, she is continuously developing the Countertechnique.

Nick Woods is a freelance journalist, interpreter, and translator living and working in Berlin. A graduate in French and history from Manchester University, he went on to study journalism and became an award–winning political correspondent. He was on the verge of accepting an offer to become a lobby correspondent at Westminster but instead opted for change and accepted an offer by the German embassy in London to come to Berlin and learn German at the Goethe Institut in 2003, a stay that sparked his interest in the city. After returning to the UK to take a simultaneous interpreting course (French/English), he returned to Berlin in 2004 and worked for two years as a foreign language assistant, at the same time improving his German and building up his freelance career. Apart from a one–year stay in Paris, he has been in Berlin ever since. In addition to the day job, he studies oriental dance, ballet, and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.

Tanzplan Deutschland

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