About the work and the choreographers

• Verena Schneider

  My name is Verena Schneider. I am an acrobat, dancer, and choreographer researching the intersection of dance and circus. My work focuses on questions of identity, the ecology of the body in relation to its environment, and the systems we inhabit. In my work I focus on one hand a lot on the creative practice as well as creating performances. After studying biology, I trained in circus arts at FLIC- Scola di Circo (Italy) and ESAC’Toulouse „Le Lido“ (France) where I focused on handbalancing , merging acrobatics and contemporary dance into a sustainable, interdisciplinary practice. How do years of handstand practice impact the body? Is there a connection between bodily tension and interaction of the body with the environment? For several years, I've been developing a hybrid physical technique by moving between different techniques (embodied practices, acrobatics and dance, performance) and trying to incorporate philosophy and theory into my artistic practice towards creation. The handstand practice and its deconstruction are the starting points for the choreographic work . As founder of the cultural association Freifall, I developed curatorial projects like Indigo City, an underground festival in Vienna (2020/22) and co-founded Kumquat Company with Charlotte Le May, creating projects like Alter & Augenblicke. Currently I am completing my MA in Choreography (Fontys University/CodartsRotterdam), while performing and choreographing in interdisciplinary contexts and developing my research and performance work Erde & Plastik further. My works have been shown at venues like WUK Performing Arts (AT), Werk X (AT) BRUX / Freies Theater Innsbruck (AT), Parallel Vienna (AT), Circus Dance Festival (DE), and Centquatre (FR). Recently, I co-directed a circus-dance lab coproduced by Tanzquartier Wien and On The Edge Festival.
  
  Description of the piece
  My interest lies in the malleability of materials, their agency, and interdisciplinary work through developing scores and thematic connections. Using plastic pots, earth sacks, and masks, I become both the active player and the one influenced by the objects. Doing that I create a subtle interaction between body and material that oscillates between action and passivity.

• Ivan Cook

  Ivan Cook is an Australian multi-disciplinary movement artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. With a background in Contemporary, Acrodance, Yoga, and Physical Education, he brings an ever curious, playful approach to movement. He has shared his work across Europe and Australia, exploring landscapes that create space for different movement styles to merge and evolve. 

  Description of the pieve
  Reimagining the human - nature relationship through trees. Bringing dance, ecosomatics and parkour, alive from branch to bench. From trunk to thrash can. Experience the threshold between urban and nature. And possibly where your own metaphorical journeys link to your surrondings.

• Niels Claes

  Niels Claes - a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and educator with a BA degree from Fontys Academy of the Arts (NL). Currently, he is a freelance artist and MA student (2025) of COMMA - Master Choreography.

  He has worked for several companies including Project Sally (NL), Dansgroep Amsterdam (NL), Polish Dance Theater (PL), La_trottier Dance Collective (DE), and Šeiko Dance Company (LT). Niels had the opportunity to perform in creations by choreographers such as Andonis Foniadakis, Jo Stromgren, Tina Tarpgaard, Alban Richard, and others.

  Niels Claes was awarded the “Lithuanian Golden Stage Cross” as “Male Dancer of the Year” in 2018 and 2021. He created work under Polish Dance Theater (PL), Aura Dance Theater(LT), Šeiko Dance Company (LT), and National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Art (LT).
  
  Description of the piece
  When life tugs at us through invisible threads—some internal, others tangled in the world around us—do we follow the lead? And when support begins to weigh us down, we must consider: is it holding us, or holding us back? In the struggle between surrender and resistance, we occasionally find moments of clarity, where freedom seems to brush against the skin.

   

   

   

• Deyan Georgiev

  Deyan Georgiev is a Sofia-based transdisciplinary artist, performer, choreographer, and researcher drawn to the blending of artistic and scientific disciplines. His interests are rooted in the intersections of Interdisciplinary frameworks, flow, embodiment, and hyper physicality. He graduated NATFA with a major in Acting for Theatre and Film . Spent two years as part of the Bulgarian Army Theater’s troupe, affirming his foundation in performing arts and theatre. He has worked as a choreographer and movement director for several theatre productions such as "Moby Dick" (National Theatre, Sofia), "Odysseus" (Plovdiv European Capital of Culture), "The Son" (National Theatre, Sofia), "The Bell" (Plovdiv Ancient Theatre), “Clean” (Musical Theatre Sofia), and others.

  His first solo work “Wired” was spotlighted in the Aerowaves Twenty23 Selection.

  Deyan has also explored dance on film, and site-specific performance, viewing dance as a deeply personal expression. In 2017, he co-founded OPIA, an organization that bridges science and art through exhibitions and performances and co-founded in 2020 Pneuma Bio, a biotechnology company that creates engineered living materials. He was highlighted in Forbes Bulgaria '30 under 30' for Culture, Art, and Media. He is deepening his knowledge as a maker-choreographer with a master's study at Fontys/Codarts.
   

  Description of the piece
  “Q2” is a shapeshifter - blending past, present, and futures that haven’t happened yet. It strips identity down to its smallest particles, where memory, myth, and movement collide. Cultural symbols unravel. Sound breathes. Nature morps. The work opens space for new ways of feeling, moving, and belonging.

• Sabrina Gargano

  Free lance dance artist. After completing the Jasmin Vardimon JV2 professional course in 2014, Sabrina progresses her career in the UK and abroad. Collaborates with PanicLab Dance Theater (UK), Gregory Maqoma for Companhia Instàvel (Portugal), Tom Dale (UK) Company Idem (Switzerland), Victoria Fox for //Tribe (UK), Mafalda Deville for Companhia Instavel (Portugal) , Becky Namgauds and Jasmin Vardimon (UK). Choreographer for The Point Youth Company (UK) Pera University (Cyprus) Lincoln University (UK). He is also a teacher at the Jasmin Vardimon Company and Course leader of the JV2 program 2019-20 and 2020-21. He directs and choreographs the film MAY YOU LISTEN? for Jasmin Vardimon's company JV2 in 2021. Creates the company ELELEI together with Rafa Jagat in 2020.

  Their first work “A Ciegas” was born in 2020, winning the first prize at the MAIS IMAGINARIUS festival in Portugal in 2021 and the audience prize at the 35th International Choreographic Competition Hannover 2021. (Currently on national and international tour).

  In addition to A ciegas In January 2022 they create a new choreography for JV2 “ Marathon” which is taken on tour in the UK.

  Their second work “Soy Madera”, co-produced by the MAIS IMAGINARIUS Festival was premiered at the same festival.

  Their third work "Too Much" is co-produced by the Danza Metropolitana festival in Barcelona and presented at the same festival in March 2024.

  In November 2024 Sabrina joined the renowned English Physical Theater company Gecko Dance Theatre for the R&D of The Deal.

  Sabrina is also currently completing her master's degree in Comma Choreography at Fontys and Codarts in the Netherlands.
  
  Description of the piece
  Alba, means Sunrise both in Italian and Spanish, is a solo work reflecting on the question of identity, loneliness and the desperate need to looking for a M-Other.

   

• Julie Pécard

  Julie Pécard is a dancer and choreographer based in Germany, originally from France. She spent her childhood in the French Caribbean before relocating to Canada at 12. Julie completed her dance training at Arts Umbrella under Artemis Gordon’s direction. Following her graduation, she danced with ProArteDanza in Toronto and later joined Kevin O'Day Ballet Nationaltheater Mannheim as a soloist, participating in new creations by noteworthy choreographers like Kevin O'Day and Dominique Dumais. Since 2015, Julie has focused on freelancing and her own choreographic projects, with her latest works being "Transitional States" in April 2023 and "Lost Threads" scheduled for November 2024. She is currently pursuing a Master's in the Arts in Choreography at Codarts and Fontys in the Netherlands, where her work delves into themes of motherhood, care, resilience, responsibility, uprooting, and belonging, reflecting her diverse background and personal experiences.
  
  Description of the piece
  Based on the specific ballet terminology taught and practiced worldwide in French, choreographer Julie Pécard creates an episodic piece that methodically approaches the ideal of resilience. Within a fixed choreographic structure, which at many points requires spontaneous reactions, improvisation, and individual interpretation, two dancers embark on a search for the right balance.

• Manasvini Eberl

  Manasvini K. Eberl has a degree in sports science in the field of movement theatre/dance (DSHS Cologne), is a trained contemporary dancer and performer (TIP Freiburg), a certified yoga teacher and is constantly training in the Gaga Movement Language (New York, Tel Aviv, Basel, Online). She has been realising her own interdisciplinary, internationally shown dance pieces and dance installations for many years and has received, among other things, a debut grant from the Munich Cultural Department, a process grant from the Bavarian Association of Independent Performing Arts and a working grant from the Munich Cultural Department. Essential to her choreographic work is the exploration of states in the body and their movement qualities on the basis of tactile-kinesthetic perception processes. As an artist and as a person, it is important to her to create a space that invites us to rediscover the potential of our perceptual abilities. 
  
  Description of the piece
  Rhythm, music, shapes and colours emerge as traces in the room, almost floating, permeating the space. Body, sound and image merge, disappear, replace and layer.Visible. Audible. Inaudible. Invisible.What are you receiving?

• Bianca Anne Braunesberger

  Bianca Anne is working as a transdisciplinary choreographer on the intersection of contemporary dance, electronic sound and costume design. Based in Vienna/Austria, she is (co-)curator of festivals/platforms such as TANZ im OFF and Performing Puzzle. Formerly dancer for Romeo Castellucci, Jiří Kylián, tanz.coop etc.. Currently she is sharing a movement exploration practice, which has its roots within meditative concepts and the idea of tuning into one's own creativity by focusing attention to vibrant matter of various kinds. If movement is not sufficcient to express, Bianca Anne is one half of QUOD - a triphop, synthpop duo. As artistic director, she produces her own work in collaborative settings under the roof of tauschfühlung since 2012.
  
  Description of the piece
  Inter-Space is a choreographic atmosphere in which earthlings are invited to visit a post human being, that is informed by its encounters with various forms of matter. The Inter-Space could be a portal to enter a sensation of inter-subjective being and opens potential to indulge in a radical moment of transition.

• Tuulia Soininen

  Tuulia is a choreographer and dancer from Finland who graduated from Falmouth University, UK. She works with feminist art, screendance and community dance. She makes statements with her art both boldly and gently at the same time. 
  
  Description of the piece
  After is an intimate and fleshy solo performance exploring the aftermath of sexual violence.Drawing from modern day rape myths and mythical depictions of women, After invites the audience to witness a complex and nuanced process of reclaiming agency. This evocative feminist performance art work doesn’t offer easy answers, it opens space for reflection, discomfort, and dialogue. By centering the subjective experience of the victim and embracing the ambiguous tones of what happens after, the piece challenges how we talk about victimhood and sexual violence.

   

• Valentin Alfery

  Valentin Alfery is a self-taught dancer and choreographer coming from the street and club style community. While being rooted in the European jam and battle scene, he started to work as a freelance dancer in theatre projects in 2004. Together with Dušana Baltić, Valentin is the co-founder and -director of the Austrian dance company Hungry Sharks. Following his first major stage work Falling from 2009, he realised eight feature-length productions, the underwater dance performance Zeitgeist and several short pieces with the Hungry Sharks, as well as creations in commissioned, academic or project-based contexts. The work of Hungry Sharks is funded by three Austrian regions – Vienna, Salzburg and Carinthia as well as by the cultural ministery of Austria. Since 2016 the pieces are regularly co-produced by brut Wien and Szene Salzburg. In 2019 Young Sharks was initiated as a project series for emerging dancers from the urban dance field to gain experience in theatrical contexts. Valentin Alfery worked as a guest teacher and choreographer at the HF Bühnentanz in Zurich 2021, as well as at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) and MUK (Dance Education of the Vienna Music and Art University) in 2022. From 2018 - 2022 he has been curating street art, dance, performance and music within the year-round program of kulturschiene Salzburg (30 outdoor events per season, budget 150.000 €) as an artistic co- director. In addition to his work as a freelance choreographer and performer (e.g. with Simon Mayer), he is working as a puppeteer since 2013 within opera projects of the Blind Summit Puppet Company. In 2020 he became part of the puppet cast of the house repertory opera Madama Butterfly by Anthony Minghella at the Vienna State Opera which is being shown ongoingly. In 2024 Valentin Alfery co-directed and choreographed the multi-divisional opera production Die Hamletmaschine by Heiner Müller, composition by Wolfgang Rihm at the state theatre of Kassel, Germany . His creations can be located on a broad artistic spectrum and differ significantly from each other. They often refer to social topics and contain mostly a virtuose movement language, the work with abstract elements and a structural logic that he develops by sorting material or finding patterns and connections between topics. Identifying features of his practice are strong physical bodies that often travel in repetitive movement patterns or are guided by cross-style principles of urban dance, as well as the use of an intricate musicality, an appetite for finding new movement qualities (e.g. Handsign-Style) and composing images with bodies. Being part of several different projects, groups and collectives, Valentin is performing and busking on the streets on a loose basis as a way to keep a multifaced perspective on arts.
  
  Description of the piece
  good for you is a solo piece by Valentin Alfery that examines and deconstructs unconscious stereotypical behavior patterns through cross-style movement principles from the street and club dance community. Using illusionary techniques, repetition, and the deliberate manipulation of perception, the piece questions how habits shape us and whether we can actively change them.

• Marjolijn Breuring

  Marjolijn Breuring is a choreographer and dance teacher with over 30 years of experience in secondary education, where dance is taught as an art subject. She works with intergenerational groups, youth, and older adults, creating community projects that center on the human experience. Her choreographies balance vulnerability and strength, exploring emotional resilience and self-discovery. For her graduation project Equilibrium, she translates inner processes and personal stories into a layered and physical movement vocabulary.

  Description of the piece
  Equilibrium is a physical exploration of the tension between paralyzing (self-)censorship and the unbridled freedom to play. Through breath, weight, and dynamic contrasts, eight dancers of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences navigate shifting states of balance and imbalance, uncovering where emotional experiences take form in the body. The piece invites audiences into a raw, embodied investigation of discomfort, resistance, and the longing for harmony.

• Anna Ward

  After a lifetime of training and performing in the circus, choreographer Anna Ward now focuses on how circus capacities exist outside of the performance setting, framing these skills within the function of the everyday. By asking what situations virtuosity can respond to, she reveals the inner landscape of performers and what leads them to daily play and challenge. Illustrating the risk, whimsicalness and awareness present in everyday life, she honors the courage it takes to be a functional and empathetic human in todays’ world.
  
  Description of the piece
  In The News, choreographer Anna Ward and acrobat Lucas Bergandi present an everyday scene of spring cleaning: a person disposing of large unwanted objects no longer considered useful. The performance questions both the notion of waste and the functionality of an object in a virtuous display of balance, multitasking and acrobatics. By challenging the essence of what circus apparatus can be, the risk and the playful aspects of circus skill are featured in the most mundane of household chores, taking out the garbage.

• Zornitsa Stoyanova

  Zornitsa Stoyanova (USA/BUL) is an award-winning performance artist, curator, writer, lighting, and video designer based between Sofia, Bulgaria, and Philadelphia, US. A graduate of Bennington College, VT, she’s been making performance and teaching for close to 20 years. Her company, BodyMeld, supports independent choreographers in both her locales. Her trans-disciplinary work is often political and incorporates themes of otherness, womanhood, and feminism, merging the mundane with futurist sci-fi imagery. In 2020 she started developing a performance-devising practice she calls Brutal Honesty – focused on sensing the body in movement, talking, and singing with the goal of not censoring oneself. Brutal Honesty is the focus of her master’s degree at COMMA. She has performed in festivals across the U.S., and Europe. Her screendance films have been shown in festivals across the U.S. and Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Ireland, Germany, and Bangladesh. Notable works include “EnTrance: Female Bodies in Digital Scapes”(2023), a solo exhibition of her photography and video work in Sofia, Bulgaria, “AndroMeda” (2020), commissioned by The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and “Explicit Female” (2016), which received the Philadelphia Contemporary Dance Award “Rocky”. She has performed for prominent choreographers such as Eiko & Koma, Sasha Waltz, and Boris Charmatz. Her most influential teachers include Deborah Hay, Jeanine Durning, Meg Stuart, Miguel Gutierrez, Michelle Boule, Ishmael Houston Jones, Susan Rethorst, and Danny Lepkoff amongst others. She teaches improvisation, dance on camera, and composition in various countries and online. As an editor for thINKingDANCE.net and a mother of two, she continues to promote the needs of parent artists in the dance field. www.bodymeld.org 
  
  Description of the piece
  Zornitsa Stoyanova's interdiciplinary piece is a thought-provoking solo performance that explores truth and honesty through personal stories, philosophical anecdotes, and our pursuit of greatness. With elements of humor, potential nudity, and live-feed special effects, Stoyanova showcases her 20 plus years of improvisation for the stage. She dances, speaks, sings fake opera, improvises poetry, and interacts with the audience, in a heartfelt and sometimes absurdist meditation honoring the death of truth and honesty.

• Lucija Mikas

  Description of the piece
  Konektor is a contemporary dance performance about the experience of space, creating a place where bodies, structures and viewpoints connect, create and collide.