Since 2005 Anna Konjetzky creates dance performances and dance installations in which choreographic thinking is a practice of reflection and transformation and is imbedded in a socio-political context, which can be found not just in the topic and aesthetics she works with but also in the settings and formats she creates for her choreographies, her artistic research and in the facilitation of exchange platforms, collaborative researches, shared trainings....

Anna Konjetzky’s works happen physically, aesthetically and politically within a queer-feminist discourse – she sees her work always as a proposition for a dialogue.

Her work has been shown for example at Spielart, Dance, Tanzwerkstatt Munich, Cofestival Ljubljana, Unidram Potsdam, Festival Danse Balsa Marni Bruxelles,... in Krakow, Warsaw, Luxembourg, Kampala, Nairobi, Hanoi, Istanbul, Gent, Shanghai, Salzburg, Brazil,...

She also creates for established dance companies such as Staatstheater Saarbrücken or Staatstheater Braunschweig.

She teaches regularly at several universities, and creates pieces with the students: for example MDT dance university Amsterdam, ZZT cologne, Sead Salzburg, Beaux-arts Bruxelles.

She received several prizes and scholarships, including her work for youth, ’running’ which was one of the three finalists for German Theatre Prize FAUST 2018 and the dance-scholarship of the city of Munich in 2011.

In 2009 she won the competition ‚operare’ of the Contemporary Opera Berlin, during the festival euro-scene Leipzig 2009, 2014 she received the „Förderpreis Tanz“ from the city of Munich.

Her dance-installation „Abdrücke“ was invited in 2012 to the Tanzplattform Germany where 15 of the top productions from Germany are shown every two years.

She is third time recipient of three-year funding from the city of Munich, producing regularly new works and researching as the company Anna Konjetzky & Co and conducting three year research project Nomadic Academy (https://nomadic-ak.com) through the support of TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund.

https://www.annakonjetzky.com/

I started my pre-professional dance training in Germany completing a Higher education preparation course (Studienvorbereitende Ausbildung Tanz) in Cologne. I also trained in South Africa at Camps Bay High School and Camps Bay Classical Ballet School.

I completed the BA (Hons) Dance Performance and Teaching at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. My dissertation focused on the implementation of imagery into technique classes to improve technique and performance skills. In 2018 I also completed my basic Progressing Ballet Technique certification and later completed my level 2 and 3 certifications.

Since 2017 I have taught in different settings including creative dance sessions in primary schools, technique classes in a high school, ballet for university students and Progressing Ballet Technique at all levels from primary school to college dancers.

In 2019, to further my knowledge, I joined a professional artistic further education program in mixed-abled dance education. Thru triannual intensives, we (disabled & non-disabled dancers) explore studio practice and theory with various dance artists.

I have also completed the 2021 Seedbed course by Stopgap and became an IRIS Teacher. IRIS is Stopgap Dance Company’s ground-breaking inclusive dance syllabus.

In 2021 I graduated from the MSc Nutrition and Exercise Science at the University of Central Lancashire with distinction. My focus is on improving the access to science-based dance training and nutritional knowledge for dancers.

Webseite: http://alissa-nehrlich.com/

Michael Loehr

lives in Berlin and collaborates as a dancer and co-creator with companies such as the Ahn Eun-Me Company, Emanuel Gat Dance, Tanztheater Bielefeld and Unterwegstheater Heidelberg. In 2017, he founded the choreographic collective Something Machine. He also works as a choreographic assistant and stager for Emanuel Gat in productions for Ballet de Marseille, Candoco Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Jin Xing Dance Theatre, Staatsballett Berlin, or SUB.LAB.PRO, among others. He regularly teaches for institutions such as CCN Ballet de Lorraine, Cie. Paracosm, Nuova Officina della Danza, Scottish Dance Theatre, Tanzhaus NRW, VA Wölfl's Neuer Tanz and many more. For some years now, he has been increasingly involved with the intersections between sports science and contemporary dance.

https://michael-loehr.com/

Melanie López López started her dance education in dance at an early age.

​Being awarded a scholarship for artists in 2009, she moved to London to study at the world class London Contemporary Dance School where she completed a Master of Arts in Contemporary dance.

As a dancer, she is working since more than 10 years all over Europe with companies such as the National company of Ireland, Tanztheater Münster and Ballett Hagen (Germany), Sadlers Wells Theater (England), Peter Schaufuss Ballet (Denmark), Proyecto Titoyaya and Cienfuegos Danza (Spain); and worked with choroeographers such as James Wilton, Alexandra Pirici, Oded Ronen, Gerda König, Henrique Rodovalho, Ravid Abarbanel or Javier de Frutos, amongst others.

​Her own creations take as a central aspect the person and society, looking for a personal vocabulary, that draws from the abstrakt representation possilbilities of the human emotions. She presented her work at the Stadttheater Münster, on a tour in North Spain as part of the Festival La RED IV as well as in unconventional spaces like the Weserrenaissance Museum (Lemgo), Ludgerikirche (Coesfeld), St. Paulus Dom (Münster), in the Festival “Me, myself and I” (Madrid) or the Ateneo of Cáceres (Spanien) where she got a mention of honour for her work in progress “Raices Suspendidas”.

​This year, she continued working with Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, in the production “77Beethoven” from the Bo Complex Dance Co., made a choreographic research on "Emotional Awareness" thanks to the “Take Care” program of the Fonds Daku at the Theaterlabor Bielefeld, and co-created the dance and theater piece for young adults “vergissmeinnicht” which was performed at the Theater in Pumpenhaus (Münster) and the Ost-Passage Theater (Leipzig).

https://www.melanielopezlopez.com/

Foto (Bert van Pelt)

Robert is a freelance dancer, performer and dance educator. He also supports artists at the beginning of their independent work as a dramaturge and project manager. From 2008 to 2015 he studied Communication Research and English Philology at the Free University of Berlin and was the director of the youth club "Die Aktionisten" at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin from 2011 to 2013. He began his formal training as a dancer in 2014 in the educational year of dance at Seneca Intensiv at Dock11 and Eden Studios in Berlin. He eventually studied dance at Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, from 2015 to 2019, dancing in works by Sita Ostheimer, Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo and Marie-Lena Kaiser.

Immediately after graduating from Folkwang, he worked with Cologne-based choreographer Emanuele Soavi and then went to Staatstheater Braunschweig as a guest for two productions in the 2019/20 season. From June 2020 to December 2021, he was project manager of the FREIRAUM, collaborative conception and work space for the arts, by the Düsseldorf-based Ben J. Riepe Company. In addition, he has worked freelance with and for artists such as Yurika Sophie Yamamoto, Lisa Hellmich, Gustavo de Oliveira Leite, Christian Banasik and Mischa Kuball. Together with Kati Masami Menze and Marius Ledwig he forms the project band Karoma Konstant.

Since 2015, he has been teaching contemporary dance in various contexts, for example at Seneca Intensiv - Educational Programs for Artistic Movement, KULT - Schule für Bühnentanz and the Sports Program of the University Duisburg-Essen. Additionally, over the years he has been involved in projects with culturally diverse groups. He is also a founding member of FUTURE MOVE e.V. and a member of Tänzer ohne Grenzen e.V..

Website: https://robert-schulz.org/

Jennifer Boultbee completed her B.A. in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2019 and subsequently completed her M.A. in Dance Composition/Interpretation at Folkwang UdK in Essen from 2019 - 21.

She has worked with choreographers such as Henrietta Horn, Rodolpho Leoni, Julie Cunningham, Leah Marojevic, Hagit Yakira and as a performer for visual artists such as Anna Perach and Roxy Herve.

Jennie Boultbee is a member of the women's collective "MassHysteria", which creates and performs live and digital works for "The Place" and "Dampfzentrale Bern", among others. Furthermore, she has a dance pedagogy diploma in Cecchetti Ballet and experience in visual arts, including graphic and costume design.

She has been an ensemble member of the Folkwang Tanzstudio since September 2021.

Foto (Tom Schulte)

Josephine Kalies studied dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Since graduating in 2019, she has been working as a freelance performer in the independent scene in NRW. She works with artists such as Marie-Lena Kaiser, tatraum projekte schmidt, Silvia Ehnis, Sônia Mota and Isabelle Wenzel. 

She also realises projects within the framework of the Stadtbesetzung and is involved with the socio-cultural association Kabawil in Düsseldorf. In her further artistic practice, she is primarily concerned with feminist approaches in dance.

Deborah Smith-Wicke

My art, or more to say my maneuvers of working and living as an artist has always had the intent to encourage a vision in others and to inspire them to act towards realizing it. My art is continually being born out of the situations I create for the artists to work with me. My daily motivation is the curiosity for life-long learning coupled with the social duty and passion to help artists live well and to create space and opportunity for them to do so. With a strong classical background, I have been able to discover and work in a diverse range of genres from neo classical to contemporary, from Tanztheater to performance, installation and conceptual work.

Short Biography

She completed her dance training, as well as an additional teaching diploma, at the Royal Ballet School in London. She then danced for 14 years in opera houses and state theatres in Germany and abroad. Among others, she interpreted leading roles such as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Odette (Swan Lake), Klara and Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker) and worked with various contemporary choreographers such as Henning Paar, Trisha Brown Reinhild Hoffmann and Ana Mondini.

For the last 10 years her own choreographies have been presented on many stages at home and abroad. She founded SOZO visions in motion vocational school for contemporary stage dance in 2007 and the dance theatre company in 2010. Quan Dao Kung fu inspires and influences her work and leadership. She wants to pass on her own artistic experience to young talents in order to promote individual gifts and creativity. Together with her husband Michael Wicke, she created HALLE 2, a dance house for training, rehearsals and performance, a home for SOZO visions in motion. In 2012 and 2015 she won the Kulturförderpreis of the city of Kassel and in 2019 for her life's work "SOZO". She taught contemporary dance, ballet and movement research in the BA and MA programmes at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria.

The aim of this training and dance company is to support and accompany people on this "journey of discovery". SOZO is meant to be a "laboratory" where creativity always remains in "motion". Visions are transformed into movements; "Visions in Motion".

How many possibilities are there? It's up to each individual. There is an infinite amount to discover.

Here you can find a nice interview introducing the SOZO vision in motion academy.

Gerda König studied psychology at the University of Cologne. Her intensive involvement with the medium of dance began in 1991. After working with the Mobiaki ensemble and the Paradox Dance Company, she founded the DIN A 13 tanzcompany in 1995, which is now one of the world's leading mixed-abled dance ensembles. From the beginning, her choreographic career has been characterised by the vision of using the movement quality of "other bodies" to develop new aesthetic approaches to a contemporary dance language.

As artistic director and dancer of the ensemble, she has staged numerous full-length productions that have toured international dance festivals in Europe, North and South America. She shares her many years of experience in the artistic work of dancers with and without physical disabilities in various commissioned choreographies. choreographies, e.g. in the USA, South Africa and Ethiopia.

In 2005 she initiated the project "Dance meets differences" to create an exchange between cultures through dance and to establish new mixed-abled companies in different continents. Since 2005, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, she has created co-productions with regional and international artists in Ethiopia, South Africa, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Venezuela, Sri Lanka and Israel.

Since then, her choreographic research approach and her artistic work have been characterised by a continuous artistic exploration of cultural realities, traditions, politically conditioned and socially shaped circumstances. This gives her choreographies an unmistakable signature. In the context of the Dance Platform Germany 2006, Gerda König was appointed by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) as an important representative of contemporary dance in Germany.

DEBORAH WEAVER Independent Researcher, Teacher of Dance, Coach, Artistic Consultant, Choreographer, Guest Speaker

Background: Former choreographic assistant to Alvin Ailey,  born in Oklahoma and trained in Dallas.  Alumna of The Juilliard School,  Balanchine’s School of American Ballet,  American Ballet Theater School.

Performed - as a soloist in Europe - Teatro Alla Scala Milano,  AterBalletto,  The German Opera on The Rhine Düsseldorf,  The Royal Ballet of Belgium, The National Ballet of Portugal,  Featured artist on Eurovision TV, and TeleMonte Carlo.

Danced in the US - appeared with ABT,  The Hartford Ballet,  André Eglevsky Ballet,  and Off-Broadway.

Personal repertory - full-length traditional classics,  Balanchine,  Tetley,  Sappington,  Forsythe, and includes personal creations with leading roles by Antony Tudor,  Jose Limòn,  Alvin Ailey,  Olga Roriz, and Amedeo Amodio.  Founded and directed the Universita´ Danza Milano (based on the format of the Juilliard School),  directed and choreographed for her own company in Italy, “Dance Unlimited”. Recipient of European awards and honors,  member of the U.S. National Honor Society for academic excellence.

Teachingcredits include - numerous European theaters, workshops, schools, and universities such as Teatro di Torino,  the University of Mantua,  Ballet Mistress for the chamber group of Teatro Alla Scala,  The Dance Space in NYC,  guest lecturer at The Juilliard School,  Adjunct Professor at Southern Methodist University, Ballet Mistress for Dallas Black Dance Theater II, and other local schools in the north Texas area.  Trained and coached winning competitors - the Italian Olympic Ice-Skating Champions for the Winter Olympics in Calgary,  The bronze medalists at the First International Ballet Competition in Jackson Mississippi,  and gold medalists for Youth America Grand Prix.

Choreography - Several of her dances for YAGP Regionals have qualified for the New York finals / “The Swan Lake Inside Swan Lake” a ballet-pantomime for children for Teatro Litta, Milan / The SGI 12th World Peace Culture Festival, Milan, Teatro Lirico.