Kat Válastur (born in Athens, Greece ) is a choreographer and performer based in Berlin. Her work is defined by the creation of a distinctive dance as well as visual language. In her creations our desires, fiction and reality merge into speculative notions creating highly intense atmospheres that challenge the senses with their shifting and intimate qualities.

Karol Tyminski is a choreographer and a performer based in Berlin. He co-founded the Centrum w Ruchu [Centre In Motion] collective. He is a graduate of the Warsaw Ballet Academy and the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S.) in Belgium and DAS Graduate School in Amsterdam. Tymiński focuses on creating motion which explores the structure of the human body. The latter is presented rather as some physical matter and not so much a fully developed individual. It thus becomes a plateau for questioning the established cultural human image. In his brutalist dance Tymiński oscillates between physical labour and ritual, thoroughly penetrating the performer’s physicality, and at the same time: reaching his emotional dimension. Tymiński’s works have been presented at numerous international stages, such as: American Realness (NYC), Esplenade Theatre (Singapore), Reykjavik Dance Festival, Impuls Tanz (Vienna),La Maison de la culture d’Amiens (France), Sophiensaele (Berlin), and many more.

Originally from Montreal, Dorotea Saykaly started her professional career with Compagnie Marie Chouinard in 2006, touring internationally and performing lead roles such as Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune. During the next 8 years with the company, Dorotea also experimented with the mediums of screen dance. She co-created, choreographed and performed in the screen dance films PAINTED (2012) and Brief Candle (2013) which were featured in international film festivals such as Dance Camera West in LA, Cinedans in Amsterdam, Dance on Camera in NY and Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.

In 2014, Dorotea relocated to Sweden to join the Goteborg Danskompani where she has worked with renown choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Marcos Morau, Sharon Eyal and Alan Lucien Oyen. Initiating opportunities to create herself, she choreographed her first solo UNraveling which was later awarded the Audience Prize at the Warsaw Zawirowania Competition.

She has since then created Try Not To Spill (a collaboration with Arika Yamada) for NUDANS 2017, a creation program with the Goteborg Danskompani; Sing to me a deeper Song, a duet premiering May 2017; Within the gaps, the birds sang for OpenFLR 2017 summer festival in Florence; Rosy Retrospection which premiered April 2018 in Gothenburg as part of the 3D National collaboration project, lead by the Goteborg Danskompani, which toured to Dansenshus in Stockholm in and Skanes Dansteatern in Malmo; DOUBLE BLINDED a duet for two men presented on the small stage at the Goteborg Operans in June 2019; and finally SHE, her second solo which premiered in Montreal, Sept 2019 and based on the the novel “The Passion According to G.H.” by Brazilian author, Clarice Lispector. Her short film SHE, springing from her stage solo, will be released in Summer 2020.

Astrid Boons (BE) is a choreographer and performer. Astrid graduated from The Royal Ballet School of Antwerp (BE). She holds a BA Dance from Codarts (NL) and a BA of Arts (Honours) in Humanities (Art History and Philosophy) from the Open University (UK). As a dancer Astrid worked with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (2017-2018), Nederlands Dans Theater 1 (2017), GöteborgsOperans Danskompani(2013-2016), Nederlands Dans Theater 2 (2009-2013), Dansgroep Amsterdam(2009) and Dansgroep Krisztina De Châtel (2008). Astrid received the prestigious BNG Bank Dance Award 2017 and Piket Art Award 2017 for her duet Rhizoma (2016). Her work Vestige (2017) was shortlisted in the top 5 performances of 2017 in Amsterdam based newspaper Het Parool. Since 2017 Astrid is connected as a choreographer to Korzo Theatre in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Photo:©David Krooshof

Michele Rizzo (1984, Italy) studied at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, where he is often a guest tutor in choreography and movement research. He has participated in residencies at the International Choreographic Arts Centre in Amsterdam, Q21 Museum Quarter in Vienna, and Live Works Centrale Fies in Trento. His work has been presented and performed at venues and festivals including URB Festival, Helsinki; Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis; La Briqueterie, Paris; Santarcangelo Festival, Rimini; Short Theater, Rome; Festival DDD, Porto; CAMPO, Ghent; Triennale Teatro dell’Arte, Milan; and Actoral, Montreal.

Photo: Alwin Poiana

Yotam Peled was born in 1989, in a Kibbutz in the north of Israel. Since childhood he has practiced fine arts, athletics, and Capoeira. At the age of 21, after finishing service in the Israeli defense forces, he began dancing, and later on pursued higher education in contemporary circus. in 2015 he relocated to Berlin, and since then he has been working as a freelance performer for several European choreographers, among them Maura Morales (Dusseldorf), Yann L’hereux (Montpellier), Troels Primdahl (Aarhus/Berlin), Jill Crovisier (Luxembourg), Mitia Fedotenko (Montpellier). In the last years he has been creating his own work which was presented in festivals and venues in Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Vietnam, and had received several awards. Yotam’s main research topic is the relation between gender roles, sexual identity and power structures in modern society, and uses choreographed, highly physical movement, to explore it. In August 2019 his new creation ‘ALPHA’ will premiere in Trauma bar und kino, Berlin.

Photo: Merlin Ettore

Papadopoulos graduated from the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) of the Amsterdam School of the Arts, The Netherlands in 2003 and from the Dramatic School of the National Theatre of Greece in 1999. Christos is a founding member of the dance company Leon and the Wolf. His personal projects include: OPUS (Aerowaves Twenty18, Porta Theatre 2016, Théâtre de la Ville-Danse Elargie 2016, Jonkoping, Sweden 2017) Elvedon (Aerowaves Twenty16, Porta Theatre, ARC For Dance Festival, Athens 2015), Counter Reset (Melkweg Amsterdam 2003). In collaboration with choreographer Vaso Giannakopoulou, he conceived and developed the performance Digono / Panorama Dance Festival, Athens, Alexandria Egypt 2005, Istanbul Turkey and Arnhem Holland 2006. As a performer Christos has participated in dance projects by Dimitris Papaioannou, Alexandra Waierstall – Noema Dance Company, Kirstin Kuyl Anderson – WEGO dance company, Robert Stain, Fotis Nikolaou company X-it, Natassa Zouka, Marousso Karaleka, Saskia van de heur, Martin van de Drift, Mariella Nestora and Ria Higler. He has also worked extensively as a choreographer and movement director for theatrical productions. Christos was a member of the choreography team responsible for the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku 2015 and opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. Since 2013 he collaborates with Odeion Athinon Theatre Academy as an instructor of choreography, composition and improvisation. He has also taught workshops on technique, composition and improvisation in Athens, Chania, Thessaloniki, Copenhagen.

Cristina Planas Leitão, Porto (PT), 1983. Holds a BA in Dance Performance from ArtEZ – Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem (NL) – 2006. From 2007 to 2012 collaborated with Italian – Dutch based choreographer Gabriella Maiorino and Dansmakers Amsterdam (NL) participating in all her pieces during this period as a performer or rehearsal director. Since then as performed for Isabelle Schad (DE); Flávio Rodrigues / BCN (PT): Vloeistof (NL); Catarina Miranda (PT) and is currently performing in Marco da Silva Ferreira’s piece Brother. As rehearsal director she has worked as well for Hofesh Shechter (2012-2014) and Gregory Maqoma (2015) for Companhia Instável. In 2015, she is one of the selected artists to participate in The Porto Sessions – a project drawn and developed by Meg Stuart/ Damaged Goods and Mezzannine. Since 2016 she runs and coordinates Aquecimento Paralelo for Teatro Municipal do Porto and in 2017 she is invited to collaborate with the theater for Festival DDD within the context of the audience mediation team. From September 2018 on she has been appointed executive coordinator of Festival DDD. In 2012, co-creates The very delicious piece with Jasmina Krizaj with more than 30 international performances and nominated for the Gibanica prize, in Slovenia. With this creation they established a long-term collaboration continuing later on in 2014, with the making of The Very Boring Piece. In 2014, engaging on her own authorship, she premiered the solo bear me and in 2016, FM [featuring mortuum] with an extensive national tour. In the same year, with an XL version of The Very Delicious Piece, she was finalist, together with Jasmina Krizaj and a cast of 8 performers at Danse Élargie 2016 – Théâtre de la Ville, Paris. In 2018 she has created a song for the end for the BA Modern Theaterdans of Amsterdam University for the Arts and premiered the new piece UM [unimal].

Federica Dauri is a performer, choreographer and visual artist, born in Italy and currently living in Berlin.

Photo: Gunther Lepkowski

In 1988 Marco Goecke completed his ballet education at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Ballet Academy in Munich, after which he  graduated at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in 1995.

Subsequently Goecke worked together with the Deutschen Oper Berlin and the Theater Hagen. Here Goecke made his first choreography in 2000. Since then Goecke is one of the world's most sought-after choreographers, due to his particular movement language. Goecke's work is performed by dance companies worldwide. Since 2005 Goecke is resident choreographer at the Stuttgart Ballet, between 2006 and 2011 with Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and since 2013 he is also associate choreographer with Nederlands Dans Theater. In the past decade, he has created over fourty choreographies, including two full-length performances:  The Nutcracker and Orlando for the Stuttgart Ballet. Goecke further created for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Hamburg Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and  2, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Leipzig Ballet and Zurich Ballet.