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Maija Tanja Erhart and Katharina Senk (aka Senki)
(Munich 2021)
We, Tanja Erhart and Katharina Senk (aka Senki), collaborate since 2018 with each other. Together we move, dance and research while centering pleasure, intersectional feminism and access & care in our work.
Supported by Tanja´s crutches we explore the topic of disability through our moved and moving bodies, our feminist gaze and the application of the aesthetics of access. In the performance j e n g a, which we currently are creating together, Tanja´s crutches are not only visible as assistive-tools but become social connectors, sensual interfaces and animated dance-partners creating pleasure and pressure.
We challenge ableist structures in the (dance) world and current modes of collaborations between disabled and non-disabled artists. We investigate disability as something which, following the approach of Alison Kafer, not simply is but happens in relation. Because of the different ways we are relating to the crutches, to each other and to the world around us, we offer new ways of looking at and thinking about disability.
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Maija Hirvanen
(Munich 2019; lecture performance)
Maija Hirvanen is a choreographer and performance maker based in Helsinki. Since the early 2000’s she has created a series of solo works and group performances that have been presented at festivals and venues in Finland and internationally, for instance at Zodiak, Kiasma, Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki Festival, Tanz im August, ImpulsTanz, Sadler’s Wells, SPRING Festival, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Rencontres choréphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis and Dansens Hus Stockholm. She was in-house choreographer at Zodiak – Center for New Dance from 2013–15. The Arts Promotion Centre Finland has admitted Hirvanen a 5-year artist grant for 2019-2023.
Maija’s interests range from the relationship between art and different belief systems, collaborative processes within cultural practices and performance as collective memory to mechanisms of re-learning. She has shown her work in theatres, public spaces and galleries.
Hirvanen has participated in international artist laboratories and collaborated with other artists. After her earlier studies in dance varying from the Kuopio high school for Music and Dance and Turku Conservatory’s dancers education to training in various workshops, she studied her BA in interdisciplinary performing arts (Turku Art Academy & Dartington College of Arts/Performance Writing) and MA in Visual Culture (Aalto University).
Daphna Horenczyk
(Research Group)
daphnahorenczyk.com
Daphna Horenczyk is a dance artist based in Munich and Vienna.
Since 2012 Daphna is choreographing independently for stage and for film. Her work was presented in various venues and festivals in Israel and Europe, such as MASH, Intimadance and Suzanne Dellal Center (IL), No Ballet, PAD Mainz and Schwere Reiter (DE), MAAT (PL), the National Theater of the Faroe Islands and more. In addition, she is performing as a dancer for choreographers such as Anne Juren (FR/AT), Ceren Oran (TR/DE), Andrea Bozic (HG/NL), Ayelet Yekutiel (IL/BE) and Ariel Cohen (IL). Born in 1987 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Daphna started dancing at the age of 15. She graduated from the professional dance training program in Kibbutz Ga’aton. After one year of working as a dancer and rehearsal director, she moved to Salzburg to study in SEAD both in the performance and choreography programs. During her studies, she created 3 pieces which had toured in Germany and Israel.
Sahra Huby
(Research Group)
Sahra Huby works as a freelance dancer with many different choreographers around Europe, continually collaborating with the german choreographer Anna Konjetzky in Munich. With her, she created many group pieces as well as solis, like the piece „Elephantgedächtnis“ (that won the first price of Das beste deutsche Tanz solo 2009), „Abdrücke“ in 2010 (invited to the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2012), „chipping“ in 2014, and „MOVE MORE MORPH IT“ in 2018.
She is also developing her own research, creating alternative formats for researches and encounters with other artists, as well as formats for performances. In 2016 she started a long term performance project in private appartments called „Dance Kitchen“ (www.dancekitchen.org).
One important aspect of her approach is the work with multi-layered body qualities and states, as well as the principle of thinking and communicating through the body, using thebody as an instrument to develop ideas in a different way.
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Elpida Karaba
(Greece 2020)
Elpida Karaba is an art theorist and independent curator. Her work and publishing record is focusing on the relationship between art and systems of knowledge and the creative industry, art in the public domain and feminist theories and practices. She is teaching at the School of Fine Arts, Athens. She is head of research at the Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices (www.centrefeministmedia.arch.uth.gr/) at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly. Among the publications of which she has been the editor and co-editor are, Wast/ed, Creativity as Labor Reform, Contemporary Methodological Approaches in Theory, History and Criticism and Institutional Critique. Critical Institutions, Archive Public: Performing Archive in Public Space, 9 + 1 Unrealized Projects. Curatorial Issues and Exercises of Idiorythmy. She has participated in the curatorial team of the 4th Athens Biennale, AGORA. In 2014 she has initiated the Temporary Academy of Arts (PAT), a para-isntitution, a hybrid of artistic, curatorial and educational practice. Part of PAT is SEP (Society of Cultural Workers) dedicated to the study, analysis, promotion and support of working affairs in culture. Her research interests and publications record focus on curating, art theory and criticism, feminist theory and practice, public art, archival, documentary, research, activist and performative art practices, new media art and creative industry.
Anna Konjetzky
(Research Group)
www.annakonjetzky.com
Since 2005 Anna Konjetzky creates dance-pieces and dance-installations, that deal with a physical reflection on sociopolitical topics and questions, frequently focusion on the creation of communities and spaces. Her works have been shown national and international at festivals (Spielart, Dance, Tanzwerkstatt Europa, Sommerszene Salzburg, Tempo Festival Rio de Janeiro, Festival Danse Balsa Marni Bruxelles, Co Festival Ljubljana, Strangelove Festival Antwerpen, Festival Souar) and in theaters worldwide (Salzburg, Kampala, Nairobi, Istanbul, Gent, Nürnberg, Köln, Karlsruhe, Hamburg, Krakau, Warswa, Prague, Brasilia, Panama, Mexico, Pakistan). Anna Konjetzky was also invited to choreograph pieces for established dance companys at the state theaters of Saarbrücken and Braunschweig. Her own productions are since 2014 realized in coproduction with Münchner Kammerspiele.
An important aspect of her work – especially when working aboad – is the (re)creation of her pieces together with local dancers and the devellopement of workshop-formats that meet the needs of local scenes. Complimentary Anna Konjetzky teached at universities and academies of fine art, like Académie des Beaux Arts Brussels, AHK Amsterdam and Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne.
Anna Konjetzky is the recipient of numerous accolades and scholarships, including a dance scholarship of the Berlin Senate (2006), a scholarship of the city of Munich (2011), a Berlin opera competition prize (2009), a Leipzig’s Euro Scene Festival award (2009) and a Förderpreis Tanz award of the city of Munich (2014). Her dance installation, Abdrücke, was invited to the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2012. Currently she has a three-year grant from the City of Munich and from the Fonds Darstellende Künste. Her project NOMADIC ACADEMY received a support from Tanzpakt. Stadt-Land-Bund.
Please find here a recent article about Anna Konjetzkys work.
Anna Królica
(Poland 2019, curator)
Curator, art critic and dance historian. She holds a degree in theatre and in Russian philology from the Jagiellonian University. Currently she curated and edited the album „Insatiabillity of the Gaze: Photography of Dance”. It is a pioneering book about a highly diverse phenomenon, involving a range of forms – from documentary photography to artistic experimentation. She worked as academic teacher at Jagiellonien University and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. From 2017-2019 she worked as curator at Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań.
Her major curatorial projects include: Z perspektywy żaby (A Frog’s Perspective, 2015) and Archiwum ciała (Archive of the Body, 2013) at the Zamek Culture Centre in Poznań, Maszyna Choreograficzna (The Choreographic Machine) at Cricoteka in Krakow; Goodbye Superman (together with Paweł Łyskawa and Eryk Makohon, Nowa Huta Culture Centre, Cracow 2015) and Portrety. Kobiety w polskiej choreografii (Portraits. Women in the Polish Choreography, Staromiejskie Culture Centre, Cracow 2014).
Królica is the author of Pokolenie solo (The Solo Generation, Cracow, 2013), a book comprising a series of interviews conducted within an artist scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2012, and Sztuka do odkrycia. Szkice o polskim tańcu (An Art to Discover. Essays on Polish Dance, Tarnów, 2011), the first book about the most recent history of contemporary dance in Poland. She has written many articles for Balet i taniec (Ballet and Dance), a DVD collection published by Agora. She has collaborated with Teatralny.Pl, Dwutygodnik.com, Taniecpolska.PL „Teatr”, „Didaskalia” and „Konteksty”. In 2006–2010, she ran an opinion-making portal about contemporary dance, www.nowytaniec.pl.
Earlier, she was a member of the Artistic Commission of the Polish Dance Platform in 2008 and 2012, 2017 and the head of the Programme Council for Dance in the Institute of Music and Dance in 2011–2013. In 2011 she was the programme coordinator of the First Dance Congress in Warsaw. In 2008–2015 she taught her own original course of theatre dance at the Jagiellonian University, in the Institute of Contemporary Culture and the Department of Performatics.
Aleksandra Kugacz
(Poland + Munich 2019, research group)
Aleksandra graduated FROM philosophy at the University of Wrocław, she is an actress and performer. She worked in the Matejka Studio. She co-founded the Czyczkowy Studio Theater managed by Jerzy Welter. She participated, among others in the internship program of Teatr ZAR and in work with Anatoly Wasiljew as part of the Masters in Residence program at the Jerzy Grotowski Institute, where in 2013 the premiere of her original performance „The Exits“ took place, inspired by the contemporary history and culture of Romania. With the team of Studio Matejka she participated in the creation of a site-specific performance entitled „Harmony of contrasts. Poland „(2014) and in the production of the film“ No More Heroes „(2016). In 2015 and 2016, under the Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, she implemented a project inspired by the post-war fate of the inhabitants of former Breslau, which resulted in the monodrama „Be at Home“, the project was co-implemented with the Active Culture Society as part of the project „On the River of Time“. Together with the Jubilo Foundation, she co-created the project „Hidden Cities“ and the spectacle „Black Night. White day. “ She took part in the show „Palimpsesty of space. Reconstruction ”as part of the Tandem program implemented by Studio Matejka with the Turkish artistic collective Budalasultan from Izmir (2016). She co-creates the spectacle „The Angry Man (2017-2018) prepared by Studio Matejka. She conducts theater and voice production workshops with children, young people and adults. She takes part in „Anhelli. The Howl“
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Simone Lutz
(Public Relations)
simonelutz.com
Simone Lutz studied Theatre Studies, Modern History and German Literature in Munich, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv and was a member of the postgraduate course „The Bible – origin and impact” at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen. She published articles in magazines like HaTheatron or Neue Zeitschrift für Musik as well as in scientific publications. Together with Dr. Ralf Georg Czapla Simone Lutz was editor of the subject „Reception of the Bible in literatur“ in Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik. Since 1998 she works freelance as a press agent for artists, festivals and cultural institutions in the fields of theater, contemorary dance and classical music. Apart from classical PR she works frequently as editor of festival- and other publications. In 2018 Simone Lutz produced the exhibition project „Aus dem eigenen Archiv – 3 Positionen“ for RODEO – Münchner Tanz- und Theaterfestival. Since 2012 she is responsible for the Summer Schools of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (Akademie für Neue Musik / International Summer School Bad Reichenhall).
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Caitlin van der Maas
(Research Group)
caitlinvandermaas.com
Caitlin van der Maas born in Amersfoort the Netherlands. She studied directing at the Hogeschool for Theatre in Amsterdam. After graduating she worked as a director assistant at the Münchner Kammerspiele with Johan Simons. Since 2015 she is a freelance director and writer and she created the productions „Face Me“, a Solo with Sandra Hüller in a subterranean swimming pool and „Korridor“, about the changes in perception with psychological illness at the LMU Clinic in Munich. 2015 she was a scholar at the Young Academy of Arts in Berlin. 2016 she won a prise with „Short- lived“, a one-act opera about Alzheimer at the Giesinger Kulturpreis.Caitlin directed 2017 the opera „Cendrillon“ at the Dutch National Opera Academy, Amsterdam and The Hague. Also she wrote and directed music theatre piece „Die goldene Lüge“ in Munich. The libretto „Arianna, Ariadne, Ariane“ won May 2018 the 1. Prise as part of the competition ‚take it or leave it‘, from the Neukölner Oper at the Elisabeth church in Berlin.2019 Caitlin wrote and directed ‘Mitten in der Nacht’ a youth theatre play about Marriage. January 2020 music theatre ‘The silence conductor’ will premiere at Kösk in Munich.
Laura Martegani
(Artistic adviser and management)
www.ratundtat-kulturbuero.de
Laura Martegani was born in Italy and lives since 2008 in Munich. She studied Theater Studies in Bologna and Theater- and Musicmanagement at the LMU Munich. Subsequently she worked as a concert manager for various theater- and musikfestivals and since 2010 on a regular basis for Spielmotor München e.V., where she is part of the production team taking care oft he SPIELART, Münchener Biennale and DANCE. In 2013 she founded together with her colleague Katrin Dollinger and Anna Donderer the Rat&Tat kulturbuero, an international operating plattform that offers to artists and cultural promoters services in the fields of management, dramaturgy, foundraising an PR. She is currantly a participant of the Academy for Performing Arts Producers initiated by the League of International Theaters e.V. as well as a member of Training for Young Festival Production Manager.
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Mariela Nestora
(Greece 2020)
marielanestora.wixsite.com/mariela-nestora
Mariela Nestora, Choreographer, researcher, performance maker, Feldenkrais practitioner, movement director for theatre, performer, based in Athens, Greece. Mariela Nestora makes performances for the stage as well as site specific and public space projects. She studied Contemporary dance and Choreography at the London Contemporary Dance School, Biology (B.Sc., Queen Mary and Westfield, U.K.), Human Molecular Genetics (M.Sc. St.Mary’s Medical School, Imperial College, U.K.), the Feldenkrais method (Greece, IFF International Feldenkrais Federation) and Master Theatre practices program at ArtEZ, Holland. She has participated in several artist collectives and occupations, instigated Collective Choreography Project-CCP and the artist led initiative for the Greek dance scene from stage to page that includes publications of choreographers‘ interviews. As movement director in theatre she has worked on many projects and collaborated with several directors (Greek National Theatre, Athens & Epidaurus Festival, National Theatre of Northern Greece, Municipal Theatre of Patras, Experimental theatre festival Cairo, Patras Cultural Capital, National Theatre of Albania and many others). She taught movement for actors at the Experimental Stage of the Greek National Theatre and at the State theatre of Northern Greece.
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Ceren Oran
(Research Group)
cerenoran.com
Ceren Oran was born in Istanbul and lives in Munich as a freelance dancer, choreographer and soundpainter. She studied contemporary dance at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance), where she also finished her postgraduate Masters program ICE (International Choreographic Exchange). Her own projects, for which she works with many multidisciplinary artists, include „Heimat…los!“ (2015), „RUSH HOUR“ (2017), „Who is Frau Troffea?“ (2019) in Munich, „Youmemeyouhesheme…“ (2013,Vienna), „My Lovely Army“ (2010, Salzburg) or „Arrimamuebles“ (2010,Costa Rica). She also creates dance theater for children and tours with her pieces, „Elefant aus dem Ei“ (Munich, 2017), „SAG MAL…“(Munich, 2016), „Yamuk Yemek“ (Istanbul, 2015), „Cartoonville“ (Strasbourg, 2013). As a dancer she worked with choreographers and companies including Davis Freeman (US/BE), Ori Flomin (US), Tomaz Simatovic (SLO/Ö), Mihran Tomasyan (TR), Mustafa Avkiran (TR), Abhilash Ningappa (IND), Gosaval Gaspard Projects (CR), Toihaus Theatre (AU) etc.. Besides dance, Ceren works with bands, primarily as a singer or back vocalist. She likes to use her singing and voice improvisation skills and often combines dance and live voice in her creations.
Quindell Orton
(Research Group)
Quindell Orton works as an independent dance artist in Australia and Europe. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in dance with Honours, Quindell works as a solo artist and in collaboration with others in the field of dance and performance. She has worked with the likes of Anna Konjetzky (DE), Superyoutour (DE), Shona Erskine (AU), Chrissie Parrott (AU), Stefan Dreher (DE), CADAM (DE) Club Guy and Roni [internship] (NE) and Hauptaktion (DE) and is cofounder of site alternative performance company Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre (AIVDT). Quindell’s work has been featured at the Process Space Art Festival-PSAF (BU), Nomadic Village (UK), You Are Here Festival (AU), Short + Sweet Dance Festival where Quindell was awarded Most Outstanding Female Performer (AU), MoveMe Festival (AU), Springhouse (DE) and CADAM’s HiSTOREy’s (DE).
Recently was named Most Interesting Australian Artist by the Dance Australia Critic’s Survey in 2018 and ‘Dust on the Shortbread’ won Best Production at the Performing Arts Awards WA, 2018. In 2019, Quindell was a participant of the Tanzhaus NRW Digital Dance Lab, choreographic assistant for Anna Konjetzky on Unstable at Staatstheater Braunschweig and We Are Here at the Saarländisches Staatstheater, performed in Where Are We Now? with Anna Konjetzky, worked with performance group Thermoboy and toured with Anna Konjetzky’s The Very Moment, Lighting and Hauptaktion’s Versuch Über das Turnen.
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Thanos Papadogiannis
(Greece 2020)
Thanos Papadogiannis is a non-binary artist from Athens, Greece. Their work includes performances, visual artworks, art curations and other projects on the fields of film, theater, literature and fashion. Through their drag persona (Space Manifesto) Thanos has performed in Greece, Germany, France and Netherlands at various stages including Stegi Onassis, the National Greek Opera and the Bandits-Mages Festival. They have also worked as a set assistant in New York for fashion and advertisement projects. They have studied History and Theory of Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
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Dr. Philipp Schulte
(Munich 2019, reading)
Dr. Philipp Schulte studied Applied Theater Studies at Bergen University (Norway) and Gießen University, where he received his Ph.D. in 2011 with his thesis „Identität als Experiment“, published at Verlag Peter Lang. Subsequent he was for eight years Research Assistant at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen. Since 2007, he works as project supervisor at the Hessian Theater Academy in Frankfurt and as a freelance author and dramaturge for the performance collective Monster Truck (Berlin), Marion Schneider and Susanne Zaun (Frankfurt/M.), Mamoru Iriguchi (London), Andreas Bachmair (Amsterdam) and Mathias Max Herrmann (Hannover). He published numerous papers and books and teaches Theater Studies at universities in Germany and Norway. He initiated the International Festival Campus within the framework of Ruhrtriennale, which he also lead between 2012 and 2014 and again in 2018.
Susanne Schneider
(Research Group)
Susanne Schneider is a dancer, teacher, movement researcher. Her education includes cultural studies and educational science at the LMU Munich. She holds a BA in contemporary dance/transmission from the HfMT Cologne. Her main teachers were Gustavo Lesgart who introduced her to floor work, Vera Sander who made her question established knowledge, Nina Hänel who showed her how to apply somatic practices. She is influenced by Release Technique, Feldenkrais, Ideokinesis, Klein Technique, Breakdance, conscious made decisions and anatomical limitations. Susanne values both: wild-and-crazy-physicality and anatomically-informed-movement. Since 2013 she collaborated as a freelance dancer with the company Cocoondance. She worked in the field of circus with the acrobat duo Overhead Project. With Özlem Alkis she explored the impossibility of bodily disappearing. Until August 2019 she co-organized and co-initiated the Freaky Training and the IGProfitraining in Cologne to create structures for the freelance scene to share knowledge, to exchange on a physical level and to provide a regular movement practice. In April 2018 she joined the MA CoDE program at HfMDK Frankfurt.
Katharina Senk (aka Senki) and Tanja Erhart
(Munich 2021)
We, Tanja Erhart and Katharina Senk (aka Senki), collaborate since 2018 with each other. Together we move, dance and research while centering pleasure, intersectional feminism and access & care in our work.
Supported by Tanja´s crutches we explore the topic of disability through our moved and moving bodies, our feminist gaze and the application of the aesthetics of access. In the performance j e n g a, which we currently are creating together, Tanja´s crutches are not only visible as assistive-tools but become social connectors, sensual interfaces and animated dance-partners creating pleasure and pressure.
We challenge ableist structures in the (dance) world and current modes of collaborations between disabled and non-disabled artists. We investigate disability as something which, following the approach of Alison Kafer, not simply is but happens in relation. Because of the different ways we are relating to the crutches, to each other and to the world around us, we offer new ways of looking at and thinking about disability.
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Jeremy Wade
(Poland 2019, workshop and lecture)
jeremywade.de
Disruption, Excess, Hyper Vulnerability, Critical Care – Jeremy Wade is an extreme performer and performance maker with an extensive practice of curating and teaching to boot. After graduating from the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam in 2000 and receiving a Bessie Award for his first evening length performance “Glory,” at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City in 2006, he moved to Berlin and since then works in close collaboration with the Hebbel Theater as well as Gessnerallee, Zurich. Recently, Wade has created “Fountain,” “Together Forever,” “Death Asshole Rave Video,” “Drawn Onward,” and “Between Sirens,” exploring the death of man, zombie subjectivity, strange modes of being and feminist strategies of world making to undermine the social codes that define and oppress our bodies. His alter ego, The Battlefield Nurse, is the founder and a co-host of a disability allied project called „The Future Clinic for Critical Care“. Jeremy premiered a new solo, titled „The Clearing“, in May 2019 with musician Marc Lohr at HAU2 and later in June he restaged his first piece „Glory“, a brutal naked duet made in 2006 with Swedish Choreographer and performer Sindri Runudde and Musician Brendan Dougherty at Sophiensaele.
Mimmi Woisnitza
(Munich 2019, reading)
Mimmi is working as a research associate at the Institute for Philosophy and Sciences of Art at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. She completed her Ph.D. at the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago (2015) with the dissertation „Dramaturgies of the Imagination. The Theatre as a Laboratory of Spectatorial Imagination in Lessing and Kleist.“ Her current research interests encompass the history of scenography and theatre staging as a practice of critique and the role of female protagonists in the theatre avant-garde of the Weimar Republic. Mimmi teaches on a wide range of topics, from eighteenth-century aesthetics to contemporary theoretical approaches to and artistic practices of the performing arts.