witch is an interdisciplinary annual exhibit created by dancers from around the world to raise money for charity, hosted by Nederlands Dans Theater (NL). Switch provides the dancers of NDT the opportunity to create an entire evening of art and dance. It serves as a chance to choreograph in a professional setting, take the organizational helm, and delve into the other aspects of this art form we may not always experience. It also serves as a platform for any kind of creativity. It all started...

Movementtalks had the chance to be in conversation with Cullberg managing director Stina Dahlström and choreographer Jérôme Bel. Here they share their opinion and goals concerning the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere and the contemporary world of performance. Stina Dahlström was born in 1982 in Kiruna. She has an education in literature, dance, theatre, economics and project management at the University of Stockholm. Stina Dahlström has worked as a freelance producer, and as head of...

Whistle While You Work is a platform lead by dancers, choreographers, and artists that calls out harassment, discrimination, and violence towards women and marginalized groups particularly while at work in the arts, especially in professional dance and performance. Initiated in 2017 by writer/artist Robyn Doty and dancer/choreographer Frances Chiaverini, the platform has given Open Forums in the US and Germany; workshops at dance festivals and conferences throughout Germany and has been...

Born in Barcelona, Spain, Daniel Mariblanca Sirmans began his professional dance career immediately after graduating from the L'Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. In 2016, after 15+years of dancing professionally around Europe, Daniel joined Carte Blanche. At the beginning of his gender transition, Daniel founded 71BODIES, a transgender inclusive professional dance and performance company based in Bergen, Norway. The company was born out of an urgency to both understand and document the...

Boston Gallacher (25) is a contemporary dance artist originating from Glasgow, Scotland and currently working at Nederlands Dans Theater. They place importance on improvisation and imagery and endeavour towards a more inclusive working environment. As the first non-binary dancer at NDT they are shaping what it means to be non-binary in such a long standing institution and intend to implement enduring change in the system.

Arika Yamada is a coach and a professional dancer. In 2020 Arika founded the AHA room, a coaching practice that works with High Performers, Artistic Leaders, and Creative Minds. Identifying, cultivating and nurturing one’s unique identity in order to perform at their best. Arika Yamada was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA in 1987 to her parents who moved to Detroit from Japan in the mid 80’s. She received her early training from The Joffrey Ballet School, Nutmeg Conservatory and EDGE...

Alessandro Sciarroni is an Italian artist active in the field of Performing Arts with several years of experience in visual arts and theater research. His works are featured in contemporary dance and theater festivals, museums and art galleries, as well as in unconventional spaces and involve professionals from different disciplines. In 2019 he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Venice Bienniale. Photo: Andrea Macchia

Dana Caspersen is conflict engagement specialist, award-winning performing artist, and author. She has developed teaching, communication, and public dialogue models and practices that integrate traditional conflict engagement strategies with choreographic methodologies, engaging thousands of people from diverse communities across the globe. Her book, Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution (A Joost Elffers Book), has been translated into 8 languages and is widely...

Isabel Lewis (1981, Berlin) is an artist of Dominican and American origin who grew up on a suburban island off the coast of southwest Florida. She lived in New York City where she danced for many choreographers and where she has shown commissioned works from 2004 onward at The Kitchen, New Museum, and Movement Research at Judson Church among others. Lewis is based in Berlin since 2009. Trained in literary criticism, dance, and philosophy her current work takes the form of hosted occasions...

Marina Mascarell (Oliva, Spain,1980) is a choreographer based in The Netherlands. Resident Choreographer at Korzo Theatre in The Hague between 2011-21 and Associated Artist at Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona since 2018. In her art the reflexions, inquiries and concepts turn into a poetic fight, where thought transforms into corporeality and movement. Marina is interested in a rebellious body characterized by questioning ‘normativity’. In the dancing body as a form of resistance, deeply...

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. In 2013/14 she was an invited artist at the Institute of spatial experimentation a project initiated by Olafur Eliasson and the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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),...

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...

Federica Dauri is a performer, choreographer and visual artist, born in Italy and currently living in Berlin. She lived and worked in New York and Amsterdam for the last ten years. While studying ballet, contemporary dance and choreography at the National Academy of dance in Rome, Dauri specialized in a more critical investigation on the body politics , philosophy and critical theory and performing art. Her studies enabled her to pursue a manifold range of artist mediums. Her creative work...

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...

Belgian/Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s contemporary musical, Anonymous Society. Since then he has made over 50 full-fledged choreographic pieces and picked up a slew of awards, including two Olivier Awards, three Ballet Tanz awards for best choreographer (2008, 2011, 2017) and the Kairos Prize (2009) for his artistic vision and his quest for intercultural dialogue. Since 2015, Cherkaoui assumed the...

Elisa Zuppini (IT/NL) is a dancer and choreographer recently graduated at SNDO School for new dance development, in Amsterdam. Her background is strongly signed by a technical and experimental training in dance of which she made experience in Italy and abroad (Belgium, Austria, Turkey, India, France, Portugal, Netherlands). In 2016 she is awarded as a young talent by Open FLR (Florence). In 2018 she participate in DanceWeb Life Long Burning (Vienna). Her work focuses in the creation of spaces...