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• Manchev, Prof. Dr. Boyan

  © Svoboda Tzekova

  philosopher (BG)

  Boyan Manchev is philosopher, Professor at the New Bulgarian University, guest Professor at the Sofia University and HZT Berlin and former Vice-President of the International College of Philosophy in Paris. Among his last books are ‘Logic of the Political’ (Sofia, 2012), ‘Miracolo’ (Milano, 2011), ‘L’altération du monde: Pour une esthétique radical’ (Paris, 2009); ‘La Métamorphose et l'Instant – Désorganisation de la vie’ (Paris, 2009). Boyan Manchev has participated as theorist, dramaturge or performer in theater and contemporary dance projects, including Tim Etchells and Adrian Heathfield’s ‘The Frequently Asked’, Boris Charmatz's ‘expo zero’ and ‘Poster session Mouvement’ for the Festival d’Avignon, Ani Vaseva’s ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘A Dying Play’, and deufert&plischke’s ‘Emergency Room’.

• Mannes, Jörg

  Ballet director Staatstheaters Hannover (DE)
  
  Jörg Mannes was born in Vienna. At the age of eight he began his training at the ballet school of the Wiener Staatsoper, which he completed in Monte Carlo, London and New York . In 1991 he went as a solo dancer to Heinz Spoerli at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein/Düsseldorf. Mannes gave his debut as a choreographer in Düsseldorf in 1994. Guest choreographies repeatedly led him to, among others, Montréal, Indianapolis and the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, and most recently the Badische Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Bayerische Staatsoper München. From 2001 to 2004 Jörg Mannes worked as head choreographer at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and from 2004 to 2006 at the Landestheater Linz, before he was engaged at the Staatsoper Hannover at the beginning of the 2006/07 season as a ballet director.

• Masuch, Bettina

  © Monika Rittershaus

  director tanzhaus nrw (DE)
  
  After studying applied theatre studies in Gießen, Bettina Masuch has been working as a dramaturge at, among others, the Volksbühne in Berlin, where she collaborated in productions of Frank Castorf, Christoph Schlingensief and René Pollesch. From 2003 to 2009 she was dance and performance curator at Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, and following posts as the artistic director of the Springdance Festival Utrecht and the artistic director of the Berlin dance festival 'Tanz im August', she has been the director of the tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf since January 2014.

• McGrandles, Sheena

  

  choreographer, performer (DE)

  from Northern Ireland, graduated with a BA in Dance Theatre from the Laban Center, London (2007). She completed her MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship at HZT Berlin and from 2012-2013 she was a choreograpaher in residence at K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie|Tanzplan Hamburg, creating the choreographic work ‘true balls’. Over the past year she has been colloaborating with Zinzi Buchanan on a series of works as Steve&Sam, ‘Man Power Mix’ (Tanztage, Sophiensale), ‘New Materialism’ (Flutgraben Berlin) and ‘man must eat’, (Agora Berlin). Since October 2013 Sheena is artistic research associate on the BA ‘Dance, Context, Choreography’ at HZT Berlin. Her artistic practice, both performative and visual is concerned with queering the body in performance, drag and the representation of women on stage.

• Medak, Tomislav

  © Joichi Ito

  Philosopher (RS) Tomislav Medak's interests are in contemporary political philosophy, media theory and aesthetics. Together with his colleagues at the Multimedia Institute/MAMA (Zagreb) he's co-ordinating the theory and publishing programme.1 He is a free software and free culture advocate and the digital librarian for the Public Library project.2 He’s a supporter of urban activist initiative Right to the City Zagreb.3 In parallel he's doing artistic work with the Zagreb based theatre collective BADco.4

  1 www.mi2.hr/en
  2 www.memoryoftheworld.org
  3 www.pravonagrad.org
  4 www.badco.hr

• Mertens, Dr. Anna-Maija

  © Elsa Kemppainen

  political scientist, managing director of Transparency International Germany (DE)

  Anna-Maija Mertens is a political scientist with a main focus on European policy, dealing in particular with the structural conditions of political decision-making. Since 12/01/2014 Anna-Maija Mertens has been managing director of Transparency International Germany e.V. Transparency Germany initiates and promotes coalitions between politics, business and civil society to fight corruption. It is a non-profit civil-society organisation working independently of politics. The basic principles of Transparency Germany are integrity, transparency and participation of the civil society. Prior to her activities at Transparency Germany, Anna-Maija Mertens was director of the Finland-Institute in Germany.

• Mezur, Prof. Dr. Katherine

  © Holger Hartung

  dance and theatre scholar (GB)

  is a freelance dance, theatre, and performance studies scholar, curator, choreographer and director. Mezur holds a PhD in Theatre and Dance from the University of Hawai'i Manoa, (MA Dance Mills College, BA Film Hampshire College). Her research focuses on transnational East Asian performance influences and practices. Mezur writes on Japanese traditional and contemporary performance, girl cultures and their live and mediated performance, and gender performance from kabuki to J-pop. Her books and articles include, Beautiful Boys Outlaw Bodies: Devising female-likeness in Kabuki, in progress: Radical Aesthetics: Performing Sweet and Deviant in Contemporary Japan, ‘Stranger Communities: Art Labor and Berliner Butoh.’ She held positions at Georgetown University, CalArts, McGill University, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She is a co-curator for the Performance Studies international (PSi) Fluid States, Aomori, Tohoku conference and core member of the Butoh research unit Portfolio Butoh at Keio University Art Centre, Tokyo. She was a Research Fellow at the International Research Center, ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’, of Freie University Berlin.

  www.portfolio­butoh.jp

• Minarti, Dr. Helly

  

  dance scholar, curator, author (UK)

  Helly Minarti completed her PhD in dance studies at University of Roehampton (London) in 2014 and resumes her practice as dance producer/curator/writer. Now based in Jakarta, she held the peer-selected post Head of Programme of Jakarta Arts Council for the period of 2013-2015, supervising a collective curatorial board. She has co-curated the Asia-Europe Dance Forum: Eurasia/Misunderstanding in 2004, Indonesian Dance Festival in 2014 and more recently, the first season programme for the newly-opened Asian Arts Theatre (AAT) in Gwangju, South Korea, which responses to the idea of Orientalism in dance.

• Moro, Lea

  © Thies Rätzke

  choreographer, dancer (CH)

  Lea Moro studied at the Scuola Teatro Dimitri, LABAN Centre London and graduated 2014 from HZT Berlin. Herchoreographic work (b)reaching stillness (2015) was invited to the German Dance Platform 2016. Lea Moros solo performance Le Sacre du Printemps, a ballet for a single body (2013/14) was presented internationally a.o. at HAU Berlin, Uferstudios Berlin, Het Veem Theatre Amsterdam, Theatre Skorohod St.Petersburg, Festival Tanztage 2015 Sophiensaele Berlin, Tanzhaus Zurich, Dampfzentrale Bern. In 2015/16 Lea Moro was artist in Residence at the 'K3 Centre for Choreography|Tanzplan Hamburg' and developed the solo musical The End of the Alphabet. Moro is nominated talented choreographer within the year book 2015 of tanz magazine.

  www.leamoro.com

• MS Schrittmacher

  MS Schrittmacher (DE)
  Company
  Martin Stiefermann installation, research, choreography
  Antje Maria Lossin, Alisa Beckstein research assistants

  MS Schrittmacher was founded in Berlin in 1998. The group grasps itself as a pool of artistically associated freelance artists from the areas of choreography, directing, dance, text and scenography. The group stands for a socio-political debate that also always intervenes in people’s everyday lives and direct experience. To live up to this claim, the group has brought its audience from the grandstand down into the events on stage and in recent years increasingly active with research and performance formats in public space. www.msschrittmacher.de

  Martin Stiefermann, trained at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and dancer with the Hamburger Ballett. During this time he created his first choreographies. In 1992 choreography grant of the Internationale Tanzwochen Wien. From 1995 - 97 director/choreographer at the Bühnen Kiel. In 1998 ̈he founded MS Schrittmacher in Berlin. From 2001 to 2006 he was simultaneously director of the dance section of the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater and director of the Berlin-based company MS Schrittmacher, and during this time installed a unique co-operation model. In 2003 and 2005 festival director of the Internationale Tanztage Oldenburg. In 2014 he held a teaching position in dance studies at the FU Berlin. He is on the board of LAFT-Berlin.

  Alisa Beckstein began studying ‘economics’ at the University of Bayreuth in 2011 and did a semester abroad in Bilbao/Spain. She worked for three months at the Goethe-Institut in Tel Aviv. After completing her bachelor’s, she began with her master’s in ‘dance studies’ at the FU Berlin and during the course of her studies gained theoretical and practical experiences in the field of ‘dance and performance’. Among others, she attended courses of Robyn Orlin and Joachim Schlömer, and worked for the Ausdruck-Mobil as a guest student for MS Schrittmacher.

  Antje Maria Lossin has a bachelor’s degree in theatre studies and is currently studying for her master’s in dance studies at the FU Berlin. Since April she has been involved in research work on the Ausdruck-Mobil as a guest student of MS Schrittmacher. She is currently participating in archiving the estate of Lole Gessler. Since 2013 she has also been an introductory assistant at the Staatsballett Berlin. Antje Maria is furthermore a dancer and dance teacher in Berlin and active throughout Europe. International engagements with the Catt-Company and Bellydance Evolution: Alice in Wonderland.

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• Nachbar, Martin

  Dancer, chooreographer (DE)

  Martin Nachbar, born in 1971, studied at the SNDO, Amsterdam, in New York and at PARTS, Brussels. He was among the first graduates of the Amsterdam Master of Choreography, AMCh. Since 2001 Nachbar has made more than 20 pieces, some of which touring successfully through Europe, America and Asia. He has also been writing about his work for various magazines and publications. His teaching has been invited to dance schools such as the SNDO, HZT, SEAD, PARTS, MA Performance Studies and LABAN. Nachbar has been collaborating closely with the Belgian dramaturg Jeroen Peeters, for example on the pieces „Repeater“ or „Animal Dances“ and for the workshop format „Backtracking“.

• Najdi, Rima

  

  performance artist (LB/DE)
  
  Rima Najdi is a performance artist currently based in Berlin. Much of the motivation in her work stems from the curiosity to research the production of propositions that challenge and occupy in-between spaces: Spaces that exist perhaps only between the self and the other, reality and fiction, physicality and emotion. A research for an act, a statement, a photo, an art work that questions issues such as stereotypes, identity, gender, borders, and its representations. Najdi has a Diploma in Dramatic Arts, Beirut (2008) and an MA in Performance Studies N.Y. (2011).

• Nashat, Shahryar

  artist (US)
  
  The work of Shahryar Nashat (*1975 in Geneva, lives in Los Angeles) deals with the presentation of the body and the desires of objects and bodies. The installations by the artist of Iranian descent are captivating due to their subtle spatial choreographies. Deconstruction and reconstruction play an important role in all of his works. Nashat's installation for the Kunstverein Hannover consists of bench-like sculptures and filmic works, with the viewer becoming at once an exhibit and a recipient.

• Nestora, Mariela

  

  choreographer (GR/UK)
  
  was born in Athens. She studied Biology- B.Sc., Queen Mary and Westfield, M.Sc. at St.Mary's Medical School, Imperial College, in Human Molecular Genetics and dance and choreography at London Contemporary Dance School, Visual Design for Dance at the Laban Centre. She works as a performer, choreographer for YELP danceco, movement director in theatre and as a Feldenkrais practitioner. Currently she engages in stage, site specific, public space performances and the collective projects Syndesmos, Green Park, CCP (Collective Choreography Project) and the blog from stage to page
  
  www.yelpdanceco.gr
  www.collectivechoreographyproject.wordpress.com
  www.fromstagetopage.wordpress.com

• Noeth, Sandra

  © Lejla Mehanovic

  cultural theorist, dramaturge, author, associate researcher to Dance Congress 2016 (DE)
  
  Sandra Noeth is a curator, researcher, writer and associate researcher to Dance Congress 2016. Since 2015, she is a Fellow of the Research Group 'Loose Couplings' at the University of Hamburg. From 2009-2014, she was Head of Dramaturgy and Research at Tanzquartier Wien, where she developed a series of projects on concepts and practices of responsibility, protest, religion and integrity in relation to the body. Sandra is internationally active as an educator, with a focus on the ethics and politics of the body and dramaturgy in choreography and performing arts. She is a Senior Lecturer at DOCH-Stockholm University of the Arts and a Resident Professor in the HWP program 2015-16 at ashkal alwan. Her current research project examines the role, status, and agency of the body in material and immaterial bordering processes. Recent publications in English: 'A New War on Borders. Artistic Movements in Contested Space', in: Brandstetter, G./Hartung, H. (eds.), Moving (across) Borders, 2016; 'Dramaturgy in Contemporary Dance and Choreography', in: Romanska, M. (ed.), in: The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, 2014; 'Emerging Bodies. On the Performance of Worldmaking' (2011, co-ed. with G. Klein), publication series SCORES (2010-14, co-ed. with Tanzquartier Wien).

• Nyamza, Mamela

  

  choreographer, dancer (ZA)
  
  born in Cape Town, Township Guguleto, was trained in classical dance, receiving her first dance diploma after studying at the Arts Faculty in Pretoria in 1988, followed by a one-year grant at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York and diverse workshops at European dance academies and festivals. In 2005 she studied under Germaine Acogny to expand her knowledge of 'African' dance.
  Her first professional activities included roles in musicals such as 'Lion King' and 'We Will Rock You'. In her own, autobiographically influenced works, she deals with her status as the 'other', as a black dancer, and with political and social issues related to her homeland of South Africa. Nyamza grasps herself as a political activist and is engaged in the areas of welfare work, dance and movement therapy. Among her best known works are 'Hatch' and 'Hatched', 'Shift', 'The Dying Swan' and 'Idolls'. Mamela Nyamza's projects have been shown and funded internationally, among others, in Senegal, the Republic of Congo, the United States, Canada, Germany, Slovenia and Austria.