Choy Ka Fai is an artist and performance maker. He is inspired by the histories and theorizations that together contain the uncertainties of the future. His research springs from a desire to understand the conditioning of the human body, its intangible memories and the forces shaping its expressions. These factors converge into complex articulations at the intersection of art, design and technology. Ka Fai graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, with MA in Design Interaction in 2011 and was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council, Singapore, in 2010. He was the resident artist at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin from 2014-2015. His projects have been presented in major festival worldwide, including Sadler’s Wells London (2016), ImPulsTanz Festival, Vienna ( 2015) and Tanz Im August, Berlin (2015 & 2013). Link: www.ka5.info
Deva Schubert is an artist based in Berlin and Munich. She studied Dance in Salzburg, Kassel, and Copenhagen, Fine Arts at the Kunsthochschule in Kassel, and Choreography at the UdK in Berlin. As a performer she has worked for Christoph Winkler, Shai Faran, Georgia Sagri, Costa Company, amongst others and she frequently collaborates with Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez. In the summer of 2018, she got a DAAD scholarship as an artist in residency in Montreal, Canada, where she developed her piece LEAKS, which includes wireless technologies and systems in order to create simultaneity and multiplicity through different sound sources. This work asks how to decentralize and create a more organic model of synaptic connections, being the paradigm embraced by the hacker culture and whistleblowing very inspiring. It has been shown at the Kunsthalle Zürich and The Uppsala Art Museum. Multiple sensing technologies have been present throughout her work as a way of enhancing non visual perception, for example through the use of sensors (sound, electromagnetic, thermal, etc.), amplification systems, and prostheses. The social aspect of this nonvisual and nonverbal communication is a central to her work, especially the question of how technology can serve as a mediator in order to expand the understanding of bodies, intimacy, and the dynamics of interactions as performative devices. http://devaschubert.com
Einav Katan-Schmid, PhD, works in the intersection of dance practice, technology, philosophy and cultural criticism. Most recently she led the interdisciplinary practice-based research project Playing with Virtual Realities at the Excellence Cluster An Interdisciplinary Laboratory at Humboldt University of Berlin. The project staged and explored the philosophical, as well as the artistic, implications of interacting bodily techniques within VR technology. Einav is a core convener for the international network Performance Philosophy and a co-founder of Mo.Ré, a collective for movement research (Berlin). She published on dance practice from the perspectives of embodied philosophies of perception, aesthetics and hermeneutics. Her book Embodied Philosophy in Dance; Gaga and Ohad Naharin’s Movement Research was published with Palgrave Macmillan (2016). https://independent.academia.edu/EinavKatanSchmid
Eleonora Siarava (MA, PhD researcher) is a choreographer, performer and artistic director of Per_Dance Platform of Choreographic Research. She has presented her work internationally in various festivals and institutions supported by Goethe Institut, Robert Bosch Stiftung,SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographing Development, ArTeC, Ruhrtriennale Festival, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Thessaloniki Concert Hall et.al. In her choreographic pieces, stage and site-specific, she maps the land between abstract dance and expressiveness and her intention is to make enigmatic multilayered performances carrying various levels of interpretation non-intellectually mediated. Her methodology is based on a practice-based interdisciplinary approach experimenting with the relationship between aesthetic forms, experiential awareness, multisensory perception, the notion of atmosphere. Working with technology she is interested in the creation of artworks emerging from hybridity and in-between spaces at the intersection of three-dimensional embodiment and two-dimensional digitality as a way to unfold new possibilities in dramaturgy and construct mixed reality scenographies.Her new choreographic work is selected by »Transfer International« programme, supported by NRW KULTURsekretariat (NRWKS) and Goethe Institut in order to create a performance complemented with digital technologies in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences, Mixed Reality and Visualization (MIREVI) in Düsseldorf (2019-2020).More at www-per-dance.com
Ella Tighe is a dance artist & yoga teacher from Yorkshire, based in London. In 2015 Ella gained a First Class BA (Hons) Degree in Dance Making & Performance. A contemporary dancer, Ella’s practice is informed by improvisation, yoga, somatic based practices and an expanded idea of what dance and choreography could be. Ella has performed and worked with a variety of different independent dance artists including Flux Dance, Joon Dance, Lizzy LeQuesne, Florence Peake, Gaby Agis etc. An important part of Ella’s practice is the practice itself and the commitment to a continuous dance practice. Interests within this include perception, attention, seeing/not seeing, vision, darkness, philosophy, deconstruction of a yoga movement vocabulary, the emergence of form in improvisation and many more curiosities. Ella has started to input this ongoing process into a making/research practice entitled @etdd . Her work has been supported by Kala Sangam Bradford, Ponderosa Berlin, Clarence Mews London and Creation Box London. As a yoga teacher, Ella teaches across various different London based Yoga Studios and is trained in Ashtanga, Dynamic Vinyasa, Rocket and Mandala Vinyasa. Ella regularly facilitates dance and movement within a variety of different contexts and is a lead facilitator for Flux Dance. In September she will begin a Masters degree at ArtEz Amsterdam. Website: www.ellatighe.com Instagram: @ellatighe
Hanna Pajala-Assefa is a contemporary artists whose work orients around the disciplines of contemporary dance and performance and it’s expressed in forms of media art, dance film, contemporary performance and embodied interactivity in VR. She has led and carried out multiple interdisciplinary projects involving contemporary dance, tangible technology, music and multimedia. Her extensive experience spreads over choreography, concept design, content curations as well as event and project production. Her strength lays in developing and facilitating multidisciplinary creative projects and managing complex challenges of production and drive them to success. She is driven by curiosity and the desire to keep learning and discovering ways to express our embodied experience through art.
Kadri Sirel is a young choreographer and a performer. In 2015 she received a BA from the Viljandi Culture Academy in Estonia in choreography and dance pedagogy. She has complemented her studies in the Institute of Dance Arts in Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and ICP Nuova Officina della Danza, Italy. After writing her thesis „Developing individual body sensitivity for group unity“, she has continued to research the common part between an individual and a group in her movement practice as well as in her artistic work. Her artistic work observes hierarchies in the personal and the cultural, while creating surreal characters to take blame for the sorrows of the human condition. In 2016 she was chosen as one of the residents in a young choreographers program Premiere’17 in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2017 came out her first solo performance „The Queen Is Dead“ (Tallinn, Estonia) and in May 2019 premiered her new work „How To Build A Garden Gnome“, under the coproduction of Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, Tallinn, Estonia.
Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez works on a stage, he is a Colombian artist, living in Berlin, doing dramaturgy, performing, and choreographing. After studying Dramaturgy in Barcelona, he studied dance and choreography at the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT). He collaborates with artists like Nile Koetting, Deva Schubert, Jan Rozman, Doris Uhlich, and Heiner Goebbels, amongst others. In 2015 he founded together with Simone Gisela Weber the collective Kimberly Kaviar. If you are interested you can meet him personally and have a memorable conversation. More info at http://jfag.co
Maria Pyatkova is a dancer, choreographer and molecular biologist from Berlin, (originally from Siberia). After her contemporary dance studies (Novosibirsk, Russia) she joined Wampeter Dance Theater in Russia. In 2006 Maria moved to Berlin where she continued working as a dancer and choreographer. Through her career she was concentrating on improvisational and multimedia-work, as well as production of dance films. Maria worked with Shahar Dor & Artness-project, cie.Animadance, Stewart Lynch, BK cie, Reset Dance | Connection, Julyen Hamilton, Alexander Pepelyaev, BlackOrange Theatre. As a choreographer she worked for several productions of the multimedia theater company post theater, Berlin. Their media dance piece “Akademgorodok – Silicon Forest” (2016) was successfully touring in Germany. (www.posttheater.com). Maria also works as artistic director and choreographer of cie. Zhivaja Forma creating performances based on the fusion of movement and generative visuals (www.facebook.com/zhivajaforma). Maria teaches workshops in improvisational performance, screen dance, multimedia performance in Germany, Ukraine and Russia. Her main interest and a topic of constant research is the interplay between dance and media and its application in performance.
Outi Elena Valanto (BA, MA) is Finnish artist and researcher with background in dance and architecture. She is currently based in Germany. Her practice is focused in cross-disciplinary techniques combining together her two backgrounds: artistic and scientific: movement studies and architecture. She is interested in possibilities for city development through arts, communities of practice, inclusive- and interdisciplinary art practices as well as movements engaged with technology. As a freelancer Outi has worked in international productions like Common Ground, Moving Beyond Inclusion, Coram Publicum, Move the Public Space. With her own works like Transformer, Supertarget and Spiritual Cabaret she has observed the present movements in society. Subjects like social media, technological development, artificial body and public space have been in focus point. The inclusivity of various movers and the technologically attached moving human body in urban space are the future interests of her. She is currently researching project Method.Movement.Urban that observes possibilities for moving in urban spaces. www.outielenavalanto.com
Simona Deaconescu (n. 1987) is a Romanian born choreographer and filmmaker, currently living and working in Bucharest. Her work questions future narratives involving the body and the crisis of perception in contemporary social space. Simona developed her artistic research through residencies offered by Gabriela Tudor Foundation and 4Culture in Bucharest, Battery Dance Studios in New York, Forum Dança in Lisbon, TeatrInGestAzione in Naples, La Briqueterie in Paris (Val-de-Marne Choreographic Development Centre) and COORPI in Turin. She was granted the danceWEB scholarship (2014) by the Life Long Burning Network in the frame of ImPulsTanz Festival. She received The National Center of Dance Bucharest Award (2016) for her contribution to the growth of Romanian contemporary dance. She is a an Aerowaves Twenty18 Artist with her performance “Counterbody” one of the 5 international emerging choreographers promoted by Springboard Danse Montreal in 2019. Simona is the founder of Tangaj Collective and the artistic director of Bucharest International Dance Film Festival. Working closely with her collaborators, Simona has been developing projects in the field of performance, cinema and installation. Her performative works have been presented in Romania, Austria, USA, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, France, Lithuania and Chile, while her dance films have been selected in more than 40 festivals around the world. http://tangajdance.com/
Sylvia Rijmer (M.A, B.F.A) is an independent dance practitioner. She studied at The Juilliard School and Elmhurst Ballet School, and danced professionally at Ballet Gulbenkian, Stageworks Rui Horta, Bern Ballet, Stadttheater Giessen, and Cie. DRIFT, to name a few, dancing works by Örjan Andersson, Mauro Bigonzetti, Stijn Célis, Marie Chouinard, Jacopo Godani, Gilles Jobin, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, David Parsons, Hervé Robbe, Phillipe Saire, Didy Veldman, and more. She teaches and choreographs contemporary dance globally. As a dance researcher, her work is framed around cognitive attention and the exposure of habitual movement patterns in subjective dancing as creative potentials for “new” artistic expression. As a guest choreographer with the BlackBox Team (Nova University in Lisbon) she is currently researching her choreographic practice within an interdisciplinary and multimodal dance and cognition process: http://blackbox.fcsh.unl.pt/sylvia-rijmer.html
http://www.sylviarijmer.com
Tanja Råman is a choreographer/dancer and artistic director of TaikaBox – a not-for-profit dance/technology organization based in Oulu, Northern Finland. She studied dance in the UK and developed her career there as a multifaceted dance artist for 18 years, creating over 40 productions. Since moving back to Northern Finland in 2015, Tanja has been exploring dance in a rural context, developing new ways to collaborate with fellow artists in distant locations and to engage small communities in dance. She is interested in promoting positive body image and exploring the fundamental power of the arts to re-shape people’s perceptions of everyday life, as well as politics and society. As a choreographer and performer she is interested in the relationship between movement and new technology, the challenges that technology places on choreography and new opportunities that it can offer. In her choreographic work, technology is often considered as organic and live – as an extension of physical expression. She is interested in creating new ways for people to experience dance and is currently producing an AR platform for exhibiting artistic work in her home village of Varjakka as part of a programme to regenerate the area. As the artistic director of TaikaBox Tanja creates opportunities for local and international artists and works as a creative mentor in projects such as Oulu Dance Hack, Warjakka Artist Residency and Warjakka Art Lab. More details can be found at: taikabox.com
Teresa Alves da Silva is an independent dance artist and contemporary dance teacher. She graduated from the Contemporary Dance Academy of Setúbal, and was a principal dancer at CeDeCe, Ballet Gulbenkian and Atterbaletto Company. She has worked with renowned choreographers such as Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Angelin Preljocaj, Didy Veldman, Mauro Bigonzetti, Stijn Celis, Itzik Galili, Jan Kodet, Rodrigo Pederneiras, and Vera Mantero amongst others. As a freelance dancer, she worked with choreographers Rui Horta in Stageworks, Miguel Moreira in Útero, Victor Hugo Pontes, Valter Fernandes, Sérgio Diogo Matias, Paulo Ribeiro and Henrique Rodovalho in Companhia Paulo Ribeiro. Teresa also participated as a dancer/collaborator in a Cognition and Dance research project entitled BlackBox (Nova University in Lisbon), with choreographer Sylvia Rijmer. As a contemporary dance teacher, she has taught at the 3rd Beijing International Ballet Intensive Course, Estágio de Dança de Aveiro 2017, 1º and 2º Intensive Course BalletVita and for Dançando com a Diferença. As a dancer, Teresa participated in a documentary entitled Aires Mateus-Matéria em Avesso by Henrique Câmera Pina (Mooway Films) and Lisbon Under Stars by video mapping producer OCUBO. In 2007, Teresa co-founded TOK’ART (2007/2015) Dance Company with André Mesquita, where she acted as artistic director and dancer. In 2009 she won the First prize in the Interpretation Category with Lake by André Mesquita at the 13th International Solo-Tanz-Theater in Stuttgart. Currently, Teresa is teaching at BalletVita and F.O.R Dance Theater, and working as a dance collaborator in the project The Ring commissioned by the Business Romantic Society for the House of Beautiful.
Zjana Muraro is an independent dance artist. She studied at CalArts (BFA, Hons), NYU Tisch (MA, Distinction) and is currently completing an MFA at Trinity Laban in London where she also guest lectures as a visiting artist. Alongside dance, her focused interest in new media earned her a PG Dip in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths University. She has performed internationally in commercial work and by renowned contemporary choreographers including Roy Assaf (TLV), Noa Wertheim (TLV), Jody Sperling (NYC), Salvator LaRussa (NYC), David Gordan (LA), Danna Uchizono (LA), Bebe Miller(SF), Kathleen Hermsdorf (SF), Seán Curran (NYC), Doug Varone (NYC), film director Harmony Korine, musical artists Sonic Youth and interdisciplinary artist Scot Snibbe (LA). Her own choreography has been presented alongside her facilitating workshops and trainings in various art institutions and dance centers. Resident artist at Festival Grec de Barcelona as part of BIDE, Brooklyn Arts Exchange young artist choreography coach, Hong Kong International Dance festival artist, one of 7 dancers and 3 programmers chosen worldwide for Oulu Museum of Modern Art, Finland dance and technology hack. Her work has been supported by the European Cultural Foundation and Compagnia di San Paolo as well as other commissions and scholarships. Zjana is also a somatic movement practitioner qualified in Feldenkrais®, Ilan Lev Method, yoga and Gyrotonic®. She is executive producer of Ilan Lev London. With a background as a professional performer and a foundation in performance studies, Zjana brings together her interests in new media and digital art with theory and practice to a lively and curious encounter on stage. www.zjana.com
We’d also like to acknowledge the following Estonian performers, who have participated and assisted us in Moving Digits events at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, Tallinn:
- Christin Lunts
- Hanna Junti
- Karolin Poska
- Liis Vares
- Madli Paves
- Marie Pullerits
- Sylvia Köster