Jury

Felix Berner

Mainz

Felix Berner completed his dance training at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and graduated with the dance prize of the Josef and Else Classen Foundation. As a dancer he has worked with many international choreographers such as Pina Bausch, Ann van den Broek, Sharon Eyal, Tero Saarinen, Club Guy & Roni, Jan Pusch and many others. His work as a choreographer has taken him to the Residenztheater in Munich, Staatstheater Oldenburg, Staatstheater Mainz, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Theater der Jungen Welt in Leipzig. His work with professional dancers and everyday experts has won many awards and been invited to various festivals. In addition to teaching at various universities, he gives further training on the subject of dance education throughout Germany and heads the dance department at the Academy of Cultural Education of the Federal Government and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

 

Tomas Bünger

Bremen

Tomas Bünger studied classical and modern stage dance at the University of Music and Drama in Hanover and was a long-time member of the Tanztheater Bremen. He then took an integrative dance teacher training course at the Mark Morris Dance Center in New York and was a guest lecturer at the University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. Since 2014 he has been Artistic Director of the Young Choreographers’ Platform, initiated by the Goethe-Institut Bangladesh. He teaches at the National Theatre there, at the University of Dhaka, the Bistar Art Center Chittagong and the Ocean Dance Festival in Cox’s Bazar. This was followed by teaching positions at the University of Bremen and the Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen in Ottersberg. 2019 Artist residency with Kossi Sebastien Aholou-Wokawui at the Brin de Chocolat Dance Centre in Lomé, Togo. 2021 Invitation with Sergey Zhukov to the online festival April Dance 2021 in Pune, supported by the Goethe-Institut India and artist-in-residence with Andor Rusu at the Goethe-Institut Romania. He is a guest trainer at the Bremen Theatre, a yoga teacher and choreographs in both professional and non-professional settings.

 

Sonia Franken

Cologne

Sonia Franken is a choreographer, dance facilitator and dance scholar. Under the label El Cuco Projekt she works choreographically with hyperrealistic animal masks and creates hybrid creatures that clash in whimsical dance performances. She was awarded the Cologne Dance Prize 2022 for this work, among others, and regularly tours with her ensemble at various festivals. As a choreographer, Sonia Franken is also part of Polar Publik – a community of female artists from the genres of dance, theatre, new music and visual arts that experiments transdisciplinarily with diverse performance and audience formats. Another field of Sonia Franken’s work is the intensive and long-standing engagement with dance education; in the form of further education, teaching assignments and (school) projects, as well as in the professional support of colleagues in this field. She has a wide range of experience in teaching, accompanying creative processes and is a certified IOKAI Meridian Shiatsu® Practitioner. Sonia Franken completed her BA in Dance Education in Rotterdam / Codarts and her MA in Dance Science in Cologne / ZZT.

 

Silke Gerhardt

Schwerin

Silke Gerhardt works as a teacher for sports, geography, dance and theatre at the Goethe-Gymnasium Schwerin. She established dance as a subject in the school’s arts profile and teaches courses in theatre / performing arts with a specialisation in dance theatre as a compulsory elective 9/10 and in the basic course 11/12. In collaboration with music ensembles at the school, she designs choreographies for choirs.
With productions of the dance theatre Lysistrate, which she founded, she was invited to the Schultheater der Länder, the Theatertreffen der Jugend and to international youth theatre festivals. She initiates intergenerational dance and theatre projects and gives workshops in teacher training and has a teaching position at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre.

 

Modjgan Hashemian

Berlin

Modjgan Hashemian is present as a choreographer throughout Germany and internationally. The leitmotifs of her artistic work include fragile communication, spaces in which movement is under restriction and, in general, dominance structures as well as the break with stereotypical (body) images and gender clichés. Hashemian’s Iranian family context - her parents finally moved to Germany after the revolution in 1979 – is repeatedly a point of reference and starting point for building bridges between the German and Iranian social present. In addition to her own productions, she works in the field of spoken theatre, music theatre and opera. She works at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin and directs the youth club there. Hashemian also gives guest performances at the Thikwa Theatre, German National Theatre Weimar, National Theatre Baghdad, Regensburg Theatre, Dresden State Operetta, Theater an der Parkaue and in Tehran’s independent scene. Hashemian was a mentor at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT) and, among other things, a jury member at the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

 

Nia Kurzeja

Stuttgart

Nina Kurzeja has been working in the independent dance and theater scene as a dancer, choreographer and director for over 20 years. Numerous of her works have received awards. The focus of her artistic work is on social issues and the bringing together of different art forms. She is in demand in the field of cultural education in various contexts. Nationwide guest performances with TanzTheaterStücke for young audiences. Between 2017 and 2018, she directed the Competence and Coordination Office for Dance Education in Early Childhood (KoKo-TANZ), which was a project of TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg e. V.
She is co-founder and managing director of BLOMST! gUG, whose objective is to enable artistic projects and cultural participation.
ninakurzeja.de
blomst.art

 

Klara Liebig

Berlin

Klara Liebig grew up on the outskirts of Berlin and became acquainted with ballet at the age of twelve. A few years later, she gained stage experience as a student at the State Ballet School Berlin and graduated in 2018 with a high school diploma on the dance-theatre profile. She also became acquainted with the urban dance scene and became part of it herself. After her Abitur, she completed a voluntary in political youth education. Since graduating with a degree in Theatre Studies, Klara Liebig combines political education with dance pedagogy and leads workshops and projects alongside her studies. In 2020, she took part in the Tanztreffen der Jugend as a dancer in the duo Klaraadama, and in 2021 she hosted her first dance battle. She also coordinated youth encounters for dance and theatre productions and is active in various institutions, such as foundations, schools, youth centres or associations. Empowerment of young people through dance is particularly important to her.

 

Daniela Rodriguez Romero

Stuttgart

Daniela Rodriguez Romero is a dance practitioner and researcher between cultural education and art in the field of informal and formal structure. Her work encompasses creative research, the production of stage pieces and the mediation of urban dance cultures. The premise of her creative practice is to research methods that can support the unfolding of an authentic and personal expression of performing artists. Her longstanding cultural education work for the empowerment of girls and women in urban dance cultures stems from her activist approach. From this, she explores, produces and communicates music, dance and relationship.

 

Camilo Tupac Amaru Störmann

Düsseldorf

Camilo Tupac Amaru Störmann works as a dancer and actor in Germany as well as in guest performances in Italy. For several years he has performed regularly with various ensembles, such as the youth company of Tanzhaus NRW. He has also produced and directed numerous pieces with the Zorzal collective, which have been performed in Dusseldorf, Essen, Munich and Berlin. One of the pieces he developed in collaboration with two dancers from Dusseldorf was invited to the Berlin Festival 2021. With his dynamic-narrative-lyrical style he mostly moves in the Physical Theatre. He is currently engaged at the Pathos Theater in Munich.