Alexandra Timpau is a Romanian musician, architect, and photographer. She studied architecture and urban planning in Romania, but after graduating and moving to Prague, she became captivated by music and the practice of live sound coding.
Andrej Kalinka began in 1993 as a musician in underground and jazz bands. Gradually, he went on to study classical music (conducting and composition). Since 1996 he has begun to collaborate with various theater and musical companies/groups, first as a composer, later as a librettist and finally as a director. He had an opportunity to go through a wide range of theater, music and dance genres – drama, puppet theater, contemporary dance, opera etc. He has collaborated with more than 30 companies and has contributed to more than 70 works. Since 2006, he has begun to search and create his own artistic language, and in 2011 together with Ivan Martinka, Juraj Poliak a Michal Mikuláš founded artistic group Honey and Dust. As a librettist, composer, artist, performer, and director, he is currently working on pieces for which he is constantly looking for new performers from different countries. He considers their specific experience, aspects of their personalities and cultural contexts, their acting, musical or motion techniques as an essential part of his artistic language, which can be described as complementary art. His work has been presented in various countries and he has won several awards (e.g. New Drama Festival, DOSKY, Harmony world puppet carnival).
Dana Tomečková primarily works with objects and installations. She creates ephemeral situations that are difficult to capture but easy to feel, focusing on the relationship between space and the body. Her artistic approach is rooted in a fascination with the unstable nature of reality.
Jaro Viňarský is a dancer, choreographer, and performer. He studied ballet and dance choreography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU) and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU). He has received numerous awards, including the SAZKA AWARD for Discovery in Dance, the Audience Award at the Czech Dance Platform, and the prestigious BESSIES NEW YORK DANCE AND PERFORMING ARTS AWARD in the Outstanding Performer category. In 2011, he founded the non-governmental organization SKOK! in Slovakia.
Juraj Korec is choreographer working under the artistic brand Yuri Korec & Co., has created several successful full-length dance works, including the duet about bodily memory d-BODY-m (2017), the performative lecture Solo Not Just for One Body and its loose continuation Nesolo (2018), a remake of the multimedia solo Habibi 2196-18 (2018), exploring human rights, and the performance Sapiens Territory (2020), addressing violence within us. He is also the co-author of internationally award-winning dance films Deň (J. Vlk, 2004), Darkroom (P. Bebjak, 2008), and voiceS (P. Bebjak, 2010). He currently works as an assistant professor at the Dance Department at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and as a therapist specialising in the somatic method Rolfing®.
Her professional training includes academies such as the J. L. Bellu at Banská Bystrica in Slovakia, the SEAD Salzburg experimental dance academy in Austria, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Belgium. She has worked with the Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta, with the French company Kubilai Khan, and in November 2012 she joined the renowned company Última Vez in Brussels. In November 2015 she founded the performing arts company Colectivo Priekopník Veverička resulting in several performances (#whateveristrendingnow, PRACH/POLVO, La Plancha) and collaborations around the world such as the co-creation with Slovak artistic collective MimoOs (DoDna, Millennial Magic Mirror) also with Honey and dust Company (EU.GENUS), with Divadlo Štúdio Tanca (Čin, Punk Pajama Party, SEN, re-member), with Divadlo K (Nefotografie, Neistota, Jaskyňa) and with Odivo (Vnorená/Immersed). The performance Čin won the Dosky 2019 award in the category extraordinary performance in dance theater, and the performance Vnorená received 3 nominations for the Dosky 2022. Also has shared her movement practice workshops Mindcross and Multipartnering-Infinite Synapses together with Zebastián in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Slovakia, Hungary, Mexico, Nicaragua, New York, Panama, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Austria and Greece. In the year 2020 co-founded the RED Movement Network online training platform.
Lucia Holinová is a choreographer, dancer, dance teacher, dance dramaturge, editor-in-chief of the magazine TANEC, and a publisher of dance literature. She graduated from the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, specialising in dance and modern dance pedagogy. During her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts, she clearly defined the nature of her future work. Her approach to contact technique and partner work explores themes of relationships without emotional overcharge. Instead, she portrays them through an objective lens of principal interest and quest that follows after the triggering tension and conflicts. Her first full-length performance, Škára (1999), marked the beginning of the theme of hiding and peeking into the inner world, which she revisited in Fuga/A Gap (2012). She further developed themes of fragility and vulnerability in the face of external manipulation and abuse in her productions Watch (2015) and Watch Now (2016). In 2019, she created Niveau Stable (2021), a tribute to Mary Fulkerson, and site – specific performance The Other side (Genius Loci) created for the Bratislava in Movement festival in 2021. In 2023, she premiered Sen/A Dream. As a dramaturge, she has collaborated with the choreographer Šárka Ondrišovová on productions for the Slovak Nationale Theatre, Theatre elledanse, and Ballet Bratislava, as well as with other Slovak choreographers. In 2014, she co-founded the civic group Neskorý zber alongside Monika Čertezni, Daniel Raček, and Anna Sedlačková, bringing together mature dancers. Within this collective, she contributed to the team choreography of Zámerné čakanie (Theatre elledanse, 2014). Between 2010 and 2013, she served as the managing director of Theatre and Dance School elledanse. She collaborated with theatre LEN TAK TAK, which integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers, and created the productions Pi Story (2015) and Dunaj (2016) for the company.
Lukáš Bobalik explores the variability of physical performance. He is interested in the potential of functional movement in choreographic composition, examining techniques of self-sustainment, methods of managing energy and effort, and the use of concrete physical experience as a foundationfor creating dance material.
Maja Hriešik prefers minimalism and a consistent work with simple elements. Her deep engagement with life often leaves her breathless, which is why, in her work, she embraces slow dramaturgical processes, allowing insights and ideas to mature over time.
Mária Júdová Tichá is a visual artist specializins in the intersection of performative and digital art. She has collaborated with Choreographic Coding Lab (DE), Rambert Contemporary Dance Company (UK), and YCAM (JP). Her works have been presented worldwide and have received awards from the Japan Media Arts Festival (JP), B3 Biennale (DE), Nexon Computer Museum (Korea), and Zealous (UK).
The performance was created as a collective work and offers a unique insight into the possibilities of active perception – a play with body, space, time, silence, and words. It invites the audience to freely explore the infinite interconnections and the meanings that emerge from them. During the performance, both creators and performers intuitively respond to each other and to the dramaturgical structure, which allows them the freedom for creative decision-making in the present moment. Renowned Slovak dancers and dancers and exceptional Slovak musicians, dedicated to the open form of dance and music performance, collaborated on this production. Choreography and dance based on a concept by Marta Poláková Lívia Balážová, Silvia Bakočková, Marta Poláková, Andrej Petrovič, Andrej Štepita.
Michal Heriban is a Slovak choreographer, performer, and visual artist based primarily in Bratislava, Munich, and Prague. He is a co-founder of the theater company Jedným dychom and has been participated in over 40 full-length productions since 2012. For the past 10 years, he has closely collaborated with German choreographer and visual artist Micha Purucker. His focus includes physical theater, contemporary dance techniques, improvisation, voice in movement theater, prop work, and visual art. In the Czech Republic, he has been nominated for the Thalia Awards in 2020, 2022, and 2023 and has collaborated with tinstitutions and companies such as he National Theater in Prague, the National Theater in Brno, 420PEOPLE, BURKIKOM, Lenka Vagnerova & Company, Losers Cirque Company, Petra Fornayová, Nude Theater, DPM Theater, Move Ostrava, Anna Konjetzky, Ceren Oran, Renana Raz, Rotem Tashach, Elledanse Theater, and Radoslav Piovarči. He has also taught workshops in Seoul, Algeria, Israel, Germany, and at dance conservatories in Prague, Ostrava, HAMU (The Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing arts), as well as at various dance festivals.
Milan Kozánek graduated from the Department of Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (SK). Since the graduation he has worked as a dance teacher, choreographer and expert advisor. He has developed his own particular pedagogical aproach and system throughout more that 20 years of regular teaching and researching in institutions such as Tanz Quartier Wien, Konservatorium Wien University (A), Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds (UK), University of Calgary (Canada). In 1996, he and Zuna Vesan Kozánková founded the Artyci Dance Company. They have created 16 dance works that were presented in Slovakia, as well in abroad (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Canada, Thailand, China, Taiwan etc.). Since 2010 he has been developing intensive artistic cooperation with creators and theater actors who are looking for a connection between physical theater, movement, text, voice and singing. Milan has been a part of many theater research projects with theater artists from artistic groups. His main topic and fascination with his artistic as well as pedagogical work is a human. He implements his relationship with eastern philosophies.
Petra Fornayová is a choreographer, theatre director and performer. She graduated from the Law Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava and studied dance at the Academy for Performing Arts in Bratislava and EDDC Düsseldorf. After being a member of verious companies, including Théâtre du Movement Paris and the ballet of the State Opera in Banská Bystrica, she embarked on a freelanced career. She has created more than 20 original performances, such as Grass is Green, Manifesto of Possibilities, Subjective Future, and has directed contemporary theatre plays by authors like Vyrypajev and Spregelburd. Her performances have been presented both in Slovakia and internationally at festivals and venues such as New Drama Bratislava, Opera Nova Prague, Divadelná Nitra Festival, Jamais Vu! Paris, Tanec Praha, and Korespondance CZ, among others. She is the founder of the contemporary dance festival Nu Dance Fest and a member of the editorial board of the contemporary art magazine VLNA. Her works DWCHP and Patterns, created in collaboration with Cluster Ensemble of Contemporary Music, were nominated for the Tatra Bank Award for Art in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, she was nominated for the National Film Award – Sun in the Net for her role in Juraj Lehotský’s film Nina. She also played one of the main characters in Mira Fornay’s film Cook F**k Kill, which was nominated for the Best Film at the Czech Lion Film Awards in 2021. She has been a member of the artistic team of the Slovak Pavillion at the Venice Art Bienalle 2024.
www.petra-fornayova.sk
Radoslav Piovarči (creator, choreographer, performer) – Dancer, performer, tutor, choreographer, and stage director, Radoslav Piovarči has been part of professional scene of contemporary dance and physical theatre for nearly a decade. Throughout the time he collaborated with a number of leading names, theatres and ensemble, such as Lenka Vagnerová & Company, Artyci Dance Company, Theatre elledanse, Lucia Holinová, Staatstheatre Kassel, Štúdio tanca dance theatre, Total Brutal Company, VerTeDance, Jana Burkiewicz, Virus Theatre. His hitherto collaborative portfolio includes over thirty different dance projects, films and advertisements. As choreographer and director he made, since 2010 the productions of Munnie (Enfin seuls 2010), HOLD YOUR BREATH (Theatre elledanse 2012), SET UP (Theatre elledanse 2013), DUST (Liptov Dance Theatre 2015), and the modular dance project MIMO (Culture centre Dunaj 2017). Currently, he is a member of tanC or. and works as a freelance artist on projects such as Charón, Just Ask Her, Inventors, Ich habe genug. In addition to his performative work, he is a workshop lecturer and the author of various site-specific projects.
Soňa Ferienčíková is a dancer, choreographer, and founder of the production company BOD.Y (www.bodyngo.com). She has collaborated with numerous national and international artists and has performed across Europe, as well as in Israel, Mexico and, China. She was nominated for the DOSKY Award in the category of Extraordinary Achievement in the Field of Dance Theater.
Tomas Danielis, choreographer and media artist is known for creating artworks founded on the totality of perception, aiming at integral arts. His choreography engages in a type of dramaturgy overruling the primacy of music and libretto in dance, engaging instead with sociological works on stage. After working on the mechanics of power, he founded the collective Radical Empathy in 2021, where, along with his colleagues, he explores empathy, the fundamentals of human perception and interaction, and their impact on creation sociological structures. His work is characterized by a high intensity of movement expressiveness, a defined intellectual concept, and uncompromising dramaturgical stylization. His choreography is composed of extraordinary images, expressed in a rich physical language and complemented by spare poignant and often ironically funny texts, making it as comprehensible as music, sculpture, painting, or architecture. Danielis´s works have been presented in over 20 countries across three continents. His most notable creations include Custom View, Faidrós, 21&Counting, Mainly Love and Carry. In 2016 and 2017, Danielis served as the head teacher and resident choreographer of Ballet Moskva, where he created performance Equilibrium, based on game theory research, as a part of a series exploring mechanics of power, with a particular focus on abuse of power. From 2007 to 2009, he was the artistic director of International Bühnenwerkstatt Tanztheater Festival Graz. His teaching engagements have taken him to Charleroi Dans, Henny Jurriens Amsterdam, NRW Düsseldorf, CODARTS,TQW Wien, Hot Summer Kyoto, Dansehallerne Copenhagen, Bora Bora Arhus, Ballet Moscow, Danceworx New Delhi, Tsekh, Ukrainian Contemporary Dance Platform, International Bühnenwerkstatt Tanztheater Festival, Anton Bruckner University Linz. Tomáš Danielis has received numerous awards for performing arts and choreography, including the 2007 Contest – TanzRat Wien, a special prize for choreography and performing arts at the 2007 Theatre Arts Festival in Rybnik. As a performer, he was part of the Reumert Award-winning productions Men and Mahler (2013) and Rite of Spring – Extended (2014) as a member of Danish ensemble Granhøj Dans.