Fa-Hsuan Chen (collaborateur since 2013) born in 1976 in Tainan (Taiwan). After completing her studies at the Tainan Women’s College of Arts &Technology, Fa-Hsuan Chen continued her dance training from 2001 to 2004 at the Folkwang University in Essen. Since then, she has danced for Morgan Nardi/Ludica (Düsseldorf), Double C (Wuppertal), DIN A13/Gerda König (Cologne) and Irina Lorez (Switzerland), among others. From 2004 to 2012 she worked with the Ben J. Riepe Compagnie (Düsseldorf) and had engagements at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf/Duisburg) as well as Angie Hiesl (Cologne).


András Déri (Dance, Research: Momentum, No Body But Me, Ghost Trio – B) born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1989 and have been practicing various forms of urban dances since his early childhood. He studied at the Duncan Centre in Prague, at Rotterdam Dance Academy and graduated at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S.) in 2014 in Brussels. He worked with artists such as: Peter Hastik (CZ), Gizem Bilgen (TU), Jerome Mayer (FR/NL), Nico Sturn (B), David Zambrano (B/NL), David Hernandez (B/USA), Thomas Hauert (B/CH), Davis Freeman (B/USA), Mia Lawrence (B/USA), Jan Jakubal (CZ), Matej Kejzar (SLO), Daniel Linehan (B/USA) Taha Akram Khan Gauri (UK), Alessia Gatta (IT) etc.


Martina De Dominicis (Dance: No Body But Me, Biografia del Corpo II, Ghost Trio – B, Vis Motrix, Dream City, Ex-Situ) born in Pescara, started in early age training ballet technique in Pescara and later in Rome. In 2008 Has joined the Junior Balletto di Toscana Company ( Florence, Italy), for professional dance education and as dancer of the ensemble. From 2010 she started collaborating for Balletto di Milano, touring neoclassical pieces in Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Russia.

 

Then she danced as soloist for two seasons in the Oper Graz Tanzcompagnie, where in 2014 she choreographed a short piece (“Next?”) for the company, and later was invited to join the new dance company of Stadttheater Pforzheim. Among other choreographers she worked with James Cousins, Tillman O’ Donnell, Darrel Toulon, Mauro Bigonzetti, Guido Sarli, Katrin Hall. From  2016 she started collaborating with CocoonDance, Ultimately she is busy in creating her own work and in leading a physical coaching for MAA Kulturverein In Vienna.


Álvaro Esteban López (collaborator since 2013). Already from my childhood, I have been fascinated by the human body and its movement, as well as its capacity to connect with others through subtle communication. This curiosity mixed with the influence of humanistic psychology practiced by my parents as clinical psycho-   logists, led me to pursue: Bachelor in Sciences of Sports and Physical Activities. Universidad Politécnica (Madrid), Diploma in Therapeutic and Sports Massage,

Contemporary Dance Degree at Royal Conservatory of Professional Dance

Mariemma (Madrid), Master on Psychology of Coaching at Universidad Autónoma, (Madrid).

Since 2006, I´ve been working as a dance performer with several companies and

choreographers as a freelance artist, as well as projects in collaboration that have

received international awards and recognition:

• “Sphynx” Rafaele Giovanola & tanzmainz. Choreographic advisor and movement

coach. * Der Faust 2022 prize. (Categorie: Staging Dance)

• “Entomo” Álvaro Esteban & Elías Aguirre collaboration. 6 years tour around the

globe *1st prize choreographic contest “Burgos-New York” 2010. *1st prize

choreographic contest “Iberoamericano Alicia Alonso CIC” 2010.

• “Cualquier mañana” Laura Aris & Álvaro Esteban. In collaboration with Vitaly Kim

short film based on the piece.

In 2013 I joined the artistic collective Cocoondance Company (Bonn), where as dancer, movement coach and part of the creative team, I continued to offer and develop my own research and understanding of movement and composition.

As a teacher I´m focus on spine movility, presence and consciousness of body/ies as well as space awareness, guiding workshops internationally and company classes with tanzmainz, Scapino Ballet and CocoonDance Company.

www.alvaroes.com


Tanja Marín Friðjónsdóttir (Dance: What About Orfeo?, Vis Motrix) graduated from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in the Netherlands in 2005. After finishing school she worked between Europe and her native Iceland before finding herself in Brussels where she’s currently based.

Since 2009, she has worked extensively with choreographer Wim Vandekeybus and his company Ultima Vez, along with several other choreographers in Europe and Iceland, most notably Julio Iglesias Ungo (CU/DE), Rafaële Giovanola/CocoonDance (CH/DE), Jens Van Daele (BE/NL) and Roberto Olivan/Enclave (ES).


Franco Mento (Music, DJing) first started experimenting on the turntables at the tender age of 13. In 1998 he founded the collective “Tribal Zone – Electronik Swiss Kolletif”. In the beginning of 1999 he brought out his first maxi on vinyl on his own label “Tribal Zone” and made his first live performance. From 2000 -2004 Franco performed at numerous festivals and clubs throughout Switzerland. During this time he created music for three short films, brought out two new Cds for his own label and started collaborating in the studio with artists such as; Vincent Zanetti, Fabrice Lig, Pascal Rinaldi, the girls from La BlablaTek & Phil Parnell. In 2006 he founded Printemps Digital, the collective and record shop in his home town.

 

Solo on stage, Franco Mento improvises his live act using everyday objects for direct sound sampling as well as organic sounds and binds them with powerful, broken, upbeat rhythms, deep pulsating baselines and clicks ‘n cuts, which result in an uncommon, yet groovy style. He has many projects cooking and plays live and improvises with many acclaimed artists such as Yannick Barman (with whom he formed the Live act F::R::Y::K), Vincent Zanetti, Jean Phillipe Zwahlen, Yves Messy, Laurent Bruttin, Cyril Regamey, Laurent Waeber, KiKu, Eugène Kovax, Malcolm Braf just to name a few. He has toured countries such as France, Belgium, Poland, China, Africa, Kazakhstan, and Kyrghistan. 

www.francomento.net


Daniel Morales (Dance: Momentum, Ghost Trio – A/B) born in Gran Canaria formed in Urban Dances since 2002. Director of Hip Hop Championship of the Canary Islands, JUST FUNK (2007-2013) and member of some educational projects such as ACROSS HIPHOP LPGC led by Natalia Medina. Member of Tenerife Danza Lab (TDL) since 2013, Laboratory of Contemporary Dance that resides in the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martin. Currently his work is based on the search for new languages of movement using urban and contemporary dances for it. Since 2015 he directs an emerging dance company, Cía. Daniel Morales.

 In 2015 he was Finalist in the Contest solos International Contemporary Dance Festival of the Canary Islands, MASDANZA and in the Contest of Scenic Creation Urban Dance HOP FESTIVAL, Barcelona with which it has obtained the granting artistic residencies in the Mercat de les Flors - El Graner and the Choreographic Centre of La Gomera. In 2016 he was finalist Choreography Contest in the district of Tetuan, Madrid and got the special Jury Mention “dancer highlight” with which it has obtained the granting artistic residency in "nunART Guinardó"). 

www.dancefromspain.feced.org


Werner Nigg (Dance: What About Orfeo?, Momentum, No Body But Me, Ghost Trio – A/B, Dream City, Ex-Situ), born in Canton of Grisons (Switzerland) has a farmer education. Later he studied Contemporary Dance at the ZTTS (ZürichTanzTheaterSchule/ TANZWERK101) in Zurich and completedwith a Bachelor Degree in Dance Performance at the University for the Arts Rotterdam (Codarts) supported by a grant from the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation. Since 2003 he has worked with several Compagnies in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Austria like Daphne Verhelst (Antwerpen), Willi Dorner (Vienna), Cie Ah mon amour (Brussels), Jean G. Weis (Luxembourg), Ryckewaert & Verhelst (Antwerpen), Mancopy (Aarhus), CieThor (Brussels) and also in various operas with Laurent Pelly, Robert Lepage und Stijn Cellis. He also participated in a lot of workshops and master classes in different genres for example in SiWiC (Zurich) under the artistic direction of Nigel Charnock. Since 2002 Werner Nigg choreographed own pieces in The Netherlands, Germany and Italy.


Jörg Ritzenhoff (Music, Live-Electronic), born in Düsseldorf, studied classical composition with Prof. Ingo Schmidt at the College for Music in Wuppertal. The composer of electric-acoustic music lives in Cologne and has developed music and performance projects in association with the Bundeskunsthalle and the Theatre Company of Bonn, the cultural capital of Europe Weimar, the Westdeutschen Rundfunk and the Deutschlandfunk Berlin (German public radio programmes).

The Cologne Theater Company (Kölner Schauspielhaus) commissioned him for several projects among others, music for „The Tempest“ directed by Karin Beier. Continuing cooperations in association with choreographers like Rafaele Giovanola (CocoonDance, Bonn), Barbara Fuchs (Cologne Dance Theater Prize winner), Morgan Nardi und Naoko Tanaka (tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf/Grand Théatre de la Ville, Luxembourg), Gudrun Lange (fft düsseldorf), LaborGras (Berlin) oder Helge Letonja (steptext dance project, Bremen) mark his work in dance.



Leonardo Rodrigues (Outside eye) is a performing artist, choreographer, and dance educator born in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Living in a town with a mystical history and lore inspired his way of looking at art. He was educated in computer programming and classical ballet through the RAD method. Recently, he received his MA degree in contemporary dance education at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. His Final Study Project was a dissertation seeking to inquire how labour market changes affect programs in higher dance education in Germany.

 

Leonardo started his international and professional career with the theatre company, BTCA (Balé Teatro Castro Alves). He had engagements with diverse city theatres around Germany, Asia, the Middle East, and South America (Brazil), working and performing pieces by Horta, Stijn Celis, André Gingras, Jorma Elo, Lionel Roche, Jorge Silva, and Luiz Arrieta. Between 2004 and 2008 he worked under the direction of Daniela Kurz, which stoked his interest in the fusion of dance theatre and politics. He also created pieces for the Staatstheater Nürnberg, for the Neues Museum Nürnberg, and several dance festivals in Brazil. He collaborated with the choreographer, Helge Lentoja, for the Steptext Bremen, and, Sergiu Matis, Daniela Kurz, Yoshi Oida.


Susanne Schneider (Dance: What About Orfeo?, Nobody but me, Ghost Trio – B, Vis Motrix), born in Munich, started her dance education in contemporary dance at „Varium“ in Barcelona. After one year of cultural and educational studies she decided to study dance and dance dissemination at the University of Music and Dance/Center for Contemporary Dance in Cologne where she graduated from in 2014. Since 2013 she collaborated as a freelance dancer with the CocoonDance company, as well with Overhead Project and Özlem Alkis. In April 2018 she joined the MA CoDE program at HfMDK Frankfurt. As a disseminator/teacher she is giving training for professional dancers and is co-organizing the Freaky Professional Training at the “Ehrenfeldstudios” in Cologne. 



Ada Sternberg is a dancer, dance teacher, singer and dj from Berlin. While studying political science at Freie Universität Berlin she also focussed on artistic and socio-cultural projects. In 2018 she completed the interdisciplinary danceprogram at motion*s Berlin. Her interest lies in the fusion of performing arts and current political and social discourses. She performed in various dance and theatre productions, video projects and toured with her band Le Very. Besides urban and contemporary dance she also started to work with somatic practices (training of fascia / fluentbody). For CocoonDance she is working in the field of the mediation of dance. She also works with the Junior Company. One of her heart projects in Bonn is the socio-cultural centre Alte VHS.