Dana Caspersen is conflict engagement specialist, award-winning performing artist, and author. She has developed teaching, communication, and public dialogue models and practices that integrate traditional conflict engagement strategies with choreographic methodologies, engaging thousands of people from diverse communities across the globe. Her book, Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution (A Joost Elffers Book), has been translated into 8 languages and is widely used as a training tool by organizations, schools and individuals worldwide. She has a master’s degree in Conflict Studies and Mediation and an MFA in Dance.

As a leading collaborator of the choreographer William Forsythe for over 30 years, Caspersen has co-created and performed across the world as a principal artist with the Ballet Frankfurt and the Forsythe Company. Their collaborations range from the visual arts, as in the creation of work commissioned by Artangel in London, to the development of award-winning stage works such as Eidos : Telos and I Don’t Believe in Outer Space. Dana has received the Bessie Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in the United States and was nominated for the Lawrence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in England.

For more information on Dana’s work, please visit danacaspersen.com

Photo: Dominik Mentzos

On conflict and resolution/ in conversation with Dana Caspersen

Alessandro Sciarroni is an Italian artist active in the field of Performing Arts with several years of experience in visual arts and theater research. His works are featured in contemporary dance and theater festivals, museums and art galleries, as well as in unconventional spaces and involve professionals from different disciplines. In 2019 he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Venice Biennial.

Photo: Andrea Macchia

In Conversation with Alessandro Sciarroni

Arika Yamada was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA in 1987 to her parents who moved to Detroit from Japan in the mid 80’s. 

She received her early training from The Joffrey Ballet School, Nutmeg Conservatory and EDGE Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles. In her teens she’s was represented by Bloc Agency and appeared in a European Coca-Cola Commercial. Her mentor and coach Elena Tchernichova privately trained her in NY and brought her to St. Petersburg Russia at the age of 15 where she was invited to train at The Vaganova School.


In 2009 Arika received her BFA from The Juilliard School under the directorship of Lawrence Rhodes. Upon graduation she joined Gallim Dance in NY and originated roles in multiple works with Andrea Miller such as ‘Wonderland’ which she has received recognitions for in The New York Times. In 2012 she also performed with Company XIV, a 28 show run at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.


In 2013 Arika crossed the pond to Holland to join Spenser Theberge at Korzo Theater (Den Haag) where he created ‘I Saw, She Saw’ which they performed as a part the production ’ Here We Live and Now.’
Arika was invited to audition for GöteborgsOperan Danskompani which she joined during season 2013/2014 under Adolphe Binder, and in the present with director, Katrin Hall.
In Göteborg Arika originated roles in creation with choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Alan Lucien Oyen, Marina Mascarell, Marcos Morau, Michael Keegan Dolan, Wang/Ramirez, and Alexander Ekman. She has also reinterpreted repertoires of Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, and Crystal Pite. She has performed Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s ‘Noetic’ 100+ through Europe.
As a creator Arika has been commissioned by GöteborgsOperan to co-create ‘Many Much More’ with Spenser Theberge, and ‘Try not to spill’ with Dorotea Saykaly. in 2015 Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia commissioned Arika and her partner Jim De Block to make ‘Digressing from the 4 Tons of Grey.’ In 2016 Arika, Jim, and co-creator Oleg Stepanov were invited to create a full length, site specific work by Chalmers University of Technology at their 3 day festival hosted by the Department of Architecture and the Department of Physics. Since 2016 Arika and Jim has been curating a creative platform called If We, Then which gathers artists with varied mediums to share space and process together.
In 2020 Arika founded the AHA room, a coaching practice that works with High Performers, Artistic Leaders, and Creative Minds. Identifying, cultivating and nurturing one’s unique identity in order to perform at their best.

On identity and coaching/ in conversation with Arika Yamada

Boston Gallacher (25) is a contemporary dance artist originating from Glasgow, Scotland and currently working at Nederlands Dans Theater. They place importance on improvisation and imagery and endeavour towards a more inclusive working environment. As the first non-binary dancer at NDT they are shaping what it means to be non-binary in such a long standing institution and intend to implement enduring change in the system.

Photo: Rahi Rezvani

On non-binarism and transsexuality/ 1. In conversation with Boston Gallacher

Born in Barcelona, Spain, Daniel Mariblanca Sirmans began his professional dance career immediately after graduating from the L'Institut del Teatre in Barcelona. In 2016, after 15+years of dancing professionally around Europe, Daniel joined Carte Blanche. At the beginning of his gender transition, Daniel founded 71BODIES, a transgender inclusive professional dance and performance company based in Bergen, Norway. The company was born  out of an urgency to both understand and document the complexities that lie within the transgender identity.

Photo: Skjalg Ekeland/BA

On non-binarism and transgender identities/ 2. In conversation with Daniel Mariblanca Sirmans

Whistle While You Work is a platform lead by dancers, choreographers, and artists that calls out harassment, discrimination, and violence towards women and marginalized groups particularly while at work in the arts, especially in professional dance and performance. Initiated in 2017 by writer/artist Robyn Doty and dancer/choreographer Frances Chiaverini, the platform has given Open Forums in the US and Germany; workshops at dance festivals and conferences throughout Germany and has been featured in prominent dance magazines (US, UK, EU).

Frances Chiaverini was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and she is based in Frankfurt. She is a performer, activist, choreographer.  She was a member of The Forsythe Company in its final seasons and has most recently performed with Adam Linder, Luisa Saraiva, Fabrice Mazliah, and Trajal Harrell. In 2017, she co-creates with Robyn Doty Whistle while you work. She is a 2019-20 Resident Fellow at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts. She is a choreographic consultant for Anne Imhof for works at Tate Modern, The Venice Biennale, MoMa PS. 1, Pompidou, Hamburger Bahnhof, Art Basel, and La Biennale de Montréal. Her most recent works include The Body Violent (2017, PACT) Open Carry/Concealed Carry (2018), and she most recently created a new original work called It’s my house and I live here. (2019) supported by a grant from the Theaterförderung durch die Stadt Frankfurt am Main with  Julia Eichten.

Robyn Doty graduates in 2019 with an M.A. from the Goethe University Frankfurt where she studied and was active in Memory Studies and Transcultural Studies. In 2017 she co-organized a weeklong postcolonial studies Summer School about performance at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Since 2016 she has collaborated as a writer and dramaturg with BOHL (Frances Chiaverini and Katja Cheraneva); as a writer and dramaturg for Roderick George’s kNoname dance company’s DUST, FLESHLESS BEAST (Berlin); and with Katja Cheraneva on Cards Against Contemporary Dance. She has shown her own work at the Goethe University and has had her poetry and photography published by Belleville Park Pages. She is the project manager and dramaturg for Whistle while you work. She collaborated with Chiaverini for the creation of It’s my house and I live here., and is Chiaverini’s collaborator during their NYU CBA Fellowship in 2020. 

Julia Eichten danced with Camille A. Brown & Dancers, as well as Aszure Barton & Artists. Julia was a founding member of L.A. Dance Project. Based in Los Angeles, Julia continues to work with Gerard & Kelly as a performer and collaborator. Last year she assisted them on Solange’s collaboration with Uniqlo, “Metratronia” as well as a month of performances at Pioneer Works(NY) in, “Clockwork.” Julia is a proud founding member of AMOC* as a dancer and choreographer. Most recently Julia danced in Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest video, “Too Much” as well as working as an assistant choreographer for One Republic’s yet to be released new music and video, “Wanted.” As well as premiering two new original works, “She is Her,” at the Sweat Spot and “PHRASEHXR” at Highways Performance Space. She continues her daily practice of improvisation and video art and is pleased to have premiered with collaborator Frances Chiaverini earlier this season.

Contact: http://www.nobody100.com/contact

Website: www.whistlewhileyouwork.art

Interviewee: Frances Chiaverini, Robyn Doty, Julia Eichten

Concept: Giacomo Della Marina

On abuse and harassment/ In conversation with Whistle While You Work

Movementtalks had the chance to be in conversation with Cullberg managing director Stina Dahlström and choreographer Jérôme Bel. Here they share their opinion and goals concerning the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere and the contemporary world of performance.

Stina Dahlström was born in 1982 in Kiruna. She has an education in literature, dance, theatre, economics and project management at the University of Stockholm. Stina Dahlström has worked as a freelance producer, and as head of production at MDT, an international co-producing and presenting plattform for contemporary dance in Stockholm. As of 2016, Stina Dahlström is managing director of Cullberg, the national and international repertoire contemporary dance company in Sweden.

Jérôme Bel lives in Paris and works worldwide. nom donné par l’auteur (1994) is a choreography of objects. Jérôme Bel (1995) is based on the total nudity of the performers. Shirtology (1997) presents an actor wearing many T-shirts. The last performance (1998) quotes a solo by the choreographer Susanne Linke, as well as Hamlet and André Agassi. Xavier Le Roy (2000) was claimed by Jérôme Bel as his own, but was actually choreographed by Xavier Le Roy. The show must go on (2001) brings toghether twenty performers, nineteen pop songs and one DJ. Véronique Doisneau (2004) is a solo on the work of the dancer Véronique Doisneau, from the Paris Opera. Isabel Torres (2005), for the ballet of the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro, is its Brazilian version. Pichet Klunchun and myself (2005) was created in Bangkok with the Thai traditional dancer Pichet Klunchun. Follows Cédric Andrieux (2009), dancer of Merce Cunningham. 3Abschied (2010) is a collaboration between Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Jérôme Bel based on The Song of the Earth by Gustav Malher. Disabled Theater (2012) is a piece with a Zurich-based company, Theater Hora, consisting of professional actors with learning disabilities. Cour d’honneur (2013) stages fourteen spectators of the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes in Avignon. In Gala (2015), the choreographer stages together professional people from the dance field and amateurs coming from different backgrounds. In Tombe (2016), performance created at the invitation of Opéra National de Paris, Jérôme Bel proposed to some dancers of the ballet to invite, for a duet, the person with who they would never share the stage. Posé arabesque, temps lié en arrière, marche, marche (2017) is a piece for all the dancers of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon based on the famous “Entrance of the shadows” of the ballet La Bayadère. Dancing as if nobody is watching (2018) and the reading of the Lecture on nothing by John Cage call for a contemplative aesthetic attitude. With Retrospective, Jérôme Bel goes back through his video archives and makes a cross section within his corpus, to better bring out the linkage between dance and politics. Isadora Duncan (2019) paints a picture of this choreographer. In 2013 Emails 2009-2010, written with the French choreographer Boris Charmatz, is edited (Les Presses du Réel). This book is published on line and in English, still by Les Presses du Réel, in 2016.

This interview was recorded with no CO2 emission.

Interviewees: Stina Dahlström and Jérôme Bel

Concept: Giacomo Della Marina

Camera: Erica Espling and Oskar Hökerberg (Stina Dahlström)

On CO2 Emission/in conversation with Stina Dahlström and Jérôme Bel

Switch is an interdisciplinary annual exhibit created by dancers from around the world to raise money for charity, hosted by Nederlands Dans Theater (NL). Switch provides the dancers of NDT the opportunity to create an entire evening of art and dance. It serves as a chance to choreograph in a professional setting, take the organizational helm, and delve into the other aspects of this artform we may not always experience. It also serves as a platform for any kind of creativity.

It all started in 1988 when the dancers of NDT started informally creating their own choreographies in their free time. Interest grew and soon they decided to dedicate an evening in the studios to showcase their creations to their fellow colleagues, they called this evening ‘Workshops’. World renowned choreographers such as Paul Lightfoot, Sol León, Nacho Duato, Jorma Elo, Johan Inger and Medhi Walerski all began their choreographic careers with Switch. Over the past decades, Switch as a project has grown in both popularity and diversity, while developing into a full evening of dance. This allowed Switch to serve the greater purpose of supporting numerous charities and act as an ever-changing creative platform for all forms of artistic expression, becoming the Switch we know today.

Thanks to all the dancers who agreed to be part of this video.

Contact: switch.production@gmail.com

Interviewee: Fay van Baar, Paxton Ricketts, Luca-Andrea Tessarini

Concept: Giacomo Della Marina

On fundraising / In conversation with Switch by NDT dancers

Sarah was born and raised in Dublin Ireland, and discovered a passion for dance at an early age with Ella Doran and Phil Cole. She trained professionally at Central School of Ballet, London, graduating with a diploma in classical ballet in 2001. From there she worked in Metz, France before moving to Saarbrücken Germany where she worked with Marguerite Donlon. Then in 2004 she successfully auditioned for NDT 2. She moved up to the main company in 2007 only leaving in 2019. During her time with the company she danced the works of Jiri Kylian, Lightfoot Leon, Naharin, Ek, van Manen, Goecke, Pite as well as many other guest choreographers, dancing both in the creation of new works as well as repertoire. 

She has also worked with film, performing in short film ‘Voices of Finance’ (2015) and feature-length ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ (2019) both directed by Clara van Gool. Sarah continues exploring her dance, acting, teaching and coaching primarily in the Netherlands where she is based. She recently graduated from Erasmus University, Rotterdam where she completed a Masters in cultural sociology (thesis topic – organizational network analysis of a dance company).

Throughout her career, Sarah has also contributed significantly to the management of dancers with her efforts as a dancer representative and a Dancers Council member. She was instrumental in the setting up and organization of this informal organization, that is supported by and influences the Dutch trade union for artists, Kunstenbond. She has participated in numerous collective labour negotiations, and continues to lobby for dancers’ interests and better evolving working conditions. This focus on the artists in the cultural sector means that she is uniquely positioned to have expertise in all areas of dance organizations, from employee experience, creative and artistic management and planning, with an extensive network of the most cutting-edge of choreographers and leaders in the field.

On Dance and Unions. In Conversation with Sarah Raynolds

Alice Ripoll (°Rio de Janeiro) was studying to be a psychoanalyst when she took a deviant turn at the age of 21. She felt curious about the possibilities of the body and movement research, so she decided to study dance. Alice graduated from the Angel Vianna’s school, an important center for dance and motor rehabilitation, and started to work as a choreographer.
Alice started directing and performed in a few pieces as well – mostly of herself. She has worked with dancers, actors and circus artists.  Her work embraces contemporary dance and urban dance styles from Brazil. Through research, the work opens space for the dancers to transform the experiences and memories that live in each one, into images. Currently she’s directing two groups. Cia. REC and Cia. SUAVE.

Founded in 2009, Cia REC is a powerful group of dancers from the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro that elaborates and recreates contemporary art. Their work is on the threshold of dance and performance. It often questions the political and social situation in their home country. The experiences and memories of the dancers are used to create socially relevant performances that are not only aesthetically strong, but also leave a lasting impression on the audience. With Cia REC, Alice Ripoll created the performance aCORdo in 2017. In 2021, LAVAGEM premiered. Here, reality and fantasy mingle in a delirium that reminds us of an apocalyptic dream.

Cia. SUAVE began with the creation of Suave, which premiered at the Panorama Festival in 2014. Having as inspiration the passinho (short step), a new style of urban dance that derived from Rio de Janeiro’s funk, the show stands out for its unique energy, the quality of its performers and the refinement of the structure created by the choreographer. The second performance of the group, CRIA, premiered in 2017. Inspired by the Dancinha (little dance), a derivation from passinho dance, the performance explores a mixture of affection and sensuality through the interweaving of funk with contemporary dance. In 2023, Zona Franca premiered at the Festival de Marseille. This creation weaves together contact dance, TikTok, Afro-house and passinhon. “Free zone”, freedom, is the central theme in Zona Franca.

In conversation with Alice Ripoll

We had the great pleasure to be in conversation with Belgian/Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Chercaoui.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s contemporary musical, Anonymous Society. Since then he has made over 50 full-fledged choreographic pieces and picked up a slew of awards, including two Olivier Awards, three Ballet Tanz awards for best choreographer (2008, 2011, 2017) and the Kairos Prize (2009) for his artistic vision and his quest for intercultural dialogue.

In 2008 Cherkaoui premiered Sutra at Sadler’s Wells. This award-winning collaboration with artist Antony Gormley and the Shaolin monks continues to tour the world to great critical acclaim. 
In 2009 he created Dunas with flamenco danseuse María Pagés. 

In 2009,  he launched his own company Eastman, resident at deSingel International Arts Campus (Antwerp).

Spring 2010 saw him reunited with choreographer Damien Jalet and Antony Gormley to make Babel(words) which won an Olivier. 
In 2012 he created Puz/zle, gaining him a second Olivier. That year he also collaborated with Joe Wright on his film Anna Karenina, for which Cherkaoui helmed the choreography.

2013 saw the premiere of 4D and 生长genesis (Eastman), Boléro (co-created with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović, for the Paris Opera Ballet), and m¡longa (Sadler’s Wells). He reunited with Joe Wright to co-direct A Season in the Congo at The Young Vic. In 2014, he created Noetic for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Mercy (from Solo for Two) for Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, which they performed at the London Coliseum and he directed his first opera, Shell Shock, for La Monnaie, with music by Nicholas Lens and text by Nick Cave.

In 2015, Cherkaoui directed his first full-length theatre production Pluto based on the award-winning manga series by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki at Bunkamura in Tokyo, bringing the beloved manga character Astro Boy to life on stage, and was movement director for Lyndsey Turner's Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican Centre in London. He also made a trio Harbor Me commissioned by the L.A. Dance Project, and choreographed a new Firebird for Stuttgart Ballet. In the same year, Cherkaoui created a new production Fractus V for his company Eastman, in which he also performs.

Since 2015, Cherkaoui assumed the role of artistic director at the Royal Ballet of Flanders, where he has created Fall (2015), Exhibition (2016) and Requiem (2017). He combines this function with his title as artistic director of Eastman and keeps creating new work along with the artistic entourage of this company, for example Qutb (2016), a trio commissioned by Natalia Osipova, Icon (2016) for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and Mosaic (2017) for Martha Graham Dance Company. He directed the operas Les Indes galantes (2016) for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Satyagraha (2017) for Theater Basel and Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović for Opera Vlaanderen. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is also associate artist at Sadler’s Wells, London and Théâtre National de Bretagne, Rennes.

Photo © Mats Bäcker

IN CONVERSATION WITH SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI

This month we had the opportunity to have a chat with Cristina Planas Leitão.
Cristina Planas Leitão, Porto (PT), 1983. Holds a BA in Dance Performance from ArtEZ – Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem (NL) – 2006. From 2007 to 2012 collaborated with Italian – Dutch based choreographer Gabriella Maiorino and Dansmakers Amsterdam (NL) participating in all her pieces during this period as a performer or rehearsal director. Since then as performed for Isabelle Schad (DE); Flávio Rodrigues / BCN (PT): Vloeistof (NL); Catarina Miranda (PT) and is currently performing in Marco da Silva Ferreira’s piece Brother. As rehearsal director she has worked as well for Hofesh Shechter (2012-2014) and Gregory Maqoma (2015) for Companhia Instável. In 2015, she is one of the selected artists to participate in The Porto Sessions  – a project drawn and developed by Meg Stuart/ Damaged Goods and Mezzannine.

In 2011, in Porto, was one of the initiators of “encontros desNORTE” (2011-2017), created the project Conquering the studio: a time for research for BCN and Companhia Instável (PT). Since 2016 she runs and coordinates Aquecimento Paralelo for Teatro Municipal do Porto and in 2017 she is invited to collaborate with the theater for Festival DDD within the context of the audience mediation team. From September 2018 on she has been appointed executive coordinator of Festival DDD.

In 2010 she was one of 50 artists chosen by David Zambrano, to be a part of 50 days of Flying Low and Passing Through in Costa Rica, being part of the only certified group to teach and reform the techniques. Since then has been teaching internationally – a pedagogic activity that she keeps in parallel with creating, which is her primary focus.

In 2012, co-creates The very delicious piece with Jasmina Krizaj with more than 30 international performances and nominated for the Gibanica prize, in Slovenia. With this creation they established a long-term collaboration continuing later on in 2014, with the making of The Very Boring Piece. In 2014, engaging on her own authorship, she premiered the solo bear me and in 2016, FM [featuring mortuum] with an extensive national tour. In the same year, with an XL version of The Very Delicious Piece, she was finalist, together with Jasmina Krizaj and a cast of 8 performers at Danse Élargie 2016 – Théâtre de la Ville, Paris. In 2018 she has created a song for the end for the BA Modern Theaterdans of Amsterdam University for the Arts and premiered the new piece UM [unimal]. 

Her work has been presented internationally in venues such as Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künsten, Dresden (DE), The Place, London (UK); Théâtre de la Ville (FR); Triskelion Arts NY (USA); I like to watch Too, Julidans Festival Amsterdam (NL); Malta Festival, Poznan (POL); Plesni Teater Ljubljana (SI); Stara Mestna Elektrarna, Ljubljana (SI); Maribor 2012 European Capital of Culture (SI); No_Body Festival (CY); Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli. Campo Alegre (PT); GUIdance Festival, Guimarães (PT); BoxNova Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa (PT); Festival Cumplicidades, Lisboa (PT); Centro de Arte de Ovar; Cine-Teatro Louletanto, Loulé (PT); Teatro Municipal de Faro (PT) among many others, and has been supported by Foundations like Calouste Gulbenkian, GDA Direitos dos Artistas and by the Ministry of Culture/ DGArtes (PT). Her body of work is featured in the documentary series Portugal que Dança (2017), created for RTP2 [ep. 2 of 17], where each episode portrays the work of the most vibrant Portuguese choreographers of today.

Inn conversation with Cristina Planas Leitão

Yotam Peled was born in 1989, in a Kibbutz in the north of Israel. Since childhood he has practiced fine arts, athletics, and Capoeira. At the age of 21, after finishing service in the Israeli defense forces, he began dancing, and later on pursued higher education in contemporary circus.
in 2015 he relocated to Berlin, and since then he has been working as a freelance performer for several European choreographers, among them Maura Morales (Dusseldorf), Yann L'hereux (Montpellier), Troels Primdahl (Aarhus/Berlin), Jill Crovisier (Luxembourg), Mitia Fedotenko (Montpellier).
In the last years he has been creating his own work which was presented in festivals and venues in Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Vietnam, and had received several awards. Yotam’s main research topic is the relation between gender roles, sexual identity and power structures in modern society, and uses choreographed, highly physical movement, to explore it. In August 2019 his new creation ‘ALPHA’ premiered in Trauma bar und kino, Berlin.

In Conversation With Yotam Peled

In depth conversations with artists who work with movement, dance and the body.

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