Teachers 2025
Open Level – for all movers
A level – with 3-5 years of dance experience (N-15);
B level – with 5+ years of dance experience;
C level – professional dancers, choreographers, dance students.
REGISTRATION:
Registration for workshops – HERE
TEACHER PROFILES ARE LISTED BELOW
NARENDRA PATIL
Workshop: Choreographic Lab: Performance project
Bio: Narendra Patil is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and educator known for his innovative approach to movement and profound artistic expression. Born in Belgaum, India, Narendra followed his passion for movement by pursuing an extensive training in Okinawa Martial Arts, where he attained a black belt, instilling in him discipline, grace, and a deep understanding of the body’s capabilities. Narendra further honed his skills through formal education at the Terence Lewis Dance Foundation Trust in Mumbai, where he immersed himself in the world of contemporary dance and later served as a principal performer, teacher, and assistant choreographer for over a decade. During this time, he also completed a Yoga teacher training course at “The Yoga Institute” in India.
Inspired by the teachings of renowned dance artist David Zambrano, Narendra embarked on a transformative journey, exploring improvisation and methods that would shape his artistic vision. Narendra’s work has been showcased at prestigious venues and festivals, such as ‘AXIS MUNDI’ and Geneva Project, David Zambrano, Deltebre Dansa Festival, Open Look Festival, and Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, among others, earning him recognition for his creativity, versatility, and dynamic performances.
Narendra Patil is also a co-founder and artistic director of the SANSKAR International Dance Festival in India as well as a passionate educator, sharing his knowledge and expertise with aspiring dancers through workshops, classes, and guest teaching engagements. Since 2023, he has been based in Kassel, Germany, where he works as a guest teacher at various institutions, including State theaters, SOZO Visions in Motion in Kassel, and Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz in Cologne.
Webpage: https://www.narendrapatil.org/
LORA JUODKAITĖ
Workshops: Spiral Technique and Spiral Creativity
Bio: Lora Juodkaitė is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and dance educator. Her professional education includes classical ballet, contemporary dance, and theater at the Vytis Jankauskas Dance Studio in Lithuania (1983–1986), a Bachelor’s degree in Scenography and Costume Design from the Vilnius Academy of Arts (1997–2001), and a four-year intensive program in classical dance, contemporary dance, yoga, and pilates at SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria (2001–2005). In 2013, she received a Master’s degree in Dance Pedagogy from Klaipeda University, Lithuania. She is currently pursuing the French State Dance Teacher Diploma at CFD Desoblique in Lyon, with certification expected in 2025.
Lora has performed as a contemporary dancer in various pieces at the Théâtre Chaillot (Paris, France), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris, France), MC2 (Grenoble, France) and many other places and festivals since 2015. Work as a contemporary dancer with choreographer Rachid Ouramdane for 15 years, world tour.
Lora has been teaching classical ballet since 2015, offering private lessons in Lithuania as well as private and group classes for children and adults at LA PLANCHE School in Grenoble, France. As a choreographer, she has also created short ballet pieces for children.
Since 2006, she has been teaching contemporary dance in Lithuania and internationally, conducting seminars that integrate technical and creative elements, conscious movement, spinning technique, and methods inspired by William Forsythe. She also teaches contemporary dance to children at the Emilie KERN School in Grenoble, France.
In addition to her dance work, Lora has been a yoga teacher since 2018, offering private classes informed by her personal yoga practice of over 24 years.
SANNA MYLLYLAHTI
Workshops: Notes of Noticing and Exploring the Spaces of Being
Bio: Sanna Myllylahti is an internationally known dancer, choreographer and teacher. She studied at Danshögskolan in Stockholm and at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor Kunsten, where she graduated in 1996. Her choreographies have been mainly produced in the Netherlands, where she was based nearly 20 years until returning to Finland. Her work has been touring widely and as a dancer she has been on many international stages. Next to her work as an artist, Myllylahti has been teaching in several universities, dance academies, festivals and professional studios around the world. Currently she holds the position as the Head of the BA in Dance program at the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Her current interest lies in complexity and the questions around dance seen as a way to inhabit space. In her work she sees the body as a facilitator of the spaces of being. Here the dancer is seen as someone inhabiting the spaces both in and outside of the body and acting as an agent for transformation.
YUVAL PICK
Workshops: Technical Workshop: ‘Practice’ and Creative Workhop: The joy of Dancing Together
Bio: “My research is guided by the idea that each person holds an innate knowledge that dance has the power to reveal”. – Yuval Pick
Appointed to head the Centre Chorégraphique National (CCN) of Rillieux-la-Pape in August 2011, Yuval Pick has a long career as a performer, teacher and choreographer. Trained at the Bat-Dor Dance School in Tel Aviv, he joined the Batsheva Dance Company in 1991, which he left in 1995 to embark on an international career with artists such as Tero Saarinen, Carolyn Carlson and Russel Maliphant. He joined the Lyon National Opera Ballet in 1999 before founding his own company, The Guests, in 2002.
Since then, he has created pieces marked by an elaborate writing of the movement, accompanied by important collaborations with musical composers and where, in a form of ritual, the dance proposes a balance constantly questioned between the individual and the group.
WEB: https://practiceyuvalpick.com/en/
MARION SPARBER
Workshops: Contemporary dance: From Inside to Outside and Partnering: Shared Levitation
Bio: Originally from South Tyrol, Italy, Marion received her dance training at Varium and
Iwanson School. Since 2014, Marion has received funding as a choreographer from South Tyrol and Germany to create and develop her own work. Many of Marion’s choreographies are a playful connection of highly physical dance, dance theater, live music, video installations by Projeto Solo and photo projections by Elli Stelzer. Her new piece “Stilles Ich”, choreographed for the dance company Volkstheater Rostock (Germany), premiered in December 2022 and is her first work for a state theater.
Her work in the freelance scene has been performed at several international theaters and festivals in Europe, South and North America, as well as in Asia. Marion has collaborated with choreographers and companies such as Francisco Córdova, Stella Zannou, Sonia Rodriguez and Adn-Dialect.
As a teacher, she has been working internationally in several schools, dance companies and festivals, such as B12 Festival Berlin, Deltebre dansa, Tanzcompagnie Rostock, Tanz Bielefeld, Tanzcompagnie Braunschweig, Of curious nature, Circuit-est, Atlas festival, Pera GAU, Riga on, Tierras en danza, Iwanson, Camp In, EPDM, La Cantera, Vim Vigor, The Playground NY, Diavolo Company LA, Performact, Marameo, Pera – GAU, Sozo Visions in Motion, Tanzfaktur Köln, Tanzhaus Zürich.
Together with Alan Fuentes Guerra, Marion is the co-founder of the platform Shared Levitation Partnering, which internationally choreographs stage-work, teaches workshops and concentrates on using Partnering on stage.
Webpage: https://www.marionsparber.com/
Videos: https://vimeo.com/marionsparber
ALAN FUENTES GUERRA
Workshop: Partnering: Shared Levitation
Bio: The Mexican choreographer, dancer and teacher received his dance training at the Akademie Sead Salzburg, Austria, in the postgraduate program Bodhi Project and at the EPDM in Mazatlán, Mexico, with a Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Dance. Since 2017 Alan lives in Berlin and researches in the fields of improvisation and theater, showing a strong connection between physical dance and movement.
After graduating, Alan has collaborated with various choreographers and companies, such as Karolin Stächele, Marion Sparber, Ralf Jarochinsky, Christine Gouzelis, Sita Ostheimer, Etienne Gilloteau, Stephanie Felber, Cecilia Lugo, Francisco Córdova and Miguel Mancillas and presented performances at various festivals and venues in Europe, Asia and America.
Together with Marion Sparber, Alan is the co-founder of the platform Shared Levitation Partnering, which internationally choreographs stage-work, teaches workshops and concentrates on using Partnering on stage.
NADINE GERSPACHER
Workshops: Catching limits and Spinning poetry
Bio: Nadine Gerspacher is a freelance dancer, choreographer, teacher, and the artistic director of her own company, Cía. Nadine Gerspacher. With over 20 years of international experience, she creates choreographic works for dance companies and universities around the world. Among other achievements, she performed for five years with the internationally acclaimed dance theatre company Dave St. Pierre in Montreal, an experience that profoundly shaped her own choreographic voice.
In 2015, Nadine worked as a choreographer for Cirque du Soleil. The following year, she was awarded the Isadora Prize by the Iwanson-Sixt Foundation in Munich in recognition of her outstanding contributions to contemporary dance. Nadine creates numerous dance theatre pieces that merge movement and dramatic expression in a poetic and compelling way. Her company tours internationally, inviting audiences to engage with and experience her unique artistic universe, which draws inspiration from everyday life. In 2022, she founded FREEZONE, a center for movement, creation, and performance in Barcelona. FREEZONE hosts 3 programs – Free Bodies, Free Pulse & Free Roots – which support young dancers over the course of eight months as they transition into professional careers. In addition, Nadine is the co-founder of the NEXO Festival in Freiburg, Germany, alongside Tina Halford. Her company, Cía. Nadine Gerspacher has received guest performance funding from TANZLAND/INTHEGA for the period 2023–2026.
PAU ARAN GIMENO
Workshops: Technical Workshop: the Mechanics of Movement and Technical Workshop: the Mechanics of Movement
Pau Aran Gimeno (Barcelona, 1981) is a dance artist living and working between Germany and Spain. Born in a small town near Barcelona, he began dancing at the age of ten at the local school, where he trained in ballroom, jazz, modern, classical, and later contemporary dance. He completed his professional training at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Mariemma in Madrid and subsequently at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen, Germany. He joined the third year of the degree program in 2005, following a successful audition recommended by Malou Airaudo.
In late 2005, at the age of 24, he joined Tanztheater Wuppertal – Pina Bausch as a full-time dancer, where he worked until the end of the 2019/20 season. Over the course of fifteen years, he performed in more than 25 pieces from Bausch’s repertoire, immersing himself in the richness and complexity of her stage language. He later continued collaborating with the Tanztheater as a guest performer and became part of the transmission and rehearsal team of the Pina Bausch Foundation, contributing to the preservation and continuation of the German choreographer’s legacy. During this period, he worked closely with key figures such as Dominique Mercy, from whom he learned the importance of attention to detail, conscious use of breath, weight, and intention as sources of meaning. Despite the technical demands, Pau consistently seeks an honest, simple form of dance rooted in human essence, beyond the character.
Since 2013, alongside his work with the company, he has been developing his own universe as an independent choreographer, presenting works in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Chile, and Japan. In 2020, he began an ongoing artistic collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and has also worked with creators such as Theo Clinkard, Alan Lucien Øyen, Antonio Ruz, Stefan Jovanović, and Jorge Puerta Armenta.
His most recent works include Lettre d’amour (2020), a duet co-produced by the GREC Festival and premiered at the CCCB in Barcelona; Un cadavre exquis II (2021–2022), a solo co-produced by Steptext Tanzprojekt and Dansa Metropolitana, premiered at the Naves del Español (Madrid); and Seeking the truth (2023), commissioned by the Deltebre Dansa Festival.
Pau is currently at a pivotal point in his career, where his experience as a performer is evolving into a choreographic and pedagogical language of its own. He combines creation with intergenerational transmission, approaching pedagogy not as a side activity but as a fundamental part of his artistic process. He explores the poetics of contemporary dance theatre from a perspective centered on genuine expression, inclusivity, and the dialogue between tradition and the future. Within this framework, he promotes a deeply human practice, grounded in rigor, detail, and mutual listening, and commits his art as a tool for both personal and collective transformation.
WEB: https://pauaran.com/
CHLOE CHIGNELL
Workshop: Translating The Bio-Text: a workshop
Bio: Chloe Chignell (AU) is an artist working across choreography and text currently based in Brussels Belgium. Chloe takes the body as the central problem, question and location of her research. She invests in writing as a body building practice, examining the ways in which language makes us up. She graduated from the research cycle at P.A.R.T.S (BE, 2018) and went on to the post-master research program at A.pass (BE, 2020). She has a Bachelor in Dance from Victorian College of the Arts (AU, 2013) and studied a writing and residency program at DOCH (SE, 2017). She received the DanceWEB scholarship in 2015. Her choreographic work has been presented across Europe, Asia and Australia including: Pavillon ADC (CH), Espace Pasolini (FR) Batard Festival (BE) Saal Biennale (ES), Moving Words Festival (NO), Dancehouse (AU), QL2 (AU), KAAP (BE), Kunstencentrum BUDA (BE), Littérature etc. (FR), Dancehouse (AU), The Kier Choreographic Award (AU) Kottinspektionen (SE), Venice Biennale of Dance (IT 2017) and Awaji Art Festival (JP), among others. As a dancer she has worked with choreographers across Europe and Australia including: Angela Goh, James Bachelor, Bryana Fritz, Staff Govaart, Simon Asencio, Ingrid Berger Myhre, Adriano Wilfert Jensen, Phoebe Berglund, Anna Gaiotti, Clara Amaral and Gry Tingskog.
Since 2019 Chloe co-runs rile* a bookshop and project space for publication and performance with Sven Dehens. She published her first book The Complete Text Would Be Insufferable with books edited by Will Holder (2020). Her writing has been published in: misted.cc an online temporary reading space (NL), Choreography Journal (NO), Le Chauffage (BE), RealTime (AU), This Container Magazine (SE/BE), …and then the doors open again (BE/NL) and Engagement Arts Zine (BE). She also regularly collaborates with visual artists producing texts to accompany exhibitions and catalog books. Chloe is the founder and co-editor of This Container magazine, a publication focusing on choreographic writing, which produced 8 editions between 2017 – 2020. She has developed choreographic writing and reading formats hosted by Kottinspektionen (SE), PraxisFestivalen (NO), PAF (FR) Scene: Bluss (NO). She has taught the BA dance students at HZT, Berlin (DE), MA choreography students at ISAC, Brussels (BE) and currently teaches the BA and MA dance students at P.A.R.T.S, Brussels (BE).