Cullberg

Archives: Personal Portraits

  • Faye Driscoll

    Faye Driscoll

    Faye Driscoll is a Doris Duke Award-winning performance maker who has been hailed as a “startlingly original talent” by The New York Times and “a post-millenium postmodern wild woman” by The Village Voice. She was the 2021-2022 Randjelovic/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bessie award, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award among many others.

    Her work has been presented at Wexner Center for the Arts, ICA Boston, MCA Chicago, REDCAT, OZ Arts, and BAM, and internationally at Tanz im August, Kunstenfestivaldesarts (2021, 2024), La Biennale di Venezia, Festival d’Automne à Paris (2015, 2023), Melbourne Festival, Julidans Amsterdam, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Centro de Arte Experimental in Buenos Aires, Festival Dias da Dança in Porto, and Festival TransAmeriques (Montreal). Faye received an Obie Award (2023) and the Grand Prix (2024) at the Prix de la Danse de Montréal for her latest performance-installation, Weathering, which is currently touring internationally.

    Driscoll’s first ever solo exhibition, Come On In (2020), opened at Walker Art Center and then went on to Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, On the Boards, and Esplanade in Singapore. Driscoll most recently premiered a brand new site-specific work for the shoreline of Rockaway Beach (Queens, NY) called Oceanic Feeling (2024) as part of Beach Sessions Dance Series’ 10th anniversary season.

  • Panos Paraschou

    Panos Paraschou

    Panos Paraschou was born and raised in Greece. He trained at the Greek National School of Dance (KSOT) in Athens (2018–2021) and later at SEAD Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria (2022–2023). He also holds a degree in Special Education from the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki (2014–2018).

    As a performer, he has collaborated with artists including Athanasia Kanellopoulou, Milla Koistinen, Daphnis Kokkinos, Eduardo Torroja (Ultima Vez), Julyen Hamilton, Paul Blackman & Christina Gouzelis, Edouard Hue (Beaver Dam Company), Elena Fokina, and Olivier Dubois, among others.

    Career highlights include a contemporary dance duet at TEDxThessaloniki (2019), a dance film presented at the 11th Athens Video Dance Project (2020), and the musical comedy Cupid and Psyche at the Roman Odeon of Patras (2021, directed by Yiannis Panagopoulos, produced by liminal). He also presented a work-in-progress for Europe Beyond Access at Onassis Stegi (2021) and collaborated with performer and visual sign choreographer Rita Mazza in Sweden (2025), exploring Deaf Standard Time (DST) with the support of Riksteatern Crea and Skånes Dansteater.

    Panos teaches and leads workshops for d/Deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing participants, as well as for people with disabilities, in Greece and internationally.

    Recent performances include Don’t, Kiss .Skånes by Fabio Liberti and The Dropouts by Jo Strømgren at Skånes Dansteater (2024), Heart Moment – An Interlude for Düsseldorf at tanzhaus nrw in Germany (2024), and Heart Moment by Alexandra Waierstall at the Athens Epidaurus Festival (2025). In 2025, he appeared in A Doll’s House by Ibsen with Dancers of the North at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, directed by Tatiana Papadopoulou.

    Panos continues to push the boundaries of dance, performing to his fullest potential and embracing an artistry of movement that transcends deafness.

    He joined Cullberg for the 2025/2026 season.

  • Lukas Karvelis

    Lukas Karvelis

    Lukas Karvelis (b. 1997) is a Lithuanian  dance artist currently based in Stockholm. After graduating from Codarts University of the Arts in 2019 on a scholarship from the Jiří Kylián Foundation, he began collaborating with institutions such as the Royal Danish Theatre (DK), Münchener Kammerspiele (DE), and Korzo Theater (NL).

    Karvelis artistic work is inspired by Baltic landscapes, traditions, and mythology, interwoven with a queer sensibility. Having grown in a newly independent post-Soviet country, he explores the lingering effects of collective and personal trauma — how they imprint themselves onto the body, fragment the psyche, and shape one’s sense of safety and identity. His work seeks to make space for vulnerability and healing, using dance as a tool to reconnect with the self and reclaim agency through movement.

    His original works have been supported by residencies at O Espaço do Tempo in Portugal, Atelier de Paris/CDCN in France, the Arts Printing House in Lithuania and Centro Coreográfico de La Gomera in Spain. In 2023 he received the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award and in 2024 he was awarded with the Lithuanian Golden Cross of Theatre for Best Choreography.

    Lukas joined Cullberg in 2025.

  • Luca Seixas

    Luca Seixas

    Luca Seixas is a Brazilian dance artist from Campinas, São Paulo. His early engagements took place in Rio de Janeiro and with the São Paulo Dance Company, before he moved to Munich as a member of the Gärtnerplatztheater.
    As a freelance dancer, Luca was a guest with the Iceland Dance Company in Reykjavík, deepening his connection with the work of Erna Ómarsdóttir and Halla Ólafsdóttir, and has also collaborated with choreographers across Europe, including Moritz Ostruschnjak, Hooman Sharifi, and Ralf Jaroschinski.
    As an independent choreographer, Luca has worked closely with the Choreographic Centre of Heidelberg, where he created his first full-length piece, Incant, and co-choreographed the video-dance project Astraland together with Sarah Fischer Luckow. His creative interests explore different modes of enchantment and the element of play in culture, tracing an arc between movement, emotion, and reflection.
    Luca joined Cullberg in 2025.
  • Leticia Ferreira

    Leticia Ferreira

    Leticia Ferreira (2000, Brazil) is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and movement researcher based in Europe. Rooted in both classical and contemporary training, her practice has expanded through her immersion in capoeira and urban dance styles, especially house dance. This continues to shape her sense of rhythm, presence, and collectivity.
    After a decade of training at Escola de Dança de São Paulo, completing a degree in Physical Education, and 3 years of teaching dance and emotional intelligence education in schools and dance studios across São Paulo, she moved to Brussels in 2022 to join the Bachelor training program at P.A.R.T.S. Her artistic path is guided by curiosity and connection — weaving body, memory, writing, video and technology into poetic and political performance work. She is a member of L.I.E. (Laboratoire d’improvisation expérimentale), a collective exploring interdisciplinary improvisation where she often mediates sessions of instant composition through improvisation.
    In 2025, she joined Cullberg as an apprentice.
  • Celina Hage

    Celina Hage

    Celina Hage is an Australian/Norwegian movement artist working across performance, choreography and teaching. With a focus on collaboration and energetic exchange through movement, her work champions the deep tapestry of human connection that dancing can cultivate.

    Celina graduated with a Bachelor of Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2017 before undertaking further study at SEAD, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2018/19. Since then, she has worked independently throughout Australia and Europe, collaborating with the likes of STRUT Dance, Perth Festival / Hofesh Shechter Company, Parkin Projects, Tina Stefanou, Russell Maliphant, Brooke Leader & Dancers, Rotem Weissman, Mitch Harvey Company, and many others.

    As a creator Celina has presented both solo and co-choreographed works with MUD Arts (Collapse solo, 2024), STRUT Dance (The Melody Haunts My Reverie with Antonio Rinaldi, 2022; soft encounters boiled dreams with Georgia Van Gils & Nikki Tarling, 2021), Multimadeira (the melody haunts my reverie re:dux, 2024) and Perth FRINGE Festival (Dollhouse with Kimberley Parkin, 2022). Celina has been awarded residencies with CRL – Central Elétrica and Multimadeira in Portugal, and was selected as a Perth Festival Lab Artist in 2022. She has also been engaged as a teaching artist with STRUT
    Dance and Australian Dance Theatre.

    Celina joined Cullberg in their 2025/2026 Season.

  • Anton Skaaning Thomsen

    Anton Skaaning Thomsen

    Anton Skaaning Thomsen is a dancer and performer. He is interested in how different physicalities can establish affective spaces between performers and audiences with performative intuition as a key aspect. This interest spans over work in black box stages, white cube galleries, and public spaces, questioning our possibilities of continuously changing through performative situations. 

    He graduated in 2025 with a Bachelor in Contemporary Dance from KHIO Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Since 2023, he has collaborated with the Romanian choreographer Manuel Pelmuş, and together they have presented work at places like Palais de Tokyo in Paris, The National Center for Dance in Bucharest, the MUNCH Museum in Oslo, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein in Vaduz. 

    His journey as a dancer began with Brazilian Samba in the streets of Copenhagen, which later led him to Hiphop, and eventually Contemporary Dance, which he studied at the Danish Talent Academy in 2019-2022. In parallel with his dance practice, Anton has always been interested in political activism. Currently, he is researching how the urgency of living in a time of crises corresponds with international and intersectional solidarity through the body as material, method, and modality. 

    You can read more about Anton at antonskaaningthomsen.com 

  • Ida Inxi Holmlund

    Ida Inxi Holmlund

    Ida “Inxi” Holmlund is a Finnish-Swedish street and club dance artist based in Stockholm, with over ten years of experience as a freelance dancer, choreographer and teacher. She has studied street dance at Åsa Folkhögskola and Juste Debout School in Paris – education that laid the foundation for her artistry in styles such as hip hop, popping and voguing.

    Inxi represents Majeko Dance Crew and House of Alpha Omega, and was named Legendary in the global ballroom scene in 2019. She has won prestigious battles such as Latex Ball and Vogue Knights in New York, as well as Juste Debout Nordic and Streetstar in the Nordics.

    She performed on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm in 2023 and has toured internationally with workshops, battles and performances. As a choreographer, she has created works such as Octo, Bitch Please and Konflikt, and collaborated with choreographers such as Örjan Andersson, Mari Carrasco and Kenneth Kvarnström.

  • Marco Tagliolini

    Marco Tagliolini

  • Alexander Zryd

    Alexander Zryd

  • Ligia Lewis

    Ligia Lewis

    Ligia Lewis works as an artist, choreographer, dancer, and director. She presents her work on stage, in a gallery or museum, through film or exhibition format. Lewis’s works are often marked by physical and emotional intensities by which comedy and tragedy collide. Through her work, the performer and audience confront a confluence of processes that disrupt normative conceptions of the body. Her work slides between the familiar and unfamiliar. At the same time, she negotiates the ghostly traces of history, memory, and the un/known. Her expressive concepts form movement, speech, affects, thoughts, relations, and utterances within a highly defined choreographic landscape. Held together by the logic of interdependence, disorder, and play, she creates space(s) for the emergent and the indeterminate while tending to the mundane. In her work, sonic and visual metaphors meet the body, materializing the enigmatic, the poetic, and the dissonant. Lewis’s work continues to evoke the nuances of embodiment. For Lewis, choreography is the movement of ideas across bodies meticulously conceived, crafted, and directed— a political act, a writing against the grain of the racial regime of representationalism and (black) erasure.

    She recently finished works including: “A Plot / A Scandal” (2022), “Still Not Still” (2021), “deader than dead” (2020). In Fall 23’, Lewis opened her first solo exhibition, “study now steady” at Center for Arts, Research and Alliances (CARA) in NYC (US), which includes the newly commissioned film “A Plot, A Scandal” (2023) departing from the stage work of the same name. A survey of her stage works was presented at HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, DE) under the title “Complaint, A Lyric” in November 2023, which included the trilogy: “Water Will (in Melody)” (2018), “minor matter” (2016), and “Sorrow Swag” (2014). Further commissions include “Sensation 1/This Interior” (High Line Commission, 2019); “so something happened get over it; no nothing happened get with it” (Jaou Tunis, 2018); “Melancholy: A White Mellow Drama” (Flax Fahrenheit, Palais de Tokyo, 2015); $$$ (Tanz im August 2012); and “Sensation 1” (sommer. bar, Tanz im August 2011 and Basel Liste, 2014). Lewis is one of the participating artists in this year’s Whitney Biennial: Even Better Than the Real Thing.

    She’s presented her work in multiple venues across Europe, the US, and abroad, including the MOCA, Los Angeles; HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; Tanzquartier, Vienna; MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Spazio Griot/Mattatoio, Rome; Mudam Museum, Luxembourg; Wien Modern, Vienna; Kaserne, Basel; Redcat Theater, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; beursschouwburg, Brussels; Kaaitheater, Brussels; Arsenic, Lausanne; High Line Art, New York; Performance Space, New York; OGR Torino; Stedelijk, Amsterdam; TATE Modern, London, and Cordova, Barcelona; and Human Resources Los Angeles, LA. Her work has also been presented at festivals and biennials such as the Short Theater Festival (Prisma artist), Rome; Ruhrtriennale, Bochum, Germany; Tanzplattform, Germany; Spring Festival, Utrecht; Festival Otoño, La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Politik im Freien Theater Festival, Frankfurt; Liverpool Biennial; My Wild Flag, Stockholm; Joao Tunis; Side Step Festival, Helsinki; Biennale of Moving Images / Centre D’Art Contemporain, Geneva; American Realness, New York; The Donaufestival, Krems, Austria and Julidans, Amsterdam.

    Lewis is the recipient of the German Theater Award Der FAUST in the category of Performance in Dance (2023) for “A Plot / A Scandal,” the Tabori Award in the category of Distinction (2021); a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants Award (2018); a Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for minor matter (2017); a Factory Artist residency at tanzhaus nrw (2017-19); and a Prix Jardin d’ Europe from ImPulsTanz for Sorrow Swag (2014). Her work has been presented in multiple venues across Europe and the U.S. and is currently touring.

  • Erik Gavelin

    Erik Gavelin

  • Thamiris Carvalho

    Thamiris Carvalho

    Thamiris Carvalho (Rio de Janeiro – BR, 1991) is a contemporary dance artist and performer, driven by a passion for movement and a deep curiosity about the diverse interactions dance can create. She began her professional journey in jazz musical theater in 2008, in Rio de Janeiro, and soon transitioned into contemporary performing arts, collaborating with artists such as Deborah Colker and Esther Weitzman.

    In 2013, she moved to Portugal, where she joined the Kale Companhia de Dança and worked as a freelance artist with various creators, including Renan Martins, Carlota Lagido, Ana Rocha, Jo Castro, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Cão Danado, Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte, Mara Andrade, Jérôme Bel, Davis Freeman, Allan Falieri, Luiz Antunes – Heurtebise, Rita Vilhena, Yael Karavan, among others.

    In 2021, Thamiris joined Dance Theater Heidelberg in Germany under the artistic direction of Iván Pérez, performing with the company until 2024.

    As a creator, Thamiris has developed a range of projects, including Corpo de Encontro – work in progress sharing practices, with Teresa Fabião and Sara Silva, the artistic grant ESTRUME, with Fogo Lento Associação Cultural, THERE’S NO THEM with Agathe Juvenez, BETON with Sara Silva and Vinicius Ferreira, TEIA with Tomé Capa and Cão Danado, and her solo work, golden numbers – o início do fim.

    Beyond her artistic practice, Thamiris holds a degree in Cultural Production from Universidade Cândido Mendes (RJ, 2013) and in Communication Sciences from Universidade Lusófona do Porto (PT, 2019).

    Thamiris joined the ensemble of Cullberg in 2024.

  • Renan Martins

    Renan Martins

    Renan Martins is a Brazilian choreographer and performer based in Barcelona. He started his artistic path as a young actor in Rio de Janeiro and at the age of 17 moved to Europe to study contemporary dance. He graduated from both SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) and P.A.R.T.S (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) where he started developing his choreographic work. His very first full evening piece Let Me Die In My Footsteps was chosen by Aerowaves as one of the top works of 2016. Since then he has been making work, performing and touring in various cities in Europe and Brazil. He is a member of Sekoia Artes Performativas, a Portuguese platform that has produced his work since 2018 and is managed by Tina Agency.

    Parallel to his choreographic practice, he has been a performer for Iztok Kovac, Marysia Stoklosa, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Alexandra Waierstall, Ceren Oran, Daniel Linehan and Peter Savel.

    Renan Martins is an active teacher sharing his work in various dance schools, festivals and companies around Europe and Brazil such as Impulstanz, Ballet National de Marseille, Norwegian Theatre Academy, Theater Bremen, B12, Danish National School of Performing Arts, Dance Theatre Heidelberg, SKH, Danscentrum Stockholm, Tictac Art Center, Antwerp Royal Conservatory, Centro de Artes da Maré/Lia Rodrigues and P.A.R.T.S., to name a few. Since 2013 he has been a member of Damaged Goods/Meg Stuart performing in Violet, Atelier III, Projecting [Space[ and most recently CASCADE. He is was part of DDE, a research project on diversity and inclusion together with the faculty of P.A.R.T.S. (BE), Manufacture (CH) and SKH (SK) from 2021 to 2024.

    As choreographer he has presented his independent work around Europe and Brasil and has choreographed for companies such as ME-SA (CZ), BOD.Y (SK), Dance Theatre Heidelberg (DE), Unusual Symptoms/Theater Bremen (DE) and Danish Dance Theatre (DK).

  • Andrea Muelas Blanco

    Andrea Muelas Blanco

    Andrea Muelas Blanco is a dancer and performer born in Barcelona in 1996. She started practicing rhythmic gymnastics and ballet at the age of 4. From age 12 to 15 Andrea was at the High Performance Sports Centre of Barcelona, where she was part of the Catalan National Team of rhythmic gymnastics.

    Later on, Andrea studied contemporary dance at El Magatzem Escola de Dansa in Barcelona and in 2016 she won the 1st prize at the ‘Certamen Internacional de Dansa Ciutat de Barcelona’. After doing an internship at Korzo Theater with Iván Pérez, she joined the Ballet Junior de Genève in 2017, where she worked with choreographers such as Olivier Dubois and Theo Clinkard. In 2018, Andrea joined the newly formed Dance Theatre Heidelberg under the direction of Iván Pérez, where she performed works by Iván Pérez, Astrid Boons, Renan Martins, Melanie Lane and Stijn Celis, among others. She also had the opportunity to research and present her own work with Timeliness, a group piece created in 2019, and A Stage for the Self, a solo presented in 2023.

    Andrea was a member of Dance Theatre Heidelberg until July 2024. She then moved to Stockholm to join Cullberg in August 2024.

    “I see dance as essential, as a vital part of the human experience. It has always been a powerful tool for healing and self-discovery for me.”

  • Harrison Elliott

    Harrison Elliott

    From Perth, Western Australia, Harrison has worked extensively in the dance industry for over a decade. He has operated as an independent artist as well as a company member with numerous Australian-based dance and theatre companies such as: Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Force Majeure, Australian Dance Theatre and Australasian Dance Collective.

    Over the course of his career he has worked in various capacities in the industry; from performer, choreographer, teacher and writer, to stage manager, workshop facilitator and rehearsal associate.

    Harrison studied dance at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts from 2012-2013.
    A member of STEPS Youth Dance Company for eight years, he choreographed his first short work Fire Door: Do Not Obstruct for Compact Dance (2011).

    Harrison worked closely with Barking Gecko Theatre Company, under the directorship of John Sheedy, to collaborate on and perform Driving Into Walls (2012) and OneFiveZeroSeven (2014), presented as part of Perth Festival.

    In 2014 Harrison also worked extensively with Buzz Dance Theatre Company performing in shows such as ECOBOTS and Plain Jane, and facilitated educational workshops in remote Indigenous communities in the Pilbara-region.

    Throughout 2016-2019 Harrison worked with Force Majeure leading to his performance in You Animal, You  (Sydney Festival 2018) and Masters of Modern Sound (Sydney Festival 2019).

    From 2017-2021 Harrison was a company artist with Australian Dance Theatre (ADT). During this time he was involved in the creation of new works by artists such as Ina Christel Johannessen and Alison Currie, as well as the performance of various company repertoire. Throughout his time with ADT he toured extensively around Australia and performed on international stages in North America, South America and Central Europe.

    Harrison was a featured choreographer as part of ADT’s Rough Draft program, presenting his solo work A Man Stands in a Transport Terminal (2017), and a duet YOU2 (2018). He was also involved in ADT’s 2020 season The World’s Smallest Stage featuring a collaborative work A New Scene Begins In The Dark directed by Jo Stone.

    In 2019 Harrison was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer for his performance in ADT’s work South.

    In 2022 Harrison joined Australasian Dance Collective (ADC) as a company artist. Over his two years with the company he presented repertoire by Hofesh Shechter and Melanie Lane, and was collaborator and performer in new works by Jack Lister, Kate Harman, Gabrielle Nankivell, Cass Mortimer-Eipper, Amy Hollingsworth and Maxine Doyle.
    Whilst with ADC Harrison took on the role of Rehearsal Associate alongside his creative duties, allowing him to hone his skills in leadership, mentoring and company organisation. He was also heavily involved in delivering workshops for educational, professional and mature-age contexts, along with ADC’s Youth Ensemble, with which he created the collaborative short work Passage in 2022.

    Harrison has trained in circus aerial skills, parkour and has experience in Stage Management. As a freelance artist he has worked with various choreographers/directors such as Shona Erskine, Alice Lee Holland, Isabella Stone, Laura Boynes, Lucas Jervies, Tyrone Robinson, Kynan Hughes, James O’Hara, Anton Anton, Brooke Leeder, Rachel Arianne Ogle and Danielle Micich.

    Harrison joined Cullberg in 2024, and looks forward to furthering his creative curiosities through collaboration and artistic rigour during his time with the company.

  • Ida Osten

    Ida Osten

    Ida Osten is a dancer and performer from Vienna, Austria. She is currently in her last year of studies in the Urban Contemporary Profile at Fontys Academy of the Arts in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

    At Fontys she has worked with and learned from makers like Cecilia Moisio, Maciej Kuzminski, the Alleyne Sisters, Maria Sartzetaki and Alesya Dobysh. Ida has also done an internship with choreographer Katja Heitmann working together in Leeds (UK) and touring in the Netherlands. Furthermore she has created 2 works, one of which were presented at the festival Tilburg in Motions in the Netherlands.

    Ida started dancing with a Salsa education next to Street and Club Styles like Hip Hop and House combined with Commercial work. Quickly she established an interest for Performance Art exploring, in which formats contemporary dance and theatre can be presented and expanded.

     

  • Ida Hebsgaard Mogensen

    Ida Hebsgaard Mogensen

    Ida Hebsgaard Mogensen is born in Denmark. She started dancing in Silkeborg before moving to do the high school DGU program at The Royal Danish Theatre’s Ballet School in Odense. During her fourth year, she interned with Gunilla Lind / VOMP.

    After high school, she did a BA in Contemporary Dance at KHiO (2021-2024) where she performed in pieces such as Attention Deficit Delight by Yaniv Cohen, For you by Paul Blackman & Christine Gouzelis, Rain by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Clouds by Roza Moshtaghi. 

    Upon graduating, she co-founded ØNEST collective with her former classmates. Friends and colleagues who play a significant role in shaping her practices and interests. They are currently developing their first performance outside of school context. Ida has also created two solo works, Kys Den (2022) and Settle Sunshine (2023) 

    A small insight into Idas artistic interest: 

    “What if we cried to a lullaby? Lets have a make-out session with the favorite teddy bear. The world is ending soon we can cry about it in the weekend. Romanticizing loneliness. Cute. Kan du give mig et kram hvis du læser dette? I dreamed about you last night you scratched my mosquito bite and drew a heart with the blood. Take 2 vitamin D pills (the fish ones) every morning and swallow them with boiling coffee, get burned, pop the blister with your tongue. Mmm salty. I take my coffee with oat milk. That’s gay? Use your gaze. This performance could use some fake blood, and a pyrotechnician. Should this be on the website? Embarrassing”

  • Girish Kumar Rachappa

    Girish Kumar Rachappa

    Girish Kumar Rachappa is a dancer and choreographer originally from India, holding diplomas from the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore (2015-17), and the Contemporary Dance School Hamburg (2017-20). Since 2017, he has been a member of the Eurasia Dance Project International Network. In 2019, he received an Artistic Residency at Studio Wayne McGregor in London for his solo project, while also studying with the company as part of Eurasia.

    Girish has worked as a freelance artist with several German companies, including HDC – Hamburg Dance Company, The Current Dance Collective, and Dancing Beasts Company.
    His choreographic works include Sanatana, a solo project performed virtually at the Gdansk Solo Dance Contest (Poland, 2020), and prāṇa, which premiered in 2021 in Hamburg. In 2022, he premiered PASSAGE in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and Shakti in Hamburg.

    Throughout his freelance career, Girish has collaborated with choreographers such as Ursina Tossi, Fernanda Ortiz, Jascha Viehstädt, Yolanda Morales, Ingjerd Solheim, and many others.

    From 2022 to 2024, he was part of the TANZ_KASSEL ensemble, where he choreographed Panchajanya and co-choreographed Entitled 814 with Yannis Brissot and Emy Mårtensson Liljegren. He also worked with choreographers such as Sita Ostheimer, Andonis Foniadakis, Ashley Lobo, United Cowboys, Kristel van Issum, Yossi Berg, and Oded Graf, and performed Janus by Noa Wertheim from Vertigo Dance Company.

    In 2024, Girish joined Cullberg Dance Company.

  • Johan Hakala

    Johan Hakala

  • Linda Adami

    Linda Adami

  • Alexandra Bachzetsis

    Alexandra Bachzetsis

    Alexandra Bachzetsis is a choreographer and visual artist, based in Zurich (CH). Her practice unfolds at the intersection of dance, performance, the visual arts and theater, generating a conflation of the spaces in which the body, as an artistic and critical apparatus, can manifest. This fundamentally interdisciplinary approach is reflected in her educational background. She studied and graduated at the Zürcher Kunstgymnasium (CH), the Dimitrischule in Verscio (CH), the Performance Education Program at the STUK arts centre in Leuven (BE), and then continued to post-graduate level at Das Arts, the Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance Studies centre in Amsterdam (NL). During these years of training, Bachzetsis began to work as a dancer in the contemporary dance and performance context, collaborating with Sasha Waltz & Guests (Berlin) and Les Ballets C. de la B. (Gent), among others. Collaboration, transference and a plurality of voices and bodies have informed Bachzetsis’ work ever since and is often thematized as a method of developing new work in her practice.

    Much of Bachzetsis’s work involves choreographies of the body, focusing on the ways in which popular culture provides source material for gesture, expression, identification, and desire as we continually create and re-create our bodies and the way we identify through them. Within this, she scrutinizes the mutual influence between the use of gesture and movement in “popular” or “commercial” genres on the one hand (online and social media, fashion, video-clips, television, etc.) and in the “arts” on the other hand (ballet, modern and contemporary dance, photography, performance, and so forth). For Bachzetsis, the relationship between these varying forms and genres produces an inquiry into the human body and its potential for transformation. Ultimately, the way we all perform and stage our bodies and ourselves – through stereotypes and archetypes, through choice and cliché, through labor and spectacle – is a question that continues to shape the work of Bachzetsis.

    Since Bachzetsis started working independently in 2001, she has created over 30 pieces, which have been shown in theaters, festivals, and public space venues around the world. In addition to this, her work has been exhibited in a variety of contemporary art spaces and museums, including Kunsthaus Zurich (Zurich, 2022), the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2019), the Museum of Modern Art New York, 2017), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2013 and 2015), Tate Modern (London, 2014), the Jumex Museum (Mexico City, 2014), and Kunsthalle Basel (Basel, 2008), as well as a number of international biennials and large-scale exhibitions, such documenta 14 (Athens and Kassel, 2017), the Biennial of Moving Images (Geneva, 2014), (d)OCUMENTA 13 (Kassel, 2012), as well as the 5th Berlin Biennial (Berlin, 2008). Bachzetsis was nominated for the DESTE Prize (2011) and is a laureate of the Migros Kulturprozent Jubilee Award (2007), the Swiss Art Award (2011 and 2016), and Swiss Performance Prize (2012). Her work “Chasing a Ghost” was commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago and is touring Europe since 2019. Her recent piece “2020: Obscene” premiered its theatre version in November 2021 at the Gessnerallee in Zurich, while the exhibition version was shown for the first time in a solo exhibition in spring 2022 at the Kunsthaus Zürich. Bachzetsis presents her latest work “Notebook” at the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen in 2023 as an installation that reviews, challenges, and expands her artistic methodologies of the past two decades—produced in collaboration with various conversation partners. Bachzetsis’s monograph Show/Time/Book Book/Time/Show is published in 2023, edited by Hendrik Folkerts and designed by Julia Born.

  • Johanna Willig-Rosenstein

    Johanna Willig-Rosenstein

    Johanna Willig-Rosenstein, born in France, is a multifaceted artist whose practice extends beyond movement to encompass singing and performative explorations.

    Between 2019 and 2023, Johanna worked as a dancer and artistic assistant for Isabella Soupart in Brussels. She has been an integral part of Alexandra Bachzetsis’s creative endeavors, collaborating on several productions since 2018, including collaborations with artists like Paul B. Preciado. Johanna has also freelanced with various choreographers, including Cie Alias under the direction of Guilherme Botelho, Manuela Bachman, Johanne Saunier, and Rami Be’er at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, among others.

    Johanna received an award for her solo performance in the “Steve Reich Project” by Isabella Soupart/Quatuor MP4 at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh (2019).

    Johanna graduated with a state diploma of teaching degree in contemporary dance from the CND of Lyon in 2022. Prior to this, she was part of the young company Le Marchepied in Lausanne directed by Corinne Rochet and Nicolas Pettit. Johanna completed her training in 2016 at the Maslool Professional Dance Program in Tel Aviv, directed by Naomi Perlov and Offir Dagan, and also at the Dance Study Program of KCDC in Israel. Her academic pursuits also include several years of dance study at the Conservatoire of Dijon, France.

    Johanna joined Cullberg in 2024.

    “I stand at a crossroads in my artistic career, eager to venture into uncharted territories, continually evolving, and never seeking a fixed destination.” With humility and a genuine love for the art form, Johanna looks forward to exploring new creative avenues and connecting with audiences through her performances with Cullberg Dance Company.

  • Shai Faran

    Shai Faran

    Shai Faran is an Israeli dancer, teacher and choreographer. After studying dance in Israel, she was dancing at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company II, the Sigma Ensemble and the Dafi Altabeb Dance Group. After a couple of years of freelancing she started to feel the need to be exposed to new information and moved to Europe, to follow a year of a post graduate program at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance) where she expended her knowledge and started to develop her research, practice and methods of teaching and creating.

    Shai has worked with different choreographers such as Jule Flierl, Matej Kejzer, Maya M.Caroll, Zoe Knights, Yuval Pick, Shumpei Nemoto, Maura Morales Alessandro Sciarroni David Hernandez, Martin Kilvady and more, performed around Europe and taught in different frames for professional dancers, high education BA and MA programs, non-dancers and beginners and in open workshops around the world.

    She has created several works which won scholarships and support from the America- Israel Cultural Foundation, the foundation named after Ehud Manor, the cultural senate of Berlin, Fonds Darstellende Künste and Neu Start Kultur Fond.

    In the last few years She has been teaching contemporary dance and improvisation while developing her own artistic work and working as a freelance dancer, teacher and choreographer.

    She joined Cullberg in 2024.

    Website: www.shaifaran.com

  • Hanna Johansson

    Hanna Johansson

  • Judith Coumans

    Judith Coumans

    Judith Coumans (she/her) is born in Arnhem, The Netherlands, in 2002. She was part of multiple performance productions in her home country, with companies like Introdans, De Dutch Don’t Dance Division and Toneelgroep Oostpool. After focusing mainly on house and hiphop for a year in Amsterdam, she joined the ArtEZ pre-education in Arnhem in 2019. Her main training became ballet and contemporary dance, and there she performed in work of choreographers such as Mauro Bigonzetti and Thomas van der Linden.

    Judith started her bachelor of dance in 2020 at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany, where she worked with choreographers like Menghan Lou, Renan Martins and Anton Valdbauer. She worked on works from William Forsythe, Mats Ek and Iván Pérez, amongst others. Another red thread throughout her performative career has been singing, which has supported her as well in her dance performance. She has a big interest in exploring the interdisciplinary connection between different approaches to performance.

    Judith is an apprentice at Cullberg season 2023/2024.

  • Elin Hallqvist

    Elin Hallqvist

    Elin Hallqvist (she/her) is a dance artist from Lund, Sweden. She started training in her hometown and continued in Härnösand. Currently she is finishing the Bachelor Dance Artist at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands, graduating in 2024. Through her education she has worked with choreographers such as Dunja Jocic, Maciej Ku?mi?ski, Jean Abreu and Israel Aloni, among others.

    Together with Rodrigo Loureiro, she was part of the online festival #10duets10days# 2023, organized by Bobbi Lo Produktion. They also took part in Café Theater Festival 2023 with their duet SAPIENS SAPIENS.

    Elin is interested in exploring the potential of being (a body). Her creative work is a serious yet spontaneous play, often with elements of humor and vulnerability. For her, dance is a reminder of our inherent capacity to transform and embody the forms we desire in any given moment.

    Elin is joining Cullberg as an apprentice for the season 2023/2024.

     

  • Lilian Steiner

    Lilian Steiner

    Lilian Steiner is an Australian dancer and choreographer, whose practice encourages the deep intelligence of the body and its unique ability to display and comment on the complexities of contemporary humanity. Her interests extend to experimental sound and visual design where the body is the basis for questions and expressions.

    After graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts, Bachelor of Dance program in 2010, Lilian worked in Australia and toured extensively as a major performer/collaborator with Melbourne-based company, Lucy Guerin Inc. She occupied the role of Resident Director with the company across 2021-2022. Alongside this, Lilian worked on multiple projects with choreographers Phillip Adams (Balletlab), Melanie Lane, Shelley Lasica and Brooke Stamp amongst others, and with numerous artists working with live performance and film in the fields of visual arts, experimental sound and architecture/design. 

    Lilian’s own work has been presented across the forms of live performance, sculpture and video  in Australia, Italy, France, Latvia, Spain, Switzerland, England, Sweden, Bulgaria, Hong Kong and online.

    Lilian received the Australian Green Room Award for Best Performer in 2023 and Best Female Dancer in both 2017 and 2018, as well as the Helpmann Award in 2017. Her work Noise Quartet Meditation received the 2015 Green Room Award for Concept and Realisation.

    Since joining Cullberg in 2023, Lilian has performed works by Ligia Lewis, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Hooman Sharifi, Renan Martins, Alma Söderberg and Halla Ólafsdóttir.

    www.liliansteiner.com

  • João Dinis Pinho

    João Dinis Pinho

    João Dinis Pinho (he/him) was born in Porto, Portugal and started his dance journey at Ginasiano Escola de Dança (PT), leading to a BA in Dance at ArtEZ (NL). In 2023, he graduated from an MA in Arts and Culture (Comparative Cultural Analysis) at the University of Amsterdam (NL).

    In 2016 he started a freelance career, performing in multiple projects, with Arno Schuitemaker, Meyer-Chaffaud, Gerben Vaillant, among others. He created multiple performances in collaborations in Portugal, The Netherlands, Iceland and Mexico, with Busca-Pólo, Baby Skin and Julia Barrios de la Mora.

    The role of repetiteur first happened in his internship with Nicole Beutler Projects, in the performance “6:The Square.” Since then, a long a fruitful collaboration unfolded with Nicole Beutler, working as a rehearsal director, tour manager and occasional performer in performances such as 8:Metamorphosis, OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE, and GINKGO, among many others.

    Shifting to other roles, João has initiated a residency program at ArtEZ (NL), where he has also worked as a guest teacher in choreography and composition, and AHK (NL). He was a guest curator of the performance festival Come Together #5, at Frascati Amsterdam (NL), and a moderator at festivals such as Súbito (PT) and EmPressão (PT). He regularly collaborates as a choreographic guide with Instável Centro Coreográfico (PT), where he was also a member of the mediation think tank project “EmVolvimento.”

    João has been the recipient of multiple funds and scholarships, from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (PT), Fundação GDA (PT) and Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunsten (NL).

  • Hooman Sharifi

    Hooman Sharifi

    The choreographer Hooman Sharifi (NO) was born in Tehran in 1973 and came alone to Norway at the age of 15. His dancing career began with hip-hop in his teens and continued with classical and modern ballet in his twenties. He graduated in choreography at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and is particularly interested in the artistic expression found at the intersection between dance, theater and visual arts. In 2000, he founded his own company, Impure Company, which in its art focuses on social engagement and politics and has created over thirty dance works since its inception. Physically challenging, intense and powerful, Sharifi’s movement language explores the emotions and structures behind hierarchies, power, political systems and violence, through precise movements and stage effects.

    From 2014 to 2018, Sharifi was artistic director of Norway’s national contemporary dance company, Carte Blanche in Bergen, where he programmed works such as Birthmark, We Are Here Together, Soufflette and Jerada. His own works include Shadows Remain Silent, which premiered on Den Norske Opera’s main stage in 2014, and While They Are Floating. Sharifi has collaborated with several large institutions and his works have achieved great success in Norway and internationally.