Participating artists

Artistic director, KAIHO

Brandon Lagaert has mainly crafted his signature style while working for the internationally renowned dance-theatre company Peeping Tom as a multidisciplinary performer in the pieces ‘Vader’, ‘Moeder’, ‘Kind’, ‘Dido & Aeneas’ and ‘La Visita’. Touring with the company worldwide for a decade he was an integral part and known for his surreal mixture between text and movement. Lagaert combines elements coming from different disciplines such as urban / contemporary dance, theatre / film into a unique style. He does this under the name of his company KAIHO of which the award-winning performances ‘Subdued’ and ‘Doggy Rugburn’ have been an integral part. Since 2023 on he has been focussing heavily on building out his company through various collaborations: A site specific creation called “Abandoned Minds” with Rui Paixāo and a new touring performance for dance company Equilibrio Dinamico called “Welcome to my funeral”.

Performer, KAIHO

Marina Cherry is a contortionist/acro-dancer, educated at ESAC (Brussels) and ENC (Montreal). Her research-based approach to creation and performing puts her somewhere between dance, contemporary circus and physical theatre; with her body as the tool of manipulation and method for redefining traditional constructs and deconstructing techniques to find her own language. She is currently based in Brussels and is still actively touring her first solo show Only Bones v.1.6 (original conception by Thomas Monckton) as well as working on collaborative projects around Europe, including companies Les Argonauts (BE), Petri Dish (BE/SE), Cirkus Cirkör (SE), and Vaudeville by the Decavita Sisters (SE). Marina has recently completed a degree in philosophy with the University of London (2022).

Lighting designer, KAIHO

Thibault Condy has devoted himself for more than 15 years exclusively to the work of light(ing), in all its forms, in a cross path between cinema and live performance. First trained in the performing arts at the University of Mirail de Toulouse, as part of the III license directed by Arnaud Rykner, then in cinema imagery at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Belgium where he presented a research dissertation entitled “Improvised Cinema Filming:, he then continued his career as a director of photography / cinematographer and stage performance lighting designer, constantly seeking to feed one with the other. He has since collaborated with À Nos Fantômes by Cie Menteuses, Valhalla by Cie PetriDish, Mousse by Cie Scratch, Lions by Cie Poivre Rose, All The Fun and How To Welcome the Aliens by Cie EaEo, LOOP by Cie Stoptoï and ECHO of the company Le Geste qui Sauve. He is currently working in the creation of Drache Nationale by Cie Scratch, Plonger by Cie Meneuses, and Talweg by PetriDish.

Artistic assistant, KAIHO

Sara’s academic dance career started in 2015 while studying at the Dance Arts Faculty and ended in 2018 while being part of the dance program at the Nuova Officina della Danza. In 2021 she became part of the emerging Franco-Swiss company Snorkel Rabbit, directed by Bryan Arias and Alba Carbonel Castillo, in the pieces “A distant perception” and “100 years”. Sara recently starred as a performer in “Zèbre” in collaboration with Antonin Comestaz produced by Korzo and NDT. For the last 2 years Sara has been working for KAIHO as an artistic assistant for creations such as “Watching Beards Grow’ of Equilibrio Dinamico Ensemble” and “Next Stop” of the AHK.

Lara is a choreographer/dancer currently based in Copenhagen. In her work she investigates how (new) sensuous paradigms and our entanglement with them inform the constitution of perceived and shared realities. She explores how aesthetic narratives of process and change inform actual change, and how our experience of motion shapes contemporary mythologies. Lara works with dancing and embodiment processes, other mediums, such as film and text, are used in her artistic practice to mold and carry, or further develop logics of dancing. Her major works include THE SWIMMER (2022), HIKE (2022) and Body Maintenance (2021- present). She is co-founder of KOMMA Performance Productions, a member driven and collective association, supporting the development and production of dance works, based in Copenhagen. Lara holds a BA in Dance and Choreography from the Danish National School of Performing Arts, and is currently being educated as a somatic movement practitioner in BMC®.

Ran is a choreographer and artist-researcher who resides in Copenhagen and partly in Seoul. Based on her autoethnography, she has created multidisciplinary performances upon shamanism and traditional dances from post-colonial perspectives. After relocating to Denmark, she engaged in a climate activism performance group, Becoming Species. She sees the potential in intertwined narratives of decentralized collective activism, multispecies practices, and relearning indigenous cosmology & ancestral tradition. Her current practice is participating in and writing these movements and regenerating everyday communal rituals. She studied MFA in Choreography at KNUA and MA in Religious Studies at KU. Her major works include I Confess My Faith (2012), The God of the Earth Comes Up Imperfectly (2013), The Death of Vagina (2015), Floating Bottle Project (2016–2019) and most recently ‘We/Re Confess Our Faith (2023).

Valeria Januškevitš acquired the profession of choreographer and dance teacher in 2017 at the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, Estonia and currently works in Estonia as a freelance dance artist and dance teacher. During her university studies she had exchange studies in Austria and Portugal. In the past her movement research focus has been on identity, authenticity and memory- creative and research residencies at Viljandi Koidu Seltsimaja, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava. For the past year she has been in a collaborative research process that evolved into performance Artefakturism: farces and ruins. Also in the past year she’s been in TantsuRUUM residency (Estonia) focusing on creating parallels between eco- anxiety and movement research, finding tools to connect body and physicality with her performance idea. In recent years, Valeria has collaborated with performance artists as choreographer, dancer, director, artist and dramaturg.

Keity Pook is an Estonian, UK-based performance artist, choreographer, dance teacher, and movement director. She holds an MA from the London Contemporary Dance School and a BA in Choreography and Dance Pedagogy from the University of Tartu. In 2020, she co-founded ‘inklingroom’, an art collective hosting sound and dance events in London, Berlin, Tallinn, and Bristol. In addition, she curated “Movement Class with inklingroom”, an interactive radio show at Netil Radio in 2021 featuring emerging choreographers. Art Council England awarded her a Creative Development fund for her project ‘Choreography to Cinematography’. In 2022, she received support from Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, and Help Musicians to create multidisciplinary live performances with electronic composer Yraki. Her work explores the individual’s experience in a contemporary world context juxtaposed with natural and sociopolitical environments, often representing it through post-internet aesthetical presence.

Sigrid Savi is a choreographer and performance artist based in Berlin and Tallinn. Her work has been characterized as socio-critical, melancholic, absurd and entertaining. She has done her performances from theaters and clubs to galleries and even on a rooftop and in the limestone quarry. Besides doing solo works she recently started to create together with other choreographers, visual artists and composers.

Kadri Sirel is an Estonian choreographer, performer, and artist researcher whose often site-specific projects address the topic of production. Be it self-production, production of meanings, values or products, she works with the dancing body to investigate the tension between individual and societal desires. Her methods include improvisation and somatic practices, documentation, and co-creation to reimagine the value of dancers’ labour within capitalism. She graduated from the Viljandi Culture Academy Dance Art department (EST) and holds a Master’s degree from the Home of Performance Practices at the ArtEZ University of Arts (NL).

Kerli Ever (she/her) engages with performing arts (mostly dance) in various ways: at times as a dramaturg, at times as a critic, at times simply as a part of the audience. She has an academic background in Theatre Research (MA, 2022, Tartu University), in Culture Theory (BA, 2015, Tallinn University), and in Reviewing-Editing (BA, 2011, Tallinn University). Her work so far can be characterized by her focus on bodily sensations seen as inherently political. Currently she is interested in ruins (both literally and figuratively) as not only the traces of something now absent, but also as fertile grounds for new directions. Alongside theatre projects she is working as an editor of study materials for civic and health education in schools. Kerli lives in Tallinn.

Dance artist, performer and choreographer based in Oslo. Olivia is dedicated to the practice of performance and this work has taken her to international stages in both independent and dance company environments. Notably with Candoco Dance Company 2017-22, she performed the work of makers: Jeanine Durning, Yasmeen Godder, Trisha Brown Company, Jerome Bel, Eun Me Ahn, and Jo Bannon. Olivia collaborates as a performer/choreographer in other contexts in mixed-media environments, most recently in Switzerland with River Being (2022). She studied Contemporary Dance (BA) at Laban 2012-15, and has an MA in Dance Performance, Laban 2015/16. The practice of performance and the labour of the dancer is her main motivation and fire. Olivia wants to build and be exposed to more performative experiences, to work in the material of the dancing performing body.

Ingvild Marstein Olsen is a Norwegian dance artist based in Oslo, she works in Norway and also across the European dance scene. Ingvild is interested in collaborative work across the cultural fields and takes on the role as a performer and choreographer. Ingvild also created the multidisciplinary work River Being (2022), which currently tours the European dance scene. She has worked with Panta Rei Danseteater (2019), in the multiple roles of performer, choreographer, and coordinator. Ingvild has performed in works, both outdoors, in galleries and on stage for choreographers such as; Katrine Kirsebom, Rahel Vonmoos, Alison Curtis-Jones, and Deborah Lennie. Ingvild graduated from Laban with a MA in Dance Performance (Transitions Dance Company) and BA in Contemporary Dance.

IG @ingvildmarstein

Maria Lothe is a dance artist / activist based in Oslo, working in various group constellations as a performer, and as a performer and choreographer in her own and collective works. She thrives in collaborative working environments, and is interested in the meeting point between movement, voice and object work, the site specific and processes in nature and culture. Maria has performed for artists and companies within dance, theatre and performance art, mainly in Norway and the UK, most recently with BodyCartography Project in the outdoor work “Resisting Extinction”, Karstein Solli in the body voice research “Stemmer Overens” and Kalfoss/Mikalsen in the community project “Lonely Riders”. She has a two year degree in choreography and improvisation from Skolen for Samtidsdans in Oslo (2012) and a BA in contemporary dance from Trinity Laban in London (2015). Maria is the recipient of the Norwegian government grant for young artists in 2023-2024.

Hannah Parsons is a queer dance artist, choreographer and performer based in London and Oslo, and working across Europe. Hannah’s practice explores voice and sound, applying a choreographic approach to sound, and a sonic approach to movement making. She creates performances with the collective Unbaptised Infants (UK/ES) most recently with the work RITUAL created and performed throughout Spain and the Basque Country. As a performer they currently work with Simone Mousset in Empire of a Faun Imaginary (LUX/FR/UK), and Elinor Lewis with the work TIMBER. She has previously worked with artists including Marina Abramovic, Martin Creed, Joe Garbett, and Seke Chimutengwende, amongst others. Hannah has performed at galleries including the Tate, the Hayward Gallery, the Serpentine, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), and Artium (Basque Country), and theatres Sadler’s Wells, Les Hivernales (Avignon), Dansens’ Hus (Oslo). Hannah graduated from Laban with a BA in Contemporary Dance in 2014. 

Performer and ARTivist for the rights of the people with disabilities. Affected by the polio epidemic in June 1961. Since 2010 in the world of integrated dance participating in dance workshops with companies such as Cando Co, Cía. Jordi Cortés, Alta Realitat, Marisa Brugarolas, Adam Benjamin, Stop Gap, Thomas Mettler. Performer and integrated dancer in the company “Liant la Troca”. Integrated dancer performer in “l’Associaciació KIAKAHART, Arts en Moviment”. He collaborates in the collective “En torno en la Silla”, co-creating free design objects of support for mobility for people with disabilities. Speaker at TEDx Talk Madrid 2015. He collaborates as an accessibility reporter for the “Codi de Barris” program between 2016 and 2018. Between 2019 and 2022 he participated as an actor and dancer in the Dutch dance documentary A way to B, by Jos de Putter and Clara van Gool. 

Pianist, composer, DJ facilitator in Ecstatic Dance and actor. They have worked as a classical piano player until their condition in chronic fatigue. They are a member of “Trans*poesía”, a music-poetic project of love and politics around the trans experience. They have composed and performed the music of Akompasado, by Jordi Cortès contemporary dance company. They are the creator of “Patas Arriba, guerrila poético musical” (@patasarriba21), together with the poet Gemma Almagro. They have founded “Ecstatic Dance Barbàrie project” (@ecstaticdancebarbarie), a safe space for BIPOC, neurodiverse people and sexual, gender and functional diversities. They promote the visibility of transfeminist and functional diversity movements and participate in the integrated dance company Liant la Troca. They are a collaborator of “Associació Endometriosi Catalunya”.  

Master of ceremonies, rhapsode, facilitator, carpenter. Singer and writer of the rap group “BOCAdeBABA” and the rap-metal group “Prosòdia”. They moderate events such as Rima Hip Hop Fest, Cabaret Trans, Festival de Curts de Terror Can Batlló, Assajar és de cobards, Cabaret de Risc de 9barris. In 2021 they performed in “Heroïnes o res”, directed by I. Morales and D. Climent, premiered at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. In 2022 they participated in the research residency “Ramas y Rizomas” with La Cosateria Teatre, at the Sala Mutant in Valencia, and in the creation -assistant director and sound space- of the piece “En mi piel todos los bosques”, by L. Lloret Veciana, premiered at the Sala Ultramar. They participated as an interpreter in “Amor, matrimoni i altres assumptes menors” at Sala Beckett Barcelona, in the context of Grec 2022. They write and promote videos. Workshop teacher on rap, creation and LGTBIQ+ diversity.   

Lisa Rüger (Bergisch Gladbach, 1993) is performance artist, stripper, costume designer and set designer. She is a passionate advocate of the pro-sexwork movement with a focus on queer-femme bodies. In 2022, Lisa completed her degree in stage and costume design at HfBK Dresden, studying as well at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her work has been featured in various off-spaces, festivals and clubs, as well as at the Fusion Festival, the Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich, the NSDokumentationszentrum in Munich, the Körber Studio Junge Regie 2021, the Staatstheater Saarbrücken, the Staatstheater Kassel, and Hellerau, Zentrum für Europäische Künste. 

Steph Quinci is a Berlin-based dance and performance artist. Their aesthetic and research-based pursuits are defined by soft a legato demeanour, sculptural studies, release, and suppleness. Their dance background is a mix of classical ballet, American modern dance, and their studies as a junior collective member with the Compania Zappala in Sicily. Since five years they’ve danced with Paula Rosolen/Haptic Hide (Frankfurt AM), as well as working often with Go Plastic Company (Dresden), Caroline Beach (Berlin), Sandra Man (Berlin), Enad Marouf (Berlin) and as a guest performaner for Constanza Macras/Dorky Park (Berlin). 

Laura Morales Dávila(Seville,1986) is a choreographer and performer graduated of a professional Dance Conservatory in Seville,Spain. Best dancer award by the AISGE Foundation to attend as international choreographer to the American Dance Festival. In 2013, together with Greta García, created the multidisciplinary collective Hermanas Gestring, winning the first prize in the Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid. In 2017 she premiered her first solo, starting that year her own company, Laura Morales.She has collaborated with Horacio Macuacua ,Aitana Cordero, Judith Sánchez Ruiz in “Encaje for Ten” which premiered at Uferstudios 2019 and Trauma Bar & Kino in 2021, with Caroline Beach in “Sailor on Aisle 5” and SONDERANGEBOT. In 2020, she created “Me Laura Palmer” which was produced by the Lofft Theatre in Leipzig. And her last production “El último acto de Fe” premiered en 2021 at the Teatro Central de Sevilla. 

Caroline Beach (Dallas, Texas, 1990) is a choreographer and performance artist based in Dresden and Berlin. She holds an MA in Choreography from the Palucca Hochschule and is finishing a Masters at the AdBK Nürnberg under prof. JP Raether. She has made works for a multitude of spaces across a range of mediums including theaters, galleries, offspaces, a lake, the Internet, and a media storage closet. She explores much of her work through the lens of Sailor, a slippery and permeable avatar that sails around the materiality of desire beyond the neoliberal chokehold. She plays in the band Cocktail Napkin with Casey Ouzounis. 

Amelie Sabbagh (Würzburg, 1991) is a performance artist, stage/costume designer, and activist working in the fields of theater, dance, and performance. After completing a degree in theater, film, and media studies in Vienna, she studied stage and costume design at the HfBK Dresden as well as Fine Arts at the University of Leeds in England. She explores themes of sexualization of femme bodies, female anger, and gender inequality and racism in both digital and analogue spaces. Her works have been shown at venues such as the Volkstheater Wien, objekt klein a Dresden, Hole of Fame, and the Festspielhaus Hellerau. She did costume design for “The Kidnapping of the Bride,” which won the Short Film Jury Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.