Artists
and pedagogues SE.S.TA

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Serge Ambert

After studying classical and modern dance, he was hired by the ballet ensemble of the Opéra de Lyon in 1983. In 1988 he started dancing with Andy Degroat while concurrently launching his own choreographic activities. At the time he met Wilfride Piollet and Jean Guizerix with whom he later danced in “La Conjuration”. Later, he discovered baroque dance and for five years cooperated with the great company “Ris et Danceries”. Since 1993 he has been performing with Christine Bastin's company: to name at least a few common production, they are “Guele de Loup” and “La Polka du Roi”, one to make part of the production “Be”. In 1997 he started working with Jacques Fargearel, together they have created for example “Entre Terre et Ciel” and “Le Soleil des innocents”. In 2001 he created a solo piece “La Sentinelle”. In 2004 in Prague he presented his duo “The Ambivalence of a Butterfly”. He worked for SE.S.TA as a pedagogue until 2003 while also leading SE.S.TA's project “In Between the Two”. He subsequently created “On the Way with Her”, a piece commissioned by SE.S.TA for Czech dancers. In 2003 he started his own company “Les alentours rêveurs” in the French region of Bourgogne.

Katharina Bader 

Katharina Bader graduated from the C.N.D.C. in Angers, France. She co-worked with Cunningham Studio and José Limon Foundation in New York City. She has worked with numerous contemporary dance groups among which especially Mark Morris Dance Group (since 1989) and Christine Bastin's company (since 1992) should be mentioned, the latter being a company that merges movement with theatre. It is at the Christine Bastin's that she currently teaches. Her core material is emotions, improvisation, developing strong inner energy and visual creativity. Besides Christine Bastin's company she also teaches at other groups around France and Belgium. Three times she lead a seminar of choreographic notation within SE.S.TA’s programme. She also works as assistant choreographer: in Prague she has co-worked on “Death in Venice” (directed by Yoshi Oida), a production presented at the State Opera in 2009.

Christine Bastin 

She is a dancer and choreographer. In 1986 she founded the company LA FOLIA at the National Choreographic Centre. In her scenic work she combines dance and theatre elements. The core of her work is emotions and improvisation. Her choreographies surprise with the strength of visions and the radiation of energy. Together with her company she incited SE.S.TA to produce the first piece within the project “In Between the Two”. She has also had major influence on the career of many artists, among them Serge Ambert, Katharina Bader and Agnes Dufour.

Nadine Beaulieu

She is a dancer of contemporary techniques with professional experience from a number of dance companies out of France. Most importantly, she was a member of the New York company of Erik Hawkins', later applying the rich experience from Hawkins' as a dance pedagogue. She regularly teaches professional dancers at the National Dance Centre (Centre National de la Danse) in Paris and Lyon, at Christiane Blaise's company, Angelin Preljocaj's company, at Universities Paris VIII and Lyon 2, at Cefedem centres in Caen an Rouen, Canaldanse. In 1966 she founded her own company Nadine Beaulieu for which she has created more than fifteen productions to date. Her company is active in the region of Normandy and is supported from the city of Rouen as well as the administration of the respective department and region. The most important benefit of Nadine Beaulieu’s is her ability to teach dancers the top-quality technical and artistic skills. Her motivation is that of combining pedagogical approach with the creative process. A number of times she came to Prague, upon an invitation from SE.S.TA's, to lead ateliers and courses of the Hawkins technique.

Sophie Billy

In addition to her career as a ballerina in the London Festival Ballet and the Royal Ballet de Wallonie, Sophie Billy has been a member of both neo-classical and contemporary dance companies. Together with Jean-Christophe Parré and Wilfred Piollet she is developing a method of functional analysis of movements which can be directly applied to dance technique and interpretation. Having the higher French degree in dance Education, the CA she currently works as a teacher for the state degree of pedagogy at the National Dance Centre (Centre National de la Danse). She is a founder of her own dance company ‘De Sidera’ and of an association of specialists in dance education for small children. She is also a specialist on music for dancers and has a degree in the Labanotation. For many years now she has been giving seminars of pedagogy to Czech teachers, together with Anka Sedláčková. Her activities in the Czech Republic are organized and mediated by SE.S.TA.

foto: Sylvie Friess

Dominique Boivin 

Dominique Boivin and his group Beau Geste have been well established on the French dance scene since 1981. Dominique Boivin has been acquiring his dance experience in France with Carolyn Carlson, in 1978 he was awarded The Humour Prize in Bagnolet. Afterwards, he received a scholarship in the USA; upon his return to France he started to collaborate with Alwin Nikolais. He danced for such choreographers as Decoufle or Larrieu. Since 1981, with his company Beau Geste he has been concerned with new approaches to dance, as it was reflected for example in his using of a swimming pool in the choreography “Aqua ca rime” or heavy equipment in “Transports Exceptionnels”. He also co-works with important writers (for example Marie Niler) and choreographers (such as Pascale Houbin). In 2007, within the Prague Quadrennial, SE.S.TA invited his production “Transports Exceptionnels” and presented it in the open space at Náměstí Republiky, thus acquainting the Czech public with Boivin’s choreographic handwriting, one to be full of humorous suspense. Boivin’s work is characteristic with an intense relation to theatre, extensive and precise work with gestures and the subtle way in which he tackles serious issues. In 2010 SE.S.TA produced his piece “offline”.

Claude Brumachon

Claude Brumachon is a leading French choreographer of contemporary dance. Since 1992 he has been director at the CCN in Nantes, together with the dancer Benjamin Lamarche. For his pieces created with the latter he has been awarded eight important prizes (among them Les Médicis hors les Murs). They presented the piece “Le Palais des Ventes” in Prague in 1992. He has carried out a number of projects involving foreign artists: projects that focused on the aspect of common creation – the interpersonal and intercultural encounters. He has cooperated with artists from Finland, Chile, Africa and many more countries. SE.S.TA co-produced his choreography “Le Témoin / A Witness” that featured Czech dancers and that was presented at the festival Four Days in Motion in 2003. In general, he prefers long-term cooperation which is why he often offers Czech dancers who were in his pieces in the past to join his company.

Léone Cats-Baril

Dancer of butoh and assistant to Karlotta Ikeda in the internationally renowned group ARIADONE from 1988 to 1993. In 1993 she founded her own company INCARNAT for which she has created a dozen of choreographies to date. She was awarded two prizes for her choreographic work: Mandapa and Arts Chrysalides. She organizes courses in Paris and professional trainings abroad on regular basis. She takes part in collective improvisation sessions with internationally renowned dancers. Four time already has she been involved in a project of SE.S.TA's.

Paco Decina 

Of Neapolitan descent, he settled in Paris in 1984 and founded his company Post-Retroguardia. In June 1987 he received the Ménagerie de Verre/Glass Menagerie Prize for his choreography “Tempi Morti”, a nostalgic and nonchalant choreography for five dancers he had created in Milan. In 1997 he was awarded at the 6th Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis for his piece “Veli”. He has created over twenty choreographies, all of them are on the repertory of prestigious theatres both in France and abroad. Decina is an exceptional artist, a master of stressing out what is hard to tackle; he is a painter of space, of vibrations and the mysterious “something in between”. Thanks to invitations from the part of SE.S.TA's, Decina has been intensifying his cooperation with Czech artists. He has also presented a number of his productions in Prague, among them “Intervalle“, “Knights without Armours” or “A Fresco of a Woman Looking Left”. His piece “Salto nel Vuoto“, created in Prague and featuring Czech dancers, was commissioned by SE.S.TA.

Agnès Dufour

Agnès Dufour is above all a dancer, performing in pieces by Christine Bastin, Charles Cré-Ange, VMT, Maïté Fossen, Odile Azagury, Erika Zueneli, brothers Ben Aïm, Christian Bourigault, Hervé Diasnas, etc. She is a certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais method: she is concerned with developing the method in relation to dance, both in terms of pedagogy and choreography. In 2010 she was invited to Prague to present “Impromptu”, her first choreography, one she has created in cooperation with Suzon Holzer. Within her stay in Prague she also lead a workshop.

Julie Fox

Julie Fox graduated in History of Arts in Auckland (NZ) and Scenic Design in Canada at the National Theatre School and the Banff Artistic Centre. Since 1994 she has been working as an independent scenic designer, creating decor and costume designs for theatres and dance companies, among them the Canadian National Arts Centre. Since 1998 she has been cooperating exclusively with Daniel Brooks, a renowned Canadian director, mostly on adaptations of classical texts but also new pieces. She has won many awards for her work and productions with her sets have been performed at numerous international theatre festivals. Two times she won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for the best set design and was nominated for the same award a number of times. Since 2002 she has been based partly in the Czech Republic: her set designs have appeared on stage at Prague theatres Ponec and Archa. In Canada she teaches set design at the University of Concordia and at the National Theatre School. As to her cooperation with SE.S.TA, she has created set design for the production “Kronika kostí / A Chronicle of Bones” and has lectured within SE.S.TA's summer encounters.

Jean Gaudin 

After having the opportunity to work with such personalities as Maurice Béjart and Carolyn Carlson, he presented his first choreography in 1978 at Bagnolet and decided to found his own company a year later. In his choreographic work he focuses on merging diverse means of artistic expression. Within the whole of his career he has been cooperating with video-artists anD filmmakers: altogether he has co-created more than 15 dance films to date. Likewise, he has always been intensely cooperating with musicians, composers and graphic artists. In 1995 he first cooperated with director Yves Beaunesne: since then he is regularly invited to cooperate on opera productions by the latter. Two important tendencies have been detectable in his creation since the very beginning: attraction to extraordinary locations and a relentless will to tell stories about human beings, whether humorously or seriously. His productions are presented in France as well as abroad: they were performed for example at the Théatre de la Ville in Paris or at the Avignon Theatre Festival. He has created over 30 productions and 14 dance videos: the latter were presented at the Video-Dance festival at Centre Pompidou (Paris), at the Barbican Centre in London and at the Masarat festival in Palestine. Jean Gaudin works for SE.S.TA as a mentor within choreographic residencies and as an expert within the Ateliers of Reading Dance. [ www.compagniejeangaudin.com ]

Günther Grollitsch 

He graduated in dance at the Hochschule der Künste Frankfurt am Main and at the Rotterdamse Dansaccademie. From 1989 to 1992 he studied at Erick Hawkins', David Howard's and Alvin Ailley's. Later, he was engaged by the Stadttheater Münster, Stadttheater Gießen and Amanda Miller's Pretty Ugly Dance Company. His first choreographies saw the light of the day while he was dancing at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. His work toured the USA, Sweden, Israel and Southern America, gaining critical acclaim around the world. He is an author of numerous choreographies, among them an installation in Gießen,"Nachtlichter" in Bremen, "Anlage K – Eine Nacht im Finanzamt" at Haus des Reichs in Bremen and "Tanz unterm Schwanz" for the festival Norddeutsches Tanztreffen – Tanzplan Bremen in Hannover. He has also created a number of choreographies for opera productions: "Jenufa" at Nationaltheater Mannheim (2008), "Gegen die Wand" at Theater Bremen and "Macbeth“ at Nationaltheater Mannheim Opera (2009). Since 2001 he has been involved in projects with handicapped artists. Within the project "tanzbar_bremen" he has created a number of choreographies, the latest of which, "hüben" was finished in 2009. Within the project KoresponDance Europe he was chosen as a performer for Paco Decina's duet "Waiting... Waiting For... The Night???". From 2010–2011 he was a member of the Tanztheater Bremen ensemble. He worked for SE.S.TA as a mentor at a creative residency in Bremen.

Suzon Holzer

Suzon Holzer is a dancer, choreographer and teacher, she has been active in all these fields on international level. She has performed in numerous productions created by a number of European choreographers. Besides her own solos, duets and trios she performed in pieces by diverse artists, among them Dominique Petite, Harry Sheppard and Renate Pook. She has created choreographies for Karin Waehner, Agnès Denis, Odile Rouquet as well as a choreographic group at the Sorbonne in Paris. She taught contemporary dance at the Dance Department at Sorbonne, Paris. To be able to fully develop her understanding of movement she got down to studying functional analysis of movement. Since 1989 she has been a certified teacher of the Matthias Alexander method: she is considered a true expert on the method in France, especially due to her extensive knowledge and sensitive approach. In 2010 she was invited to Prague to present her first choreography, “Impromptu”, one she has co-created with Agnes Dufour. Concurrently, she also led a professional training of the Alexander technique and its applications in dance.

Marie Kinsky 

She is a dancer, teacher and producer. After her studies at the French Conservatory of Dance, she graduated from the Paris Sorbonne University. She danced in various companies and toured around Europe and Japan. From the onset she combined her dance career with that of a teacher. In 1997 she moved to the Czech Republic and has been working there ever since. She regularly teaches contemporary dance and various methods of movement analysis. She has a certificate in the Feldenkrais technique and gives workshops at conservatories and universities as well as in the private sector. She also assists theatre directors and choreographers in Paris, Prague and Brno with movement analysis. Her interest is to apply the Fedenkrais method within the creative process of dance and theatre performers as well as choreographers. She analyses movement, space, sensations and the states of the body, thus enabling each individual to further hone their movement choices. She is a founder and director of SE.S.TA, the first Centre for choreographic development in the Czech republic.

Jan Komárek

Jan Komárek was born in Prague where he also graduated from publicity at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (VŠUP). In 1983 he started his theatre career at a puppet theatre MIMO THEATRE in France. Later he worked in Canada for a few years: it is at this time that he was awarded the Dora Mavor Moore Prize, for direction and light design. Since 2001 he has been working in Prague as a light designer: he has created a number of pieces of his own, these were presented at theatres Alfréd ve dvoře, NoD, Ponec, Theatre 29 in Pardubice and other venues. Komárek's projects are characteristic with precise and well-defined movement, intense work with inner tension of performers and singularity of visual elements – light delimits and changes theatre space. Komárek was teaching for SE.S.TA during their summer encounters. He is also active as a photographer and light designer, mostly at SE.S.TA's professional choreographic trainings.

Sumako Koseki 

Sumako Koseki studied butoh dance in Japan under the guidance of Isso Miura. She then became interested in contemporary dance influenced by No and Kabuki and collaborated with Grotowsky in Italy. In 1980 she founded her own company in France, one to have appeared several times at the Avignon Festival and one to perform regularly around Europe. Koseki cooperates with numerous important theatre directors, among them Wladyslav Znorko, Philippe Adrien at La Comédie Francaise and Tabar. She is a regular guest an guest teacher at events organized by SE.S.TA. In Prague she created a production called “A Chronicle of Bones”, a piece commissioned by SE.S.TA and presented at Archa Theatre on April 13th 2004 (sets designed by Adriena Šimotová). Sumako has returned to Tokyo, she is still though in close contact with Czech, French and Japanese dance.

Helge Letonja

Helge Letonja is an artistic director, dancer and choreographer. Besides these professions, he regularly acts as senior lecturer, as well as being a member of an international panel during competitions. In 1996 he founded Steptext Dance Company in Bremen (currently: Steptext Dance Project), a company for which he creates two choreographies per theatre season. Letonja is also co-founder of ´Dance Town: Bremen´, an initiative for contemporary dance in Bremen. He is responsible for its content, conceptual and programming activity, and also develops and directs the initiative. Letonja efforts to connect the regional with the national as well as to foster diversity and dynamics of contemporary dance creation.

Martha Moore 

Studies: She belongs to a generation of dance artists with one foot in modern dance and the other firmly planted in the post modern. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of California-Santa Barbara (dir. Rona Sande), where she worked intensively with a former assistant to Mary Wigman and Kurt Jooss, Isa Partch-Bergsohn, as well as several members of the Graham, Limon and Cunningham companies. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance under the direction of Martha Myers, exploring somatic methods, improvisation and choreography. She moved to New York City in 1977. Performer and choreographer: She has performed for several artists on stage and in film, notably Mark Tompkins, Lila Greene, Stephanie Aubin, Charles Cré-Ange, and Jacques Patarozzi. She formed her company Toss in 1985. In 1993 she created with Patricia Lopez the film "Killing was Easy" (Réalis. Sylvia Callé), selected for the Festival des Assassins at the Cinémathèque de Paris. In 1995, she co-founded the collective company Les Penelopes and collaborated with the Quatuor Albrecht Knust for the re-creation of “Continuous Project Altered Daily” by Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton’s “Satisf’n Lover”, and later with Dominique Brun, Valeska Gert’s “La Mor” and “La Sorciere” by Mary Wigman. She currently collaborates with the sculptor Félix Perrotin on the performance series “john and jane” and on her latest solo “that was easy”.
Teacher: From 1992 to 2000, she was regularly invited to teaching residencies at the European Center for New Dance Development in Arnhem. She was also frequently commissioned to work for the Centre's twin school in Dusseldorf. She has taught professional classes and workshops for several national choreographic centres and companies in Europe, as well as the Centre National de la Danse, and the Ménagerie de Verre in Paris. She has been cooperating with SE.S.TA since 2009, regularly lecturing in Prague and working on events for Czech and Slovak dancers – these are scheduled for 2012 and commissioned by SE.S.TA.

Béatrice Massin 

Having performed with a number of contemporary companies, she was engaged by the company Ris et Danceries in 1983, where for ten years she was both a contemporary dance performer and in charge of research of possible repertoire. She was assistant and co-creator at Francine Lancelot's. In 1993, Béatrice Massin founded the company Fêtes Galantes. Her work makes use of the choreographic vocabulary of the dances of the 17th and 18th centuries, in an entirely original way. Fêtes Galantes also offers pedagogical programmes with the reconstructions of plays belonging to the Baroque repertoire (in the amphitheatre of the Bastille Opera House, the Cité de la Musique of La Villette, the CND, the Bastille Opera House).In 1999, Gérard Corbiau commissioned her to create and carry out choreographies for his film Le Roi Danse (The King is Dancing). The most recent great success of Massin's and her company is the performance “Que ma joie demeure” (Let my Joy Remain), which has been performed on tour in France, Belgium, Italy, Cambodia, Syria, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Egypt and Lebanon. Importantly, the production was also invited to Prague by SE.S.TA in 2006. Massin also reconstructed a mythical opera Atys. She keeps pursuing her journey of searching for the baroque in contemporary dance: this has recently been reflected in her piece “Songes, un Voyage d'Hiver”. She was also involved in the creation of a complex DVD on baroque dance. Her long-term cooperation with SE.S.TA has brought about traditional and regular pedagogical events that are mostly nurtured by Massin's interest in merging baroque and contemporary dance.

Jan Minařík in coperation with Béatrice Libonati 

Jan Minařík was born in 1945 in Prague. His path to dance led through the Army Artistic Ensemble, the National Theatre in Prague and later the Janáčkovo Theatre in Brno. From Brno he left for Innsbruck and later to Pina Bausch's Tanztheater in Wuppertal where he was a soloist and co-director of the company until 2000. Béatrice Libonati often cooperated with Suzanne Linke, with Minařík they made worldwide guest appearances. During his artistic career Minařík has tried diverse dance techniques: from popular dance to classical dance and modern and contemporary dance, always standing out in all of them. He was invited by SE.S.TA to teach at the summer encounters.

Jean-Christophe Paré 

Jean-Christophe Paré graduated into the Paris Opera Ballet in 1976 and was promoted to First Soloist in 1982. For a number of years before and after 1982 he was a member of the Paris Opera’s experimental dance group Groupe de Recherche de l’Opera de Paris (GRCOP). He left the Paris Opera to work with various contemporary French choreographers, such as D. Larrieu, R. Chopinot, F. Verret, A. Degroat, and to concentrate on his own choreography (he has created more than fifteen works to date). He has worked extensively with Wilfred Piollet and Jean Guizerix, former stars of the Paris Opera Ballet who take a very progressive approach to contemporary dance creation. In addition to collaborative work as a dancer and choreographer, he also works closely with the dance analyst Odile Rouquet in the field of research in movement. He is regularly invited to teach at various conservatoires, universities and high schools in France and abroad. In 1990 he became director of the National Centre of Contemporary Dance in Angers and then inspector of dance for the French Ministry of Culture, even later then director of the National Dance School in Marseille. He introduced new curricula at universities and high schools including choreographic analysis and coaching. He is invited by SE.S.TA each year since 1999 to teach in Prague.

Wilfride Piollet

Wilfride Piollet is an eminent dancer of the Paris Opera and a pedagogue at the Paris State Conservatory. In her work she focuses on dancers of classical ballet and contemporary dance. She is very much active in the field of theatre and is also concerned with Labanotation. Together with Odile Rouquet she has created a revolutionary method of Functional Analysis of Dance Movement. Wilfride Piollet' s work, on the whole, returns to classical dance and incorporates in it the most recent research in dance movement. She prepares dancers to be able to work with very varied movement vocabularies, on the basis of knowledge of the fundamentals of dance movement and the knowledge of their own body. She also insists on greater independence during classes within which she connects strong dance currents, spanning many styles from Baroque to William Forsyth. This outstanding personality has accepted an invitation from SE.S.TA to come to the Czech Republic and present her vision of classical ballet as well as her application of all dance styles.

Pedro Pauwels

Born in Belgium, Pedro Pauwels studied at the Rosella Hightower Centre in Cannes. He collaborated with Dominique Bagouet, Mathilde Monnier, Petr Goss, Viola Farber, Jean-François Duroure, Bella Lewitsky. He danced with Karine Saporta – at the Caen CCN / National Centre for Choreography, then with Odile Duboc at the Belfort CCN. In November 1990 Pedro Pauwels founded his own dance company PePau, presenting his first production, “L’Insoupçonnée” in 1991. Ever since he has been producing pieces with the company on regular basis, also creating concepts for individual events. Likewise, he also runs educational and awareness-raising activities in cooperation with the French National Board of Education, concurrently teaching at the Paris CND. In 2003 and the 3 ensuing years, Pedro Pauwels turned his attention to the field of science and technology: he got to cooperate with the University in Caen and created the project “Sens I” in his laboratory at the Enghien-les-Bains Centre. In 2006 the project “Sens I” was chosen by the dance commission of the AFAA to tour around South Africa. In 2007, “Sens I” was performed in Paris, at the Festival Caire and in Carthage, Tunisia. Upon an invitation from SE.S.TA’s he presented the production in Prague in 2007 (together with the piece “Etal“) in a version that also included the so called “sense-enhancing track“ and a pedagogical training for professionals concerned with teaching children. He currently works in the French region of Limousin from which he gains support, the same as from the city of Limoges. He keeps actively developing his pedagogical activities as well as events focused on raising awareness.

Anne-Marie Reynaud 

Anne-Marie Reynaud is a teacher, dancer and choreographer. Among other things, she studied at Alvin Nikolais‘, performed in pieces by Carolyn Carlson at the Parisian Opera and co-founded the association Four Solaire. She worked as the director of The National Choreographic Centre in Nevers and later as the director of the the IPCR – the Education and Pedagogy Centre for Professional Dancers. She is currently director of the National Centre of Dance (Centre National de la Danse) in Paris, an institution which provides further training for professional dancers and teachers around France. Despite the many leading positions in management she has occupied, she has never resigned on her activities in the field of choreography and pedagogy. Anne-Marie Reynaud passed away in 2009, leaving behind her an exceptional career of a great pioneer in French contemporary dance. She was one of the first in France to support SE.S.TA from the very beginning of its existence. She also came to Prague to teach upon an invitation from SESTA’s. SESTA considers Anne-Marie its godmother.

Serge Ricci 

Serge Ricci studied classical ballet at the Rosella Hightower Centre in Cannes. As a performer he cooperated with a wide range of companies and received education in a variety of dance techniques (e.g. Alexander, Body Mind Centring) but it was the Feldenkrais technique that has become most important to him. The first production he presented as a choreographer was the duet “Les Jardins Obscurs” that was on the line-up of Hivernales d'Avignon in 1994. Later that year he founded the company Mi-Octobre for which he has created the following choreographies: Educere (1994), Retour à ses tours (1996); Phalène, phalène (1996); (1997); Champs clos Ilinx (1998); the trilogy Partiellement Effacé (2000) – Humor (2001) – Endless (2003). In Ricci' s work focus moulds the form and priority is given to corporal discourse, which moulds the space. Ricci is a great performer endowed with exceptional fantasy which he underscores with technical preciseness. Last but not least, he is also a unique teacher and as such he is regularly invited to Prague by SE.S.TA. In 2009 he came to Prague to present his productions “Cisfinitum“ and “Par Dessus Bord“.

Alban Richard 

Already as a student of music and literature, Alban Richard worked with such choreographers as Karine Saporta at CCN de Caen, Christian Bourigault, Christine Gaigg, Odile Duboc, Olga de Soto and Rosalind Crisp. After creating a few choreographies of his own, he and a few of his closest colleagues founded the group L’Ensemble l’Abrupt in 2000. He received the Young Talent in Choreography Award (Jeune Talent chorégraphique) from the SACD. He regularly creates productions for prestigious events, among them the festival Mouvements d’Automne de Paris, the festival Faits d’Hiver (Paris), les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Vif du Sujet d’Avignon, l’IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et coordination acoustique / Musique), Toronto Dance Theater and Montpellier Danse. He also occasionally co-works with the National Centre of Dance in Paris (Centre national de la danse de Paris). His precise choreographic notations reveal a clear development and structure of his work in which a number of scores merge: dance score that takes into account diverse states of the body, music score including the rhythmical aspects and the score of light. He makes all of them part of one universal concept. His style is unique and very much respected, among other things also for his great knowledge of impediments in dance and his great capacity of coping with them.

Anna Sedlačková

She graduated from the Dance Department of the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (Slovakia) where she also completed her postgraduate studies in the field of contemporary dance pedagogy. Later on she has worked as a pedagogue of contemporary dance. She was selected for a residency at the EDDC Arnhem in Holland where she worked in as a guest teacher in 1999. In 1998, she danced for the Marta Renzi & The Project Company within their tour around the USA. In 2001 – 2002, she received the Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Hampshire College, MA USA. Since 1986, she has been creating her own choreographies, performing at many festivals at home, in Europe and the USA. Since 2000, she has been studying the BMC in the USA: since 2006, she is the certified Infant Developmental Movement Educator and Somatic Movement Educator in BMC® and Somatic Movement Educator. Recently she has enrolled in the BMC Practitioner program in Germany. She does research in the field of developmental movement, teaching in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and France. She regularly comes to Prague upon an invitation from SE.S.TA's to lead pedagogical trainings on teaching young children. In recent years, she has been giving these in close cooperation with Sophie Billy.

Laurent Schneegans

Laurent Schneegans studied theatre technique in Paris. He has cooperated with renowned directors and has also gained experience in the field of lighting open-air performances. His first encounter with dance was that with Paco Decina in 1996: since then, they have been professionally collaborating on regular basis. The public had the opportunity to see his work in Prague in Autumn 2007: he came with his pieces “Salto nel Vuoto“ and “Knights without Armours“. He regularly leads workshops of theatre lighting. His work in lighting is based on close collaboration with choreographers: his lights are above all supposed to provide conditions in which the body and movement can stand out and develop. He often unwittingly includes lively colours in his lighting to help the audience enter the world of the performance more easily. He holds the view that however important light design is in a performance, it should never play the leading role. The Czech public knows Laurent Schneegans as a light designer of Paco Decina's pieces (hosted in Prague by SE.S.TA) but also as a lecturer of light design (lectures held by the Institute of Lighting Design).

Gyork Joseph Szakonyi 

Since 1987 Gyork Joseph Szakonyi has been involved in the creation of eight works with Josef Nadj's company. He has also co-created Catherine Diverre’s project “Le double de la bataille”. He holds a diploma in teaching contemporary dance and has taught both in France and abroad since 1995. Together with Joseph Nadj he leads the Regional Creative Workshop of the National Choreographic Centre in Orleans (CCN v Orleans). He once lead a creative workshop organized by SE.S.TA in Prague.

Atsushi Takenouchi 

Atsushi Takenouchi is a Japanese soloist and performer who has improvised in the open at more than five hundred locations around Japan and abroad and has lead many workshops for a wide spectrum of social groups: artists, children, the mentally disabled, etc. In order to broaden and deepen his understanding of his work, he has been travelling around the world, coming into contact with different cultures and different types of dancers. His creations stem from the most basic forms of traditional butoh. He was involved in a butoh workshop organized by SE.S.TA. He also lead a professional training in Prague and brought his piece “Jinen“ to the Czech metropolis.

Mariko Tanabe 

For twelve years Mariko Tanabe was a principal dancer, teacher and associate rehearsal director to the American modern dance pioneer Erick Hawkins. In 1996 she became assistant to Marie Chouinard. Currently, she is the artistic director of her company Mariko Tanabe Danse in Montréal. She has presented her choreographic work around the world including Prague, receiving a number of important awards. As a guest artist Mariko Tanabe has taught at several Universities (Germany, Canada, the USA, Austria, Mexico, the Czech Republic, etc.). Her background includes work with Japanese dance forms, Flamenco, Middle Eastern Dance, experimental theatre, the Alexander technique, yoga and the healing arts. She holds a diploma in the Body Mind Centring technique. Upon an invitation from SE.S.TA and the Duncan Centre Conservatory she came to Prague to lead a course of Body Mind Centring and its applications in dance.

Nina Vangeli

She is an opinion journalist writing on dance, a dance critic and a graduate of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. She was banned from publishing under the Communist regime and could only enter the public field after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. In the 1970s and 1980s she lead a group of independent movement theatre. She publishes her articles in a number of journals and magazines. From 2000 to 2004 she was editor-in-chief of the magazine Dance Zone (Taneční Zóna) where she currently works as Senior Editor. She works for SE.S.TA as a Czech lecturer within Ateliers of Reading Dance.

Geneviève Vincent 

Historian and writer by profession, Geneviève Vincent lectures on the history of dance and the history of arts at universities and art academies in Montpellier, Rouen, Tours, etc. Since the 1970s she has been involved in a diversity of projects that included many artists, among them Viola Farber, Susan Buirge, Mathilde Monnier, François Verrete and Marca Vincent. She performed in productions by Germen Civery, Antonio Baerh, Michèle Murray and many more. The year 2007 saw the publishing of her first novel entitled “Trop de corps” in French (Too Much of the Body). She is currently working on her second novel, “Le Murmure du sang” (Blood Whispering). In the season 2010/2011 she was assistant to Bernard Monet in his work on the pice “Des Hommes”. Her cooperation with SE.S.TA includes co-organization of Atelier of Reading Dance and co-working on European projects.

Wladyslav ZNORKO 

Wladyslav Znorko founded the theatre group Cosmos Kolej in France, bringing it several times to the Czech Republic. In France he has gained recognition for his theatre creations that are close to the world of Tadeusz Kantor. He led a professional training of movement theatre for SE.S.TA, together with Marie Kinsky.