The current board was re-elected by the General Assembly on 3 June 2021 (online General Assembly), with online elections 21-25 February 2022 and on 28 June 2022 in Barcelona.
Kerstin Evert studied Applied Theatre Studies in Gieβen, where she did her doctorate on the theme of “DanceLab-Contemporary Dance and New Technologies”. From 1997 to 2000, she was a doctoral candidate in the post-graduate program “Körper-Inszenierungen” at the Freie Universität Berlin and with Oliver Behnecke founded the production label “Stadt Raum Inszenierung” (Festival ZeitenWende, Gieβen 2000). From 2002 to 2006, she worked as dramaturge at Kampnagel.
Evert founded the choreographic center K3 in Hamburg in August 2006, and has been the director of K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg since then. She works as a lecturer at universities in Berlin, Bern, Gieβen, Hamburg, Frankfurt/Main and Salzburg, among other places, and she is member of several juries and advisory boards.
A philosopher by training, Laurent Meheust got involved very early in the world of culture and specialised in supporting artists for the theatre and contemporary music at first, before devoting himself fully to dance. In 2008, he joined the choreographer Michel Kelemenis and took part in the construction of KLAP Maison pour la danse (Marseille / France), working to establish its status in local, national and international professional networks. He develops the artistic residencies and the programmes of the annual festivals; He has been guest lecturer between 2006 and 2019 at the Université de Provence for the License and Masters in Cultural Mediation and in the Art and Cultural Heritage programmes. He joined the Board of directors of EDN / European Dancehouse Network in 2018, was the President in charge between 2019 and 2022, and became Co-President in 2022. The same year he is appointed director of Le Gymnase / CDCN (Roubaix / France), and develops an international project connecting to the residencies program and the 2 annual festivals - Forever Young and Le Grand Bain - in different cities and theaters in les Hauts-de-France.
Suzy Blok (Dutch/Argentinean, born in Colombia) is head of ICK Artist Space and co-founder/director of the Moving Futures festival and network.
After her dance studies at the Amsterdam High School of the Arts she became a professional dancer and choreographer. She was co-artistic director of Blok&Steel company from 1990 until 2006. After this period she continued to create performances and became also curator of I Like To Watch too: a yearly international performance festival produced by Paradiso and Julidans festival from 2007-2013. As film-maker, she created award-winning short dance-films as well as feature films in collaboration with directors such as Pieter Kramer. In 2017 she completed her studies of Cultural Leadership (LINC) at the University of Utrecht.
Blok is currently also board-member of Summer Dance Festival, dance-representant of the Amsterdam Cultural Institutions (ACI). Next to EDN, from her position as head of ICK Artist Space, she is partner in the Aerowaves network.
Her main focus is to support the new generation of dance-artists, passing on her knowledge and expertise to others. To help develop the contemporary dance discipline in all its width and potential, to create new possibilities and collaborations for emerging artists to expand and share their knowledge and make their work visible to a larger audience. Both on a local, national and international level.
Mitja Bravhar has a degree in history and art history from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University in Ljubljana. He works at Kino Šiška Ljubljana, public institute, holding the position of Assistant Manager for Management and Finance, and Theatre and Dance Programme Manager.
Bravhar has 20 years of experience working in public institutes from the field of culture and non-profit organisations, and also in the private sector, particularly in fields of public relations, marketing, production, fundraising, as well as event and festival organisation (City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana City Theatre, Špas Theatre and Mini Theatre). Since 2009, he has been employed in Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture. His tasks also include curating the performance art programme and heading international art projects. Next to his work at Kino Šiška, he is also a producer and a member of the artistic board of CoFestival – International dance festival in Ljubljana, and a part-time educator for Management in Culture at School of Business and Management Novo mesto. He successfully finished a residential seminar European Diploma in Cultural Project Management at the Association Marcel Hicter in Brussels.
Catja Loepfe was born in Zurich, Switzerland. She studied cultural anthropology, with a focus on theatre anthropology. During her studies she started as a freelance curator for art exhibitions and as organiser of theater and dance workshops for the International Theatre Institute. In 1999 she took over the direction of the Rote Fabrik Fabriktheater in Zurich. From 2007 to 2012 she worked for Gessnerallee Zurich, first as dramaturg responsible for the dance program and in her final year as interim director. In August 2012 she was appointed as director of ZÜRICH TANZT, a three days festival of dance and performances in public space. Besides that she was a member oft he artistic board oft the festival Zürcher Theater Spektakel 2012-2014.
Loepfe became the artistic director of Tanzhaus Zürich in August 2014.
Chiara Organtini is a curator and project creator with a background in Performing arts studies and Aestethic. Since 2022 she is Project Manager of Lavanderia a Vapore.
For 12 years she was part of indisciplinarte an organization that supports arts as an agent for urban change: she contributed to the development of CAOS Centro Arti Opificio Siri, a 6,000 sqm multidisciplinary space based in a former factory in the post industrial city of Terni and to the curation of Terni international performing arts festival. She was involved in European Cooperation project as Miniatures, Dance moves cities, Now and the in INSITU European platform for creation in public space. She collaborated WpZimmer, a residency space for artistic research and development in Antwerp and since 2019 she joined Santarcangelo Festival specifically working on the cooperation project Art Beyond Participation – BE PART.
A graduate of the MA in Modern Drama at University College Dublin, Louise Costello has a background in dance as a performer, teacher and choreographer and has previously held positions as Dance Artist in Residence for Dumfries and Galloway County Council, Scotland (2006 – 2008), Dancer in Residence for South Dublin County Council and RUA RED Arts Centre (2008 – 2011), Public Programme Manager for South East Dance, UK (2012-2014), Creative Learning Producer at Dance Umbrella Festival, UK (2014 – 2017) and Manager of the Grainstore Youth Arts Centre (2017 – 2019), Dublin. Her work in arts and dance management encompasses engagement with young people and communities, artist development, and programming performances and participatory experiences in dance. She is interested in dance dramaturgy, socially engaged practice and choreographic thinking. She is currently Programme Producer at Dance Ireland.
Anand Bhatt is a dance enthusiast and producer from Leicester, UK. In the early part of his career Anand was a charity fundraiser in the voluntary sector whilst moonlighting as a community dance teacher. Trained in the North Indian classical dance form Kathak, and influenced by 80s and 90s pop music videos as major dance influences, Anand stumbled upon contemporary dance in 2007 when he was dancing in a Kathak show along with dancer Aakash Odedra. As Aakash and Anand found their creative talks and dreams aligned, the clearer it also became the Anand was not in fact a dancer. Anand merged his Bollywood dance school Desi Masti with Aakash’s contemporary practice to create ‘Aakash Odedra Company’. Their first project ‘Rising’ featured commissions by Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Russell Maliphant. Aakash Odedra Company went on to be one of the fastest growing contemporary dance companies of the 2010s in the UK touring the works to some 40 countries. Anand toured into the UK the works of artist’s including Lali Ayguade (Esp), Marcos Morau (Esp) and Aditi Mangaldas (Ind); and worked with Aakash on further projects collaborating with Damien Jalet (Inked), Ars Electronica Futurelab & Lewis Major (Murmur) and Shubha Mudgal (Echoes). And internationally produced and opened new choreographics works in Melbourne, Australia (Samsara, 2020) and Abu Dhabi, UAE (#JeSuis, 2018). Anand’s vision is to work with dance as a language without words to build better understanding amongst communities and share culture across the world. Fiercely believing in the importance of planting local roots for community dance development, commercially Anand ran a studio space in Leicester, and his resident Bollywood dance school Desi Masti was a force for South Asian dance in the Midlands. In 2014, Anand closed Desi Masti and partnered with – ‘Shiamak’ the world leader in Bollywood Dance which Anand grew to 14 sites in the UK from Manchester to Dartford reaching some 1000 people per week. In 2018, Anand presented BBC Radio Leicester’s then new radio chat show ‘The Curry Show’. At Dance City Anand became Artistic Director and Chief Executive in 2020. Now based in the North East also serves as an independent member of NECP and Newcastle Creates. Anand is also a board member of Dance Consortium, People Dancing and IncArts. Anand was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2021 for services to Dance and Community.
Atanas Maev studied Economics in Bulgaria and in Germany and has been working as a cultural manager since 2002. He is a co-founder of the first center for contemporary dance in Bulgaria - Derida Dance Center, as well as Derida Dance Company and Derida Stage.
As a result of his work Derida Dance Center is recognized as a partner in numerous international projects, runs an educational and training program in contemporary dance and works with various social groups. In January 2014 Derida Dance Center Residency Program was recognized by experts of the European Commission in Brussels as a best practice for exchange of artistic experience in Europe together with other four examples. In 2015 the management model of Derida Dance Center is chosen among 240 cases from all over the world and was included as an example of successful cultural entrepreneurship in the postgraduate textbook “International Entrepreneurship in the Arts” (Routledge). Between 2016 and 2018, Atanas Maev was a member of the Board of Directors of the European platform for contemporary dance “Aerowaves – Dance Across Europe”.
Mathis studied at IEP – Sciences Po in Aix-en-Provence (FR) where he specialised in international cultural projects management and sponsorship. He started working at La Criée – Théâtre National de Marseille (FR) as production assistant. Then he joined TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois in 2016. He was in charge of the international programmes: residencies exchanges, networking and partnerships. In 2019, Mathis was appointed Administrative Director of TROIS C-L. Since then he’s working, along with the team, toward the restructuration of the centre for the coming years. TROIS C-L is also a founding member of the Réseau Grand Luxe and a partner in the Aerowaves platform.
EDN Honorary members
Karene Lyngholm is a founding member of EDN and chair from 2004 to May 2009. She was founder and artistic director of Dansens Hus Oslo from May 2004 to August 2010. As a curator, she has currently different positions in the performing arts scene. She is in the board of the Performing Arts Hub Norway and SITE Sweden, and funding board member of the performing arts center Prospero, among others. She is currently establishing a residency centre in the mountain area of Valdres with Frikar dance company.
In this video interview, she talks about the EDN association now and the future of the network.
Bertram Müller is a founding member of EDN and was the president from May 2009 to September 2013. He was the artistic director of Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf for more than 30 years until his retirement in December 2013.
In this video interview, he talks about the history of the network and the concept of dancehouse.
Paul-Eric Labrosse was on the board of EDN as Treasurer from June 2017 to April 2019 when he suddently passed.
Paul-Eric Labrosse was born in Marseille, France. During his PhD in History of Arts at the University of Aix-en-Provence, he started working in the cultural field, beginning with contemporary music, and has been engaged in this field until now both with individual artists and structures. He joined La Place de la Danse - CDCN Toulouse Occitanie in 2008, and has been involved in several cooperative projects funded by the EU within this institution. He tought administrative and financial management of cultural structures at the University of Toulouse – Jean-Jaurès, France.
As a key figure in EDN recent years, Paul-Eric showed exceptional commitment and dedication to our network and a strong human touch. His integrity, ethics and generosity were an inspiration to all of us.