NOMAD DANCE ADVOCACY | govornici

Dragana Alfirević is cultural worker in the field of performing arts; she works as a dancer, choreographer, producer, curator and pedagogue since 1997. She is the co-founder of STATION Service for Contemporary Dance in Belgrade where she initiated Kondenz festival of contemporary dance and curated it from 2007 until 2015. She has co-founded the regional network Nomad Dance Academy where she worked as coordinator for 15 years. She worked in the Managing Board of Slovene Association for Contemporary Dance and as a member of different working groups within Ministry of Culture of Slovenia. She regularly curates international events and writes articles on the topic of artistic production, policy and curatorial work. Recently, her work has been mainly affiliated with Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, where she is one of the curators of Cofestival. She experiences enormous pleasure when topics are successfully turned into structures.

Since 2004, Alexandra Baybutt (PhD, RSME, CMA) has been working in the UK and internationally as an educator, researcher and artist. Her past and present writing and research span dance festival curation practices in the former Yugoslav space; equity in working conditions in dance; somatic movement coaching; and lateness. Alexandra works freelance on a variety of teaching contracts and projects as a dramaturg, creative pedagogue and facilitator, and part-time for University College London, UK.

Franz Anton Cramer is a dance scholar specialising in archival research and research on archives. He has realised projects in Leipzig (Dance Archives), Paris (media library Centre national de la danse), Berlin (Tanzplan Deutschland / Dance Heritage), and Salzburg (University). From 2006 to 2010 he was a co-director of the BA Programme Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography at the Inter-University Centre for Dance in Berlin.

He is a co-founder and co-editor of the e-journal MAP media —archive — performance since 2009. His research focuses on the history of dance’s archival processes marked by the interaction of written and immaterial sources. www.perfomap.de

Bojana Cvejić, born in Belgrade (YU) and based in Brussels since 2001, is a practising dramaturg and writer whose research spans performance theory, critical theory, philosophy, and dance studies. She is the sole author of Choreographing Problems: Expressive Concepts in European Contemporary Dance and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; Maska, 2021 in Slovenian) and has co-authored five books, most recently Toward a Transindividual Self: A Study in Social Dramaturgy (co-written with Ana Vujanović, 2022). Cvejić is a Professor of Dance Theory at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and a visiting professor at the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry. She has been affiliated with P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) since 2002, where she teaches performance and dance theory and oversees the theory program. Since 1996, Bojana has made, performed, or collaborated on numerous works of music theatre, dance, and theatre in Europe as a co-director, dramaturg, or performer. Bojana also co-authored several videos and video installations exploring dance and choreography: …in a non-wimpy way… (with Steve Paxton, 2013), Yvonne Rainer’s WAR (2013) and Spatial Confessions (for Tate Modern, 2014). Her research in social choreography, transindividuality, and practical dramaturgy drives her politically to co-organize collective platforms for self-education and experimental production  (Performing Arts Forum, Saint-Erme since 2005; TkH/Walking Theory 2001–17).

Marijana Cvetković is a producer, curator, activist, and lecturer with a background in art history, cultural policy, and cultural management. She has been actively involved in various programs and projects related to cultural policy, international cultural cooperation, contemporary dance, performing and visual arts, and museums, as well as the theory and practice of the commons.

She has been a co-founder of several bottom-up initiatives, organisations, and networks in the last 20 years: Station–Service for Contemporary Dance and Nomad Dance Academy–platforms dedicated to the development of contemporary dance and performing arts in Serbia and the Balkans; Druga scena (Other Scene); Independent Cultural Centre Magacin; Association of Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia; and the Platform for Theory and Practice of the Commons (zajednicko.org).

Igor Dobričić, studied dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, (former) Yugoslavia and holds a Master of Theatre degree from DAS Theatre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He lives between Amsterdam, Berlin, and Venice and works internationally as a dramaturg and artistic advisor. He regularly collaborates with numerous makers / choreographers (Alma Söderberg, Meg Stuart, Arkadi Zaides, a/o). In the role of a lecturer, facilitator, and mentor, he has a long-term engagement with a broad range of educational institutions: K3 – Centre for Choreography in Hamburg, SNDO – School for New Dance Development, DAS Theatre in Amsterdam, a/o. From 2010 onwards, he has also been developing his own performative research practice under the title TableTalks. During the last decade and a half, TableTalkshas been hosted and presented in a number of different cultural contexts, from Amsterdam to Stockholm, Cairo, São Paulo, and Vienna.

Anna Efraimsson is the Theater director of MDT Moderna Dansteatern. She has shifted between roles as curator, producer, administrator, teacher, and dramaturg. She is a senior lecturer in choreography with a focus on curatorial practices and was the head of department at the Department of Dance at DOCH/Stockholm University of the Arts. Since 2014, she has also run the experimental platform The Blob.

Efraimsson is educated at the Department of Cultural Studies at Stockholm University, Études théâtrales at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University in the USA. She has previously worked at The Kitchen, Kulturhuset, Konstnärsnämnden’s international dance program, Moss exhibitions, Perfect Performance, and more. She has also started the feminist network W.I.S.P. with Sandra Medina, Tove Sahlin, and Johanna Skobe.

Matija Ferlin is a Croatian theatre director, ensemble dance piece choreographer and performer of his own one-man shows. Graduated from the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam and subsequently lived and worked in Berlin and Toronto. After returning to his hometown Pula, where he was born in 1982, he focused on researching and rearticulating different concepts of stage performance, collaborating both with actors and dancers.

Nina Gojić is a dramaturge, writer, organiser and researcher based in Zagreb. Her dramaturgic practice mostly takes place in the fields of contemporary dance and devised theatre. In collaborative contexts Nina develops research-based, process-oriented formats and curiosities. Since 2022 she has been co-curating the educational and artistic programme Critical Dramaturgy together with Hana Sirovica. Besides that, Nina writes texts for and about performance and researches the idea of writing as performance, regularly publishing essays on performance and culture. Nina is a former member of the Board of Croatian Screenwriters and Playwrights Guild where she is still active in the field of promoting fair pay protocols and advocating for the improvement of working conditions in culture. Also, she is a member of the Croatian Dancers Association, Croatian Freelance Artists Association and Centre for Drama Art.

Dr. Marjana Krajač is a choreographer, dance theorist, and researcher. Her work explores the spatial praxis of choreography as both an intervention and a theoretical framework. Her research examines the political potential of spaces and sites, approaching them as aggregatory modalities and procedures. It delves into the possibilities of thinking with spatial environments, illuminating frictions between bodies, spaces, and temporalities. She received her Ph.D. in Dance Studies from Ohio State University in the summer of 2024, with a dissertation titled “A Dance Studio as a Process and a Structure: Space, Cine-Materiality, Choreography, and Revolution—Zagreb, 1949-2010,” investigating spatial processes of the political at the intersection of experimental choreography, dance theory, and urban history.  

Elena Novakovits is a cultural worker in the fields of dance, choreography and performance: dramaturg, researcher, writer, and curator. She collaborates with independent artists in the context of their artistic trajectory and works in cultural events and film production. She curates performative, discursive, and educational encounters and platforms. She co-runs the independent curatorial platform undercurrent and is a member of the collective systering. Her research interests focus on ecologies of work, politics of labour, feminist curatorial and dramaturgical practices, and cultural models.

Goran Sergej Pristaš. Dramaturg, member of CO₂…a couple of artists together with Nikolina Pristaš; co-founder and member of BADco. (www.badco.hr), a performing arts collective.

Professor of Dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb. Head of the Working Group for Cultural Strategy and Cultural Development of the City of Zagreb.

As researcher and curator at the Centre for Drama Art (CDU), one of the initiators of the project Zagreb – Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000.

With his projects and collaborations (BADco., Frakcija), he participated in the Venice Biennale 2011 and 2016, Documenta 12, ARCO, and numerous festivals and conferences. 

Mentoring and teaching courses in performance dramaturgy, writing for performance, analytical writing, dramaturgy and choreography, and collaborative practices at Uniarts (Stockholm), JLU (Giessen), Statens Scenekunstskole (Copenhagen), P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), KHiO (Oslo), etc. 

First editor-in-chief (1996-2007) of Frakcija, a magazine for the performing arts. 

His latest book is Exploded Gaze (Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, 2018).

Teja Reba has been a passionate advocate for arts, culture, gender equality, and social justice for more than twenty years. After a decade of artistic creation, she worked as the managing and artistic director for many organisations, institutions, and European projects, as well as a strategic advisor for the development of cultural policies in Slovenia and abroad. She is the recipient of several important awards, the most recent of which is the distinction from the French government as Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature.

She is currently the director of the Biennial of Contemporary Dance of Slovenia and manages the program of the Contemporary Dance Association of Slovenia. She was recently part of the Ministry of Culture Advisory Group for the Development of Contemporary Dance in Slovenia, whose task was to prepare its National Strategy 2024–2028, and one of the selectors of the European Pavilion 2024 (European Cultural Foundation). She also serves as the vice-president of the Expert Commission for Performing Arts at the Ministry of Culture and as Chair of the Expert Commission for Trans-disciplinary Programs at the Department for Culture – City of Ljubljana.

Prior, she was the head of City of Women, for which she curated its International Festival of Contemporary Arts, co-devised many European cooperation projects, and prepared guidelines and policies in the area of Gender Equality and Diversity. She also served as the artistic director of Ljubljana’s Candidacy for the European Capital of Culture 2025, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Slovenian Fund for Highest Awards in the Arts, and as the vice-chair of the Expert group on sustainability of the NGO sector at the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia.

Madeline Ritter is a lawyer, arts programmer, and facilitator of change. From 1989 to 2004, she was the artistic director of tanz performance köln, an international platform for contemporary dance and new media. In 2004, she joined the German Federal Cultural Foundation as the project director for Tanzplan Deutschland, a partnership-based strategy generating over 21 million euros for dance. Her non-profit, Bureau Ritter, received the Europa Nostra Award for Tanzfonds Erbe, a pioneering initiative to safeguard the intangible heritage of dance. Bureau Ritter also initiated Dance On, addressing ageism in dance and society, and oversees major funding programs like TANZPAKT. She serves on the boards of Kampnagel, the Pina Bausch Foundation, the German Dance Archive Cologne and Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods.

Iva Nerina Sibila is a dance artist, writer, curator, and producer from Zagreb. She received her dance education at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds and an MA in Performing Arts at the Academy for Arts and Culture in Osijek. In many of her projects, she works on the accessibility and visibility of dance, the investigation of the emancipatory potential of dance education, and the positioning of dance in its broader social context. Current projects include DIVERT inclusive dance collective (founder and artistic director), ANTISEZONA (co-curation and producing), and the PLATFORMA HR festival of Dance Centre TALA (curating and organising). Iva Nerina is affiliated with the Academy for Arts and Culture in Osijek and the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Department of Dance, where she teaches inclusivity of dance practices and the history of dance. 

Rok Vevar, dance curator, activist and archivist, NDA SLO, STDA

Since 2012 he has co-curated the international dance festival CoFestival (Nomad Dance Academy Slovenija, Kino Šiška). A selection of his reviews and articles was published in the book Rok za oddajo (Deadline) in 2011, and in 2018 he edited the book Dan, noč + človek = Ritem: Antologija slovenske sodobnoplesne publicistike 1918–1960 (Day, night + man = Rhythm: An Anthology of Contemporary Slovene Journalism 1918-1960), for which he selected materials and wrote accompanying texts. In 2020, he published a new monograph Ksenija, Xenia: Londonska plesna leta Ksenije Hribar 1960–1978 (Ksenija, Xenia: The London Dance Years of Ksenija Hribar 1960-1978). In 2019, he received the Ksenija Hribar Award for his work, and in 2020, the Vladimir Kralj Award for achievement in the field of theatre criticism and theatre studies for the period 2018-2019. In 2020, as a co-curator, he participated in the exhibitions Autography, Uncanniness, Rebellion: the Photography of Božidar Dolenc and REALIZE! RESIST! REACT! Performance and Politics in the 1990s in the Post-Yugoslav Context at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova. In the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/2022, he taught at the Anton Bruckner University (Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität) in Linz, Austria, at the Department of Contemporary Dance and Movement Research. He was a member of several expert panels (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Maribor) and juries (Maribor Theatre Festival, Gibanica). He is self-employed in the field of culture.