WILLIE STARK

We were born to be iconic

Laura Schönlau is a German–Ghanaian dancer, performer, and choreographer, graduated in Contemporary Urban Dance and Choreography from Fontys Academy of the Arts in Tilburg (NL). She deepened her understanding of aesthetic and media relations through studies in Art History and Media Culture at the University of Cologne.
Recently, she appeared in ANACONDA by Reut Shemesh at Stadttheater Gießen and in EXOTIQUES by choreographer Willie Stark. Her latest solo, Why so noisy?, was presented as part of the AIC! anniversary celebration in public space, engaging with the architecture of Ebertplatz in Cologne.
Throughout her artistic career, she has collaborated with companies such as Stadttheater Gießen and choreographers including Reut Shemesh, Antje Velsinger, Willie Stark, Reinaldo Ribeiro, Lucia Oiro, Khadidiatou Bangoura, Horacio Macuacua, Thomas Lehmen, Katja Heitmann, Tony Vezich, Tony Adigun, as well as the collectives flies&tales, .Dencuentro, and TachoTinta.

Yasmine Calasse is a South African–Moroccan contemporary and hip-hop dancer as well as an emerging choreographer. She trained at the Dance Factory in Johannesburg and at Gibney and Peridance Center in New York City. Deeply influenced by her roots in street dance cultures, she maintains this connection in her artistic practice by remaining politically and socially conscious.
Notably, Yasmine exhibited her work Confinement at the Western Province Building in Cape Town.
She has performed in works by Willie Stark, Stephanie Thiersch, Ching-Ching Wong, Ihsan Rustem, Jennifer Archibald, Elisabetta Minutoli, Rayboom, and Jasmin Halper.
Yasmine is also a co-producer at AFIA and the founder of the ReIgnite Sessions. She is currently choreographing her new piece it’s not what you think, allow me to clarify.

Fallon Mayanja is a renowned composer, performer, DJ, and curator known for works that merge sound, voice, and movement while challenging traditional perceptions of art and identity.
She holds a Post-Diploma in Sound Arts from the Beaux-Arts in Lisbon and a master’s degree from INA GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales), and has established herself as a pioneering force in the sound and performance art scene.
In her latest work, To The Fullest, premiered at DE SINGEL International Arts Centre in Antwerp, Mayanja explores alternative listening practices inspired by Julius Eastman’s composition The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc and decolonial ecological theory. In this immersive performance, she combines sound, voice, and movement to create speculative narratives that imagine multiple futures and invite the audience into a deep sensory experience.

Balindile ka Ngcobo is a dramaturg, writer, and researcher based in Dortmund, works at the intersections of performance, memory, language, and decolonial critique. Raised in KwaZulu-Natal, her dramaturgical practice continues to be shaped by storytelling traditions, oral histories, and isiZulu literature. She holds a master’s degree in Dramaturgy and Performance Studies from the University of Cape Town, where she examined how theater in post-apartheid South Africa can negotiate memory.
Her work centers on healing, rupture, and reinvention within marginalized communities.
After early years as a writer and cultural critic, she worked as a dramaturg with theater companies, choreographers, and interdisciplinary artists across southern Africa. Her works have been presented at the Market Theatre, the Centre for the Less Good Idea, and the National Arts Festival.
In 2021, she was Dramaturg-in-Residence at the PANAFEST Arts Exchange in Accra. Further residencies took her to Pro Helvetia, ASSITEJ South Africa, and Kunsthaus Dresden, where she developed concepts for co-creative, multilingual performance texts.

Guests

Kemelo Nozipho Sehlapelo Kilonzi is a South African dancer, performer, choreographer, writer, and activist. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in English and Anthropology at the University of Pretoria and later trained with the DART Dance Company in Budapest (2019–2020). She currently pursues a transnational artistic practice between Hungary and Germany, where she completed a Master’s degree in Choreography and Performance. Her work explores themes such as diaspora, Blackness, queerness, embodiment, trauma, and emotional expression. Pieces like COCONUT and the new white aesthetic — her graduation works — employ Afro-surrealist approaches that merge dance, text, song, and the deconstruction of classical ballet forms to question identity, history, and colonial aesthetics. Kemelo has performed at the Makhanda National Arts Festival (South Africa), the Femme Festival (Gießen), the International Women’s Theatre Festival (Frankfurt), and Winterfëst Frankfurt. She has collaborated with choreographers such as Mamela Nyamza and artists including Andres Martinez, Joana Ferraz, and Tamra Chase. In her own words, her artistic practice is a somatic inquiry into how racist and sexual trauma manifest in the body:

“What does that feel like? If we can understand it, perhaps we can also understand how healing becomes possible.”

Melena Tortoh is a professional urban dancer based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her main style is Hip-Hop, complemented by experience in Krump, experimental dance, and basic contemporary techniques.
Melena has participated in numerous dance theater productions created by internationally recognized choreographers such as Jimmy Vairon (France), Muhammed Kaltuk (Switzerland), Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo (Cuba), and Rauf Yassit (USA). She has also collaborated with well-known brands and institutions such as SOUNDBOKS, the Landtag NRW, and WDR Cosmo.
As a member of the Urban Arts Ensemble Ruhr — Germany’s first hip-hop ensemble — and through her collaboration with Pottporus e.V., Melena has played a key role in shaping urban dance culture in NRW. Touring productions have also been instrumental in her development as a professional artist, allowing her to perform internationally, connect with dancers from around the world, and continue to expand her creative expression.
With her projects BIPOC and DKSD, Melena supports Black women in dance and works toward dismantling stereotypes. She is deeply committed to promoting diversity and equality in dance.

Nadine Ndungula Kraus is an artist, dancer, and cultural manager based in NRW. She has been active in hip-hop culture for over ten years, drawing inspiration from contemporary and Afrocentric movement languages.
Her passion for House Dance led her to Paris in 2022. Shaped by the energy and impressions she encountered there, she now works as a dancer and performer.
She is part of the female dance collective Hood of Sisters and co-organizer of the monthly dance session cyphers & circles.
In her master’s studies in Art Mediation and Cultural Management, she focuses on audience research and accessibility in the arts.

Franco-Congolese artist Dominique Elenga, also known as Mademoiselle Do’, began her journey in Lyon in 2011 with House Dance, thanks to her encounter with Caroline Besson. Her passion and love for travel and meeting people drove her to explore, learn, and multiply her sources of inspiration. She trained across Europe with pioneers of the dance styles she practices, gradually developing her own freestyle identity.. While House Dance remains her preferred style, her movement is infused with all her influences—urban and traditional African dances, hip hop—resulting in a spontaneous and incisive gesture that conveys raw, unfiltered expression. Through battle, theater, and pedagogy, every space becomes an opportunity for discovery and transcendence, where she invites others to question themselves and reconnect with their inner being.

In 2019, she joined the cast of QUEEN BLOOD, the acclaimed piece by choreographer Ousmane Sy. Since 2022, she has continued her work as a performer within the company Par Terre, directed by Anne Nguyen, first in MATIÈRE(S) PREMIÈRE(S), a ballet of urban African dances, and next in Nguyen’s upcoming creation WITCH HUNTING(premiering in 2025). An “artivist,” she is deeply committed to sharing and transmitting urban cultures in the most authentic way, ensuring their growth and continuity. She actively contributes to organizing workshops, battles, and other events aimed at highlighting the key figures of these cultures.