Photography: Paula Schür / Poster: Chris Schmitz
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.
Guests
Valentina Restrepo Giraldo is a Colombian freelance dancer based in Essen, Germany, since 2017. Graduated in 2021 from the Folkwang University of Arts in modern and contemporary dance. Her work and research explore themes of identity, endurance, human connection, and transformation. As well as aiming to reflect a commitment to both technical excellence and conceptual depth, engaging with dance as a powerful language of expression and resistance. She has performed at international platforms such as the Venice Art Biennale, under the direction of Alexandra Pirici the piece Encyclopedia of Relationships; and danced in works by Jill Crovisier Movement Production, Daniel Smith, Marie-Lena Kaiser, and more. Valentina is an active member of the IG-Tanz in Essen, collaborating with the network and being part of the organization of the festival Somebody@ since 2023.
She recently Premiered her new piece, together with Maria Savva, MY ASS IS MY WEAPON at Somebody@ in Maschinenhaus.
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.
Winett Ardouin’s practice reflects a blend of urban dance, house/hip-hop influences, and socially engaged performance, situating her within both community dance contexts and contemporary choreographic collaborations. Her work with collectives and artists like Unskrewed (referenced contextually through community networks) and Willie Stark places her within a network of performers exploring cross-cultural and political themes in movement.
Kenza Kabisso is a performing dancer based in Paris. She trained in contemporary dance at the CNSMDP (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris), where she developed a movement language shaped by multiple styles, aesthetics, and repertoires within the Paris Choreographic Ensemble. She began her career as a performer in various choreographic projects, notably with Cal Hunt at the Paris Opera, Muhammed Kaltuk, Betty Tchomanga, and Mehdi Kerkouche. A year ago, she discovered and became involved in the Krump culture with the group Nation Krump and the AmOK fam. A meeting that transformed her relationship to movement and the embodiment of self.
At the same time, she has been developing a research practice with her father, exploring how stories, gestures, and corporeal traces are transmitted across generations. This work enriches her practice as a performer and situates her work in an intimate dialogue between heritage, identity, and creation.
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.
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.”
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 Baba 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.
Khadidiatou Bangoura is originally from Liberia and Guinea. After a BA in International Relations & Development Studies and an MA in African Studies in London, she completed her studies in contemporary dance at Danceworks Berlin in October 2017. She uses dance to analyze our relationships to each other, to ourselves and to our environment. In doing so, she discovers and creates new narratives that lead to (self-)reflection. She is particularly interested in perception(s) and ways of perceiving. Artists she has worked with include Okwui Okpokwasili, Ester Ambrosino (Tanztheater Erfurt), Rafaële Giovanola (Cocoon Dance), Jan Pusch, Melissa Guex, Felix Dompreh (Kuyum Arts) and Horacio Macuacua. Her own choreographic works include ‘The heart is a muscle (November 2020)’, ‘Adult-ish’ (July 2017), ‘Hey Stranger’ (November 2017), ‘fight, flight, freeze’ (June 2020), ‘Moving Structures’ (2021/2022) and ‘FÜHL DIE WELT DURCH MEINE HAUT – Observations on everyday racism'(September 2021, October/November 2022, March 2023). In 2022, she was invited by David Zambrano to present a performance on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Tictac Art Center in Brussels and for the contemporary art exhibition “Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy the Apocalypse” at the art space “La Vallée” in Brussels. In September 2023, she performed at the KUYUM ARTS FESTIVAL in BERLIN in the duet “DIEKPO” with Luana Madikera under the direction of Felix Dompreh. Her collaboration with Luana Madikera continues in August and September 2024 as part of a residency organized by the Goethe Institut Montréal and Circuit-Est, for which the duo was selected. In October 2023, she performed her solo “MILES – IN MY FEELINGS (SOLO)” for the first time at the Tictac Art Center in Brussels (October 2023), which was also performed at Ballhaus Ost in Berlin (January 2024) and at the ‘Dortmund Goes Black’ festival at Schauspiel Dortmund (May 2024). Since April 2024, she has been offering the ‘PLAYTIME’ series, where dance enthusiasts from different backgrounds and experience levels come together to practice spontaneous composition. From October 2024 to June 2025, she was the artistic co-director for the 24th edition of Sommerblut Kulturfestival.
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.
WILLIE STARK 