MARINE BRUTTI (LA)HORDE, CHORÉGRAPHE (FRANCE)

Marine Brutti is an artist, stage director and choreographer. Together with Jonathan Debrouwer (a graduate of HEAR) and Arthur Harel, she is a member of the collective (LA)HORDE, founded in 2013. (LA)HORDE creates films, dance shows and performances inspired by their meetings with various online communities. They attempt to define what dance has become after the advent of Internet; this research prompted the collective’s members to define the phenomenon with the help of a term/concept: “post-Internet dances”.
At the last Nuit Blanche, (LA)HORDE – invited by Charlotte Laubard – created The Master’s Tools, a large-scale performative installation rallying together 130 performers in a disused 700 square-metre-hall.
Their latest dance show TO DA BONE 2017 (presented Danse Élargie, FTA, Théâtre de la Ville, Biennale de Lyon, MAC Créteil, Julidans, Kampnagel, Charleroi Danse, Festival DDD etc.) dealt with the private revolt of youth. In TO DA BONE, the collective questions the role played by new media in their capacity to enlist crowds, to create communities and to generate movements of opposition.

NORA CHIPAUMIRE, CHORÉGRAPHE (ZIMBABWÉ/ÉTATS-UNIS)

Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and based in New-York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art and aesthetics since she started making dances in 1998.
Chipaumire’s new trilogy # PUNK 100%POP NIGGA is a three-part live performance album and it will have its world premiere at The Kitchen in New-York City, in October 2018. Other recent works include portrait of myself as my father* (2016), an exploration about her father and a provocation challenging stereotypes of black African manhood.
Resulting from her instigations and investigations with Tumbuka dance company and Shona cultural masters, she published a digital book in January 2018, documenting the long-term research project Nhaka - a technology, practice and process to her artistic work.

BENJAMIN PECH, DANSEUR ÉTOILE DE L’OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS (FRANCE)

Benjamin Pech, danseur étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, was born on April 3, 1974 in Béziers and joined the dance school of the Paris Opera in 1986. He began dancing in some of the most renowned ballets of both the contemporary and classical repertory immediately after joining the Paris Opera Ballet in 1992, and was performing soloist roles regularly from 1996 onwards. He was promoted to the rank of First Soloist in 1999. On September 22, 2005, after an evening at the Shanghai Grand Theatre where he performed the roles of Albrecht in the classical Giselle and of Frederi in Roland Petit’s L’Arlésienne, one after the other, Benjamin Pech was made principal dancer or Etoile. Memorable performances include Woundwork 1 (William Forsythe), Nuages (Kylián), Dances at a Gathering (Jerome Robbins), and the roles of ‘Armand Duval’ in John Neumeier’s The Lady of the Camellias, ‘Rothbart’ in Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake and the titular Faun in Vaslav Nijinsky’s The Afternoon of a Faun. He also performed in the original productions of William Forsythe’s Artifact Suite (2006), Wayne McGregor’s Genus (2007) as well as Mats Ek’s A Sort of (incorporated into the POB’s repertory in 2008). A finalist at the Concours International de Danse de Paris, in 1994 Benjamin Pech won the Grand Prix – the gold medal – of the first edition of the Concours International Maïa Plissetskaïa at St. Petersburg. He was awarded the Prix du Cercle Carpeaux in 1996 and the AROP (Association for the Promotion of the Paris Opera) Audience Prize in 1998. Benjamin Pech has been decorated with the title of Commander of Arts and Letters and Knight of the National Order of Merit by the French Government.
Benjamin Pech is currently the deputy director of the ballet of Teatro Dell’Opera of Rome, and recently starred in Robyn Orlin’s Oh Louis… we move from the ballroom to hell while we have to tell ourselves stories at night so that we can sleep…

HOOMAN SHARIFI, CHORÉGRAPHE (IRAN/NORVÈGE)

Norwegian-Iranian Hooman Sharifi as Founder, choreographer and Artistic Director of Impure Company, Hooman Sharifi, is born in Teheran in 1973, and came to Norway at the age of 14. His background ranges from hip-hop and street dance to a bachelor from the choreographer-education at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Since the start of this own dance company Impure Company in 2000, he has made close to 30 dance performances. Sharifi is known for saying that art = politics, and his movement language are usually physically challenging and powerful and in the borderline between theater, dance and visual arts. His works typically explores feelings and structures hidden behind hierarchy, violence, power and abuse. In the last 4 years he has been artistic director and ceo for norwegian national company of contemporary dance, carte blanche.

SÉVERINE CHAVRIER, METTEURE EN SCÈNE, PIANISTE (FRANCE)
President of the Jury

The director of the CDN Orléans/Centre-Val de Loire, Séverine Chavrier is a musician and a stage director. From the Conservatory of Geneva, she designs her shows from all sorts of materials : her actors’ bodies, the sound of a prepared piano, or videos she often films herself. Not forgetting speech, an erratic speech she shapes by immersing herself into the universe of her favorite authors. From 2014 to 2016, she created two plays at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne: Les Palmiers sauvages, based on William Faulkner’s novel, and Nous sommes repus mais pas repentis, based on Thomas Bernhard’s Ritter, Dene, Voss two shows presented at the Odeon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Spring 2016. Besides, since 2015, Séverine Chavrier has been developing a long-run work through the creation of Après coups, Projet Un-Femme, gathering female artists from circus and dance backgrounds. The diptych will be on tour in 18/19 at Festival TNB.

ANN VERONICA JANSSENS, PLASTICIENNE (BELGIQUE)

Born in 1956 in Folkestone, UK, Ann Veronica Janssens lives and works in Brussels. Since the late 1970s Ann Veronica Janssens develops an experimental work that emphasizes in situ installations and the use of very simple or intangible materials, such as light, sound or artificial fog. The observer is confronted with the perception of the "elusive" and a fleeting experience where it crosses the threshold of clear and controlled vision, it is an experience of loss of control, instability, fragility whether visual, physical, temporal or psychological.
Her work has been the subject of numerous institutional solo exhibitions such as mars, Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, FR ; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA (2016); S.M.A.K., the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, BE (2015); Museo Capella San Severo, with Nord Project, Naples, IT (2014); Eglise Sainte-Honorat des Alyscamps, Arles, FR (2013); FRAC Corse, Corte, FR (2013); The Beppu project, JP (2012); Ausstellungshalle Zeitgenössische Kunst, Münster, DE (2010); « Are you experienced » at the Espai d' art contemporani Castelló, ES (2009); « An den Frühling» at Museum Mosbroich, Leverkusen, DE (2007); WIELS, Brussels, BE (2009); « Aux Origines de l’Abstraction 1800 /1914 – Rouge 106 – Bleu 132 » at Musée d’Orsay, Paris, FR (2003); CCAC, San Francisco, USA (2003); the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2002); Kunsthalle Bern, CH (2002); « Works for Space» at Kunstverein München, Munich, DE (2001); « Light Games »at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, DE (2001).
Since 1985, she has participated in important group exhibitions like « Illumination » at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebeak, DK (2016); « Another Minimalism » at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, GB (2015); Sprengel Museum, Hannover, DE (2015)« Light Show » at Hayward Gallery, London, UK ; Sydney, Sharjah, 2015 ; Sprengel Museum 2015, Manifesta 10, St-Petersburg, RU (2014) ; « Dynamo A century of light in art, 1913 - 2013 » at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, FR (2013);
In 1999 she represented Belgium at the 45th Venice Biennale with Michel François in and her work was part of many other international biennials in Sidney, Istanbul, São Paulo, Séoul.
In 2018 solo shows of Ann Veronica Janssens are upcoming at The Baltimore Museum of Art, USA, De Pont, Tilburg, NL and Kiasma, Helsinki, FL.

SÉBASTIEN RAMIREZ, CHORÉGRAPHE (FRANCE)

Born in the south of France, Sébastien Ramirez is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and artistic director. Ramirez specializes in the use of aerial work as well as choreographic rigging development. Starting as a gifted b-boy, he soon won major hip hop championships and acted as a judge for numerous international competitions. Winner of the Redbull BC ONE French championship, he founded his company and developed a new vision of space and choreography, bringing hip hop dance to a new audience.
Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang received the Bessie Award 2013 as "Outstanding Performers" following the presentation of AP15 at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Their work Monchichi was one of the 2017 Bessie Award nominees for "Outstanding Production ». In 2016, Sadler’s Wells invited them to direct and perform a dance work made to Nitin Sawhney’s album Dystopian Dream.
Ramirez contributed to the creation phase of Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour in New York City and choreographed for her live show. He also conducted a personal training on floorwork movement for the creation of Akram Khan’s solo DESH. Ramirez was also invited by Sadler’s Wells as one of the five choreographers of RIOT OffSpring, a unique dance piece performed to Igor Stravinsky’s iconic The Rite of Spring played by Southbank Sinfonia.