Sun Xiaojun was a principal dancer at a.o. the Shanghai Ballet, the Grand Theatre du Genève, Zurich Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Teatro Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He has danced a great range of pieces, varying from Petipa to Balanchine and Forsythe to Naharin.

As a teacher he has taught at many companies, studio’s and schoolsin Europe and Asia such as: Het Nationale Ballet, Scapino Ballet, Galili Dance company, Dance works Rotterdam, The Norwegian National Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Skånes Dansteater, Göteborgsoperans Danskompani, Norrdans, Carte Blanche Norwegian National company of contemporary dance, Dansk Danseteater, Ballet Preljocaj, Ballet National de Marseille, Theater Krefeld und Monchengladbach, Ultima Vez, Trobleyn/Jan Faber, Needcompany and Compagnie Thor, Shanghai Ballet, Henny Jurriens Stichting, Charleroi Danse, PRODA Foundation, Danscentrum SYD, Danscentrum VAST, Dansehallerne Copenhagen, Codarts, University of Arts, Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Swedish Royal Ballet school, DDSKS- The Danish national school of Arts, Belgian Royal Ballet school Antwerp, Ecole Nationale de Superieure de danse de Marseille, KHIO-Oslo National Academy of the Arts, National Ballet school of Norway, Shanghai Theatre Dance Academy, Architanz ......

Sun Xiao Jun's class is based on helping dancers discover the natural impulse of their own bodies, overcoming obstacles and in doing so learning to trust and believe in themselves.

Filip Van Huffel werd aanvankelijk opgeleid in de Plastische Kunsten voordat hij zijn dansopleiding op 18 jarige leeftijd aanvatte. Hij trainde met een scala van hedendaagse en klassieke dansdocenten in Europa.

Filip werkte als danser bij Fray Faust, Claudio Bernardo, Marie De Corte, Compagnie THOR en Random Dance Company.

Sinds 1996 is hij danser, choreograaf en artistiek leider van het Vlaams/Britse Retina Dance Company. Zijn werk onderzoekt hoe pure, abstracte beweging een theatrale kwaliteit kan communiceren. Van Huffel's choreografie wordt gekenmerkt door heel lichamelijke beweging, meeslepende energie en baanbrekend partnerwerk. Met Retina Dance Company toerde hij o.a. in: Groot-Brittannië, België, Frankrijk, Duitsland, India, Italië, Portugal, Zwitserland, Zuid-Korea en Venezuela.

Filip is coördinator van de! Kunsthumaniora Hedendaagse Dans en leerkracht hedendaagse dans, docent choreografie aan de Lerarenopleiding van AP Conservatorium Antwerpen en freelance choreograaf.

Tony Vezich

Tony studied contemporary dance at the New Zealand School of dance and later spent the whole next decade and a half working as a dancer and choreographer in Germany. Tony is the founder, artistic director and choreographer of the temper-temper dance company and his repertoire consists of over fifty choreographic accomplishments. After having dissolved temper-temper, he became the head lecturer of contemporary dance at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, and was able to devise and develop his technique called, ‘release-the- beast’- which he teaches throughout Europe and Scandinavia.

RELEASE THE BEAST

(Class Description)

I spent many years developing a dance vocabulary for my choreographies. The base of which is extremely physical. As the vocabulary solidified a hazardous side effect appeared. Injuries. From that moment on I began to develop exercises that would help protect my dancers and I from serious injury. It has developed into a complete technique, which I believe can be used for far more than the original intention. I have named it “Release the Beast “ technique.

There is a heavy emphasis on floor-work and a certain sequential order of the body in relation to the origin of movement initiation.

Another defining factor is how to find a powerful centre, how to use this powerful centre to move greater distances within space, especially in relation to the floor and the lower region of dance space.

Originally from South Tyrol in Italy, Marion is a professional dancer/instructor based in Berlin, Germany. She received her professional dance training at Varium in Barcelona and Iwanson Contemporary Dance School in Munich. As a teacher she has been working in several schools and festivals in Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Russia, Portugal and Germany a.o. at Ballettförderzentrum Nürnberg, Kari-Tanzhaus, Deltebre Dansa, Academy Dancer Russia, Varium Barcelona, Marameo, Dock 11, Etage, Danceworks and Tanzfabrik (Berlin). Marion has collaborated as a dancer with choreographers and companies such as Francisco Córdova in the piece “To be”, Stella Zannou in the piece “Strange”, Sonia Rodriguez, performing “Mabel”, ADN-Dialect in the pieces “Zeitzone”, “Urban Shaman” and “L’affaire Wettstein”, Eldon Pulak in “The Wetting Party” and as a guest dancer of Weedance Company. Her solo-work “The Ripe and ruin” and her group-pieces “Shell Shock” and “Impromptu” have been performed at several theaters and festivals in Costa Rica, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. She is co-founder of the KpiqA-Collective and CuerpOCOllectivo and performed the duet “Eight”, and the trio “Nefelibata” in Spain, Italy, Russia and Germany. Recently Marion got invited as a young emerging choreographer to “Certamen Coreografíco de Madrid, Paso a 2” to present “Eight”, and receives funding as a young choreographer from “Amt für Kultur Südtirol”. In 2014 Marion was part of “EX-IN”, a one month intensive workshop with David Zambrano learning Flying Low and Passing Through Technique.

Class description

I teach contemporary dance training with an emphasis on floor work. We start the class by opening our channels of awareness. The warm up is focused on passing through the whole body and expanding our flexibility and strength. We use the playfulness in our movement to connect to the natural flow of breath. With the help of exercises in different constellations – in a group, with a partner or alone – we listen to the weight of our body and direct it through space. An important aspect of the training is giving attention to the momentum of movement and on integrating changes of dynamic and musicality in short movement phrases. As techniques of inspiration for my class, I use a lot of the principles of Flying Low technique by David Zambrano, as well as release technique mixed with my personal investigation. I like to establish a collective mind and body inside the class to enhance the group power, while giving an energetic push to the individual source of creativity.

Yasemin Kandemir begon haar dansopleiding op 8-jarige leeftijd aan de Koninklijke Balletschool te Antwerpen. Vervolgens zette ze haar studies verder aan het Hoger Instituut voor Dans en Danspedagogie (nu Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen), waar ze deel uitmaakte van Compagnie Aimé de Lignière van 1992 tot 1998. Hiernaast werkte ze ook voor verschillende TV- en filmproducties als danser en choreograaf.

Sinds 2000 is ze vast verbonden aan de! Kunsthumaniora Hedendaagse Dans Antwerpen als docent klassieke dans en aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen als rehearsal director. Hierdoor werkte zij samen met gerenommeerde choreografen zoals Ann Van den Broek, David Hernandez, Roberto Olivan, Iris Bouche, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui enz…

Recent assisteerde ze Damien Jalet bij de productie 'Les Méduses' voor het Louvre Museum in Parijs, Helder Seabra in 'No Man’s Land' voor de Kunsthumaniora Antwerpen, 'Footprint' voor Fontys Dansacademie Tilburg en 'Trouw met mij' de Nieuwe film van Kadir Balci.

Matthew began dancing at the age of 17 whilst studying A-Level Performing Arts and went on to train at NSCD, graduating in 2005. He toured with VERVE before completing a postgraduate diploma at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS), and toured internationally as a member of EDge to France, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal in work choreographed by Sue MacLennan, Trisha Brown and Siobhan Davies.

Upon graduating from LCDS Matt joined Yael Flexer’s Bedlam Dance Company and toured as part of her production of Doing, Done and Undone alongside working for Retina Dance Company in their graduate project PAGE1. He worked with Retina extensively between 2006 and 2014 as a dancer, rehearsal director and Education Manager, touring internationally to Belgium, Germany, Ireland and South Korea.

In 2010 Matt joined the staff at NSCD as Education & Community Dance Worker (later Learning & Participation Officer) and since 2014 has been a Lecturer in Performance (Contemporary), teaching contemporary technique, partner work, performance practice, choreography and repertory.

Class info:

"My work is very movement focused and is a hybrid of contemporary techniques that use full bodied connectivity to explore the ideas of weight, momentum, gravity, energy and expansiveness. My virtuosic vocabulary moves through the space and in and out of the floor with an emphasis on efficiency, use of breath and sensitivity.”

Steven Martin trained at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and undertook an apprenticeship with Scottish Dance Theatre. He performed in ‘Sorry for the missiles’ by Vanessa Haska, ‘Dog’ by Hofesh Shechter and Liv Lorent’s ‘Tenderhook’ and ‘Luxuria’. He joined Retina Dance Company in 2009, performing in Antipode, Relative Danger, La Lutte, Layers of Skin and Corporalis. He teaches regularly for the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and Dundee Rep Theatre.

Steven teaches a fast-paced, highly physical masterclass focusing on a detailed full bodied movement vocabulary. The workshop will consist of a release-based contemporary class, improvisation and taught movement phrases.