Dancers
MOUAFAK ALDOABL
Mouafak Aldoabl studied ballet and modern dance at the Enana Dance Theater in his hometown of Damascus, Syria. He completed his dance training at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts.
Since 2015, he has been living in Berlin, where he has worked with choreographers such as Sasha Waltz and Yoshiko Chuma. In 2017, he completed additional dance training at Dance Academy Balance 1 and subsequently began working with Nir de Volff at TOTAL BRUTAL, touring throughout Europe. As of 2021, he has been working as a dancer in FORWARD DANCE COMPANY.
Dancing is the way to discover myself and connect with others.
PRODUCTIONS: WIR | JOY | EINBLICKE | SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN
ELSA ARTMANN
Elsa Artmann is a dancer, choreographer, visual artist and lecturer in the field of aesthetic education. She studied painting with a cross-media orientation at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and contemporary dance at the Centre for Contemporary Dance at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
As a dancer and performer, she has worked for Kollektiv Zoo, Amirhossein Mashaherifard, Bianca Xavier de Mendonça, Carla Jordão and Özlem Alkış, among others. Since 2015, she has been creating performances and installations in the ensemble Artmann&Duvoisin. Her own works have been exhibited at such venues as tanzhaus nrw, Kunstsammlungen Zwickau and MOMA Moscow. Elsa lives in Cologne and, since 2022, has been a dancer in FORWARD DANCE COMPANY.
Dancing allows me to cross the boundaries of my relationship with other people and bodies that I don’t cross in daily life – to be more blunt, confrontational, intentionally pleasing or disappointing.
PRODUCTIONS: EINBLICKE | SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN
Renan Manhães
Renan Manhães joined Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro in 2016. At the same time, he explored African-rooted dance and its religious context in Brazil with the Renato Viera Cia de Dança dance ensemble. In 2018, Renan joined Ballet Cymru in Wales and, in 2019, moved to London to dance with the Viviana Durante Company in collaboration with the Royal Ballet of London. Since 2020, Renan has been a dancer in FORWARD DANCE COMPANY. Renan lives in Berlin and works as a freelance dancer and dance teacher.
Dancing is playing with the constellations of possibilities. It allows me to connect with other people beyond spoken words.
PRODUCTIONS: WIR | JOY | EINBLICKE | SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN
Alfred Quarshie
Alfred Quarshie has over ten years of experience in contemporary dance and is also an active actor and performance artist. In addition to his performances in his hometown of Accra (Ghana), productions have taken him to Germany, Spain, Cyprus and the Netherlands. He is currently participating in M.A.D.E. – Mixed-Abled Dance Education, an educational program in the field of mixed-abilities developed by the DIN A 13 Tanzcompany.
From 2009 to 2017, he performed with DIN A13 Tanzcompany, including in the pieces PATTERNS BEYOND TRACES and BODY REALITIES – city codes. He also danced in the short film “Spirits, We Dance.” Alfred has been a dancer with FORWARD DANCE COMPANY since 2022.
Dancing is everything. It's the only platform where I can really express myself and feel good about it. I love expressing what I feel on stage and getting the audience's laughter and applause in return.
PRODUCTIONS: SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN
Tamara Rettenmund
Tamara Rettenmund, born in Bern, studied Dance and Participatory Arts in Oakland and San Francisco as well as Physical Theatre in Amsterdam. This was followed by the postgraduate course “Lecturing Performance Artist” at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and a Master's degree in Spatial Strategies from the Art Academy Berlin Weißensee, which she completed in 2014.
In 2019, as a founding member of the artist group Kornblum-Rettenmund, she developed the solo dance piece QUEST in a co-production with Berlin’s Sophiensaele, followed by guest performances in Hamburg and Mainz. Since 2020, she has been working for the Unusual Symptoms company at Theater Bremen and is a resident artist at tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf. She is currently also working in the artist collective TILT, which aims to performatively challenge ideal body paradigms through a “disable – enable – highly-able – game.” She has been a dancer with FORWARD DANCE COMPANY since 2022.
Dancing is breathtaking joy, inspiration and the best way to rewire my brain around all kinds of black holes.
PRODUCTIONS: SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN
Lisa Zocher
Lisa Zocher, born in Leipzig, began dancing at the age of eleven at Tanzlabor Leipzig, a semi-professional company, where she gained her first experience in contemporary dance.
She worked in various productions with a number of different choreographers, including Gesa Volland, Marlen Schumann, Roman Windisch and Liron Dinovitz, among others. Lisa has been part of the FORWARD DANCE COMPANY ensemble since its founding in 2020.
Dancing is a bit like flying and helps me to accept my disability and sometimes to forget it a bit.
PRODUCTIONS: WIR | JOY | EINBLICKE | SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO – ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE | SULLE SPONDE | GESTALTEN