Der Betrieb: The Democratic Season

Anna Maria Nowak is a freelance artist living and working in Vienna. She was born in Poland, where she studied Scandinavian Studies at the University of Gdańsk. She received her dance education at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversit.t in Linz, Austria and at x.IDA postgraduate dance company. In 2005 she moved to Vienna, where she began her collaboration with Elio Gervasi and Liquid Loft. She is a co-founder of Kunstverein Archipelago, The Loose Collective and Arbeitsplatz Wien. In her own work and collaborations Anna Maria Nowak is investigating the interplay between thought, sensation and movement and exploring notions such as displacement, synaesthesia and metaphor.

Alexander Gottfarb graduated from the Stockholm Ballet Academy in 2003. The Swedish artist lives in Vienna, working as a dancer for choreographers Elio Gervasi, Iztok Kovač, Chris Haring/Liquid Loft, among others. He is a founding member of The Loose Collective. Alexander Gottfarb’s interest in examining politically (Political Movements, 2010) or religiously (Moved by Faith, 2011) motivated forms of movement was already evident in his early pieces. The dancer and choreographer uses repetition and transformation, discipline and exhaustion in his work. In his 72-hour solo performance A Matter of Belief (2016) he started to explore the effects of faith and motivation on the execution of movements. In Together (2017), he introduced more dancers to the practice. In Negotiations (2018) a new order of magnitude was added.

Martina De Dominicis is Vienna based dance artist and choreographer. After a career with several institutional dance companies across Europe, she begins in 2016 to collaborate with Rafaele Giovanola for Cocoondance Company(DE/CH), co-creating dance pieces that have been touring through Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. In Vienna she collaborated with Veza Maria Fernandez, Georg Blaschke and Daphna Horenzcik. She just received a Master in Movement Research at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. Her current research and interest investigates in-between states of presence by exploring touch-sight based practices. In 2019 she co-initiated with Alberto Cissello the artistic duo collective Debocs. With the piece “yet to be born” (2019) they have been invited to perform in Germany, Austria, Italy and Croatia and to choreograph a version for students at ZZT ( Contemporary Dance University) in Köln. Martina is also a co-founder of BACKPULVER_Think and Practice tank for contemporary dance.

Nanina Kotlowski is a freelance dancer in Vienna. She has been working with Alexander Gottfarb since 2010 (Political Movements, Moved by Faith and Negotiations) and has participated in works by Oleg Soulimenko, Elio Gervasi and Deborah Hazler, among others. She studied contemporary dance at the Fontys Dance Academy (NL), the Trinity Laban Center (UK) and received her MA in Dance Performance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. She is a recipient of the BKA Scholarship abroad (Salvador da Bahia) and the DanceWEB Scholarship in 2013. Together with Deborah Hazler, she runs the platform Raw Matters - A raw dance and performance evening. Since 2019 she is also a mother.

Raul Maia is a Portuguese dance/performance artist based in Vienna. His focus as a dance maker is in creating frames for physical behaviour practices between performers, from which physical language can arise and be re-contextualized into an artistic object. He splits his time between his own work and his ongoing artistic collaboration with Belgium choreographer Thomas Steyaert. His work has been shown in festivals and houses such as ImpulsTanz(at), Xplore dance Festival(ro), Potsdam Tanzfabrik(de), Idans Is tanbul(tur), Tanzquartier (at), WUK(at) and Brut(at) amongst others. As a performer he has collaborated with ultima vez/Wim Vendekeybus, Anna MacRae, Tino Sehgal, Fanni Futterknecht, Mike O'Connor, Sofia Dias and Vito Roriz and Paul Wenninger amongst others.

Charlotta Ruth plays with time and perception inside choreography, game-design and arts-based research. Her work has been co-produced and presented by for instance Tanzquartier, WUK, Brut, Brunnenpassage, City Games Vienna, MDT, Dansens Hus, Moderna Museet Stockholm and she is currently working at the University of Applied Arts Vienna inside the artistic research project Neuromatic Game Art. Ruth regularly teaches and gives lectures at for instance Tanzquartier, ImpulsTanz Vienna, Uniarts Stockholm and Zuricher Hochschule der Künste. Ruth graduated from the Royal Swedish Ballet school, holds a MFA in choreography from DOCH/Uniarts Stockholm and is a PhD student in Artistic Research at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

Lena Schattenberg (1992) received her Bachelor of Arts in Modern Theatre Dance at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. 2014/15 Lena was hired as a full-time apprentice by the company tanzmainz at Staatstheater Mainz. As a freelance artist she collaborates with Eva Borrmann, Christoph Marthaler and Theo Clinkard as well as Samuel Feldhandler, whose body of works she largely contributed to as a dancer. Lena joined Rosas under Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Autumn 2020 for the revival of Drumming. Her first creation entitled The Many Piece premiered at Tanzquartier Wien in May 2022.
Lena's interest in meeting other artists, in the interweaving of different materials and her curiosity about the unforeseeable things that are emerging at the moment drives her to initiate her own works.

Karin Pauer is a Vienna based performer and choreographer. In 2008 she received her BA in Choreography at the ArtEZ – Insitute of Arts in Arnhem/ The Netherlands. She has since collaborated in various intenational settings with choreographers, theatre directors, filmmakers and visual artists such as Liquid Loft/ Chris Haring, Davis Freeman/ Random Scream, Yun Jung Kim, Mike O’Connor, Maureen Kaegi, Aldo Giannotti, Nicola von Leffern and Veronika Franz. Since 2015 she has continuously worked with the Austria based dance company Liquid Loft. She was a recipient of the danceWEB scholarship in 2009 and the TURBO Residency in 2012, both at ImPulsTanz, Vienna. In 2018 she was granted the BKA START Scholarship. After touring throughout europe with the company Liquid Loft she has recently turned to developing her own works. Her performance-serie 'ten hundred thousand years of movement' was presented at ImPulsTanz, Vienna, Tanzquartier Wien and Tanztage Salzburg. Her latest work, a collaboration with visual artist Aldo Giannotti was presented at Donaufestival/ Krems 2019.

Sophie Schmeiser studied linguistics and roman studies at the University of Vienna and the Universit. Jean Moulin, Lyon III and is currently studying coaching and organizational development at the ARGE Bildungsmanagement Vienna. She has been a freelance production and tour manager in the field of performance and theatre since 2012 and accompanied - amongst a lot of other artists - Simon Mayer and Kopf hoch from 2014-19 before starting to collaborate with Eva Holzinger under the name mollusca productions.

Stephan Sperlich studied Computer Music and Electronic Media (ELAK) at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and Musicology at Vienna University. Since then he has been working as electronic musician, composer, producer and cello-player in Vienna. He also composes music for theatre (e.g. Aktionstheater Ensemble, Theater in der Josefstadt), silent films and movies and works as a music journalist for the Austrian music magazine Skug. Past and current projects include: 78plus, Playbackdolls, Blind Idiot Gods, Elektro Farmer, MANN .BER BORD! His releases on various labels, include 78plus: "Im Denkturm" (pararecordings 2005), "Wandelwelt" (pumpkin records 2008), Elektro Farmer: "Ultranatural" (Delphy Entertainment rekords 2009), Playbackdolls: "Out of the Blue" (monkey.music 2011), and the solo vinyl single "Gnorf" (Early Morning Melody 2011), Tini Trampler & das dreckige Orchestra, MANN .BER BORD!, Delightful Songs (monkey.music 2014), Solo Vinyl Single Gnorf (Early Morning Melody 2011). Weblinks: playbackdolls.at, dasdreckigeorchestra.at