Der Betrieb: Your Season

Alexander Gottfarb is a dancer and choreographer originally from Sweden based in Vienna. Together with his long-time collaborators he creates long-durational dance performances most often placed in spaces that are not theatres. After his education at the Balettakademien in Stockholm he moved to Austria and first worked as a dancer for choreographers such as Elio Gervasi and Chris Haring/Liquid Loft. In 2008 he founded the association Archipelago together with Anna Maria Nowak to produce dance performances. His work, most often of collaborative nature, has been co-produced by Viennese institutions such as Tanzquartier, impulstanz, brut, KÖR and WUK performing arts and has toured extensively in Austria and Europe. In 2022 he together with Nowak established the performance space Der Betrieb. An accessible space placed in the 15th district in Vienna with big widows to the street and a low threshold. Der Betrieb now hosts their long durational dance performances and functions as an experimental venue where the meetings of people and the practice of being together is in focus. Thematically Gottfarb's performances investigates notions such as democracy, ritual and work.

Karin Pauer is a Vienna based performer and choreographer. The exploration of relations, in-betweens, empathy and togetherness informs all of her works. She negotiates these notions combining embodied choreographic practices with language, visual arts and live music. In 2008 she received her BA in Choreography at the ArtEZ – Insitute of Arts in Arnhem/ The Netherlands. 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. In 2020 she was nominated for the EU choreographic platform 'creative crossroads'/ Life Long Burning. Her own works have been presented at ImPulsTanz/ Vienna, Tanzquartier/ Vienna, Donaufestival/ Krems,  Brut/ Vienna, Festwochen/ Vienna, MAMbo Museum/ Bologna and various international festivals. 

Anna Maria Nowak is a freelance artist, living and working in Vienna since 2005. In her own work, she is investigating the interplay between thought, sensation and movement and is exploring notions such as displacement, synaesthesia and metaphor. She was born in Poland, where she studied Scandinavian Studies at the University of Gdańsk. She received her dance education at Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz. She is a founding member of Archipelago – Verein für Performative Künste, Der Betrieb.The Loose Collective, Arbeitsplatz Wien and since 2022 Artistic Co -Director of Der Betrieb. Since 2006 she has been working with Liquid Loft.

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.

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.

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

Zosia Hołubowska (born in 1988 in Poland) is a queer sound artist, musician, and music curator, working and living in Vienna since 2016. They explore archives of folk Eastern European music, as well as traditions of magic, herbalism, and demonology, and experiment with archaic ways of singing to create queer soundscapes, installations, performative rituals and audio essays. They also create sound designs for performances.

Anna Mendelssohn was born 1976 in Vienna. She studied acting in Great Britain. Since 2004 she is ensemble member of the company "toxic dreams" and has performed in over 35 of their productions. She has performed with a number of other choreographers and directors (such as Mara Mattuschka, Anna Maria Nowak, Superamas and Oleg Soulimenko), acted in films (of Miriam Bajtala, Michaela Schwentner, Thomas Marschall) and works as a voice-over actress. Numerous own performances, e.g. Cry Me A River, Here and Now, What?, Feminism and the Bauchgefühl, Amazon – River Deep, Free Speech? !. She has performed at festivals and on stages throughout Europe and in the USA.    

Arttu Palmio is a performance artist and choreographer interested in big and small dances, good and bad emotions, and long and short (personal) stories. 

Esther Balfe - GB/IRE Born in the U.K., Esther Balfe began her professional training at The Rambert School for Contemporary Dance and Ballet, West London under the direction of Ross McKim (1987 – 1990 ). There she performed works from McKim, Sir Fredrick Ashton and Mark Bruce. Upon finishing her degree at Rambert she was offered a position in Saarbrucken under the direction of Philip Landsdale, thereafter she joined Liz Kings ensemble in Heidelberg and later in Vienna with the then newly founded Tanz Theater Wien, working with Catherine Guerin, Georg Reischl, Nigel Charnock, Benoît Lachambre – adjacent to this, she also worked with choreographer Jai Gonzales at Unterwegs Theatre and guested with Philip Talard’s company at the National Theatre Mannheim.
Esther performed and choreographed at the Volksoper Vienna, for Liz King’s company TTW on a number of productions. Thereafter, she was invited to Albuquerque as Artist in Residence at the University of New Mexico. Between 2005 & 2007 Esther also performed with Michael Keegan Dolan’s former company; Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre. 
In 2005, Esther was a guest Artist with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt and later in 2006 guested with the newly formed ‘The Forsythe Company’, eventually Balfe joined the company as a fulltime member from 2007. Esther worked at TFC, immersed in the collaborative, creative process with William Forsythe, touring and performing his works, internationally up until 2015. Balfe was instrumental in the creation of Forsythe’s works during this period, including, ‘Yes We Can’t’, ‘I Don’t believe in Outer Space’, ‘Defenders’, ‘The Returns and Sider’.
Since 2012 to present date, Esther has been teaching both classical ballet & contemporary dance at the Music and Arts University Vienna, MUK. 
Her recent guest positions also include teaching for Rambert School, London including teaching for Rambert Summer academy, Nangjing University - China, Ballet Preljocaj & Lloyd Newson DV8 - for ImpulsTanz International Dance Festival 2014 & 2018 & Tanzwerkstatt workshops Europe 2020 - 2023 in Munich, Ganymed 2015-17 KHM Wien with director J. Kornmüller, performer for Noe Soulier, Sabine Glenz, artistic collaborator with Scott DeLahunta for MotionBank Frankfurt, artistic collaborator and performer for INTRA SPACE with Christina Jauernik & Wolfgang Tschapeller, artistic contributor and dancer for John Gerrard - both from 2014 to present date‚ as choreographer for both the Schauspielhaus Wien 2018 & for Theater an der Wien 2019-2022, ‘Negotiations’ &’Encounters’ for Alex Gottfarb ( 2018 - 2020 Prod. TQW ) - 2018- 2019. For Willi Dorner/Festspiel Herrenhaus, Hannover, Bolshoi theatre 2021 setting work for M.K. Dolan (Covent Garden Production - Ariodante) with prolific Opera Director David Alden.

Clarissa Beisteiner, Hannah Kordasch, Merten Böhmer, Michael Voit, Sara Celik, Sina Zack, Stéphanie Evrard, Valeria Chavez Chong and Zoe Wagner are all students from the dance department at MUK - Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien.