Jerry Adesewo
Nigeria

Jerry is a Writer, Theatre Producer/Director and Cultural Administrator. He is the founder and artistic director of Arojah Royal Theatre, a professional theatre outfit in Abuja, Nigeria. The theatre has been at the forefront of sustaining theatre culture in Nigeria, especially in Abuja. As a cultural journalist, he has written for NEXT, The Guardian, Trust, National Mirror, Newscalabash, Metropole Magazine, City Pages International Magazine, The Korean Times and The Enlightener Magazine. Jerry's approach to theatre is a deployment of theatre and creative endeavours as a tool for civic engagement.

Rodrigo Arenas
Guatemala

Rodrigo Arenas is an arts worker, researcher, and migrant. Focused on performance art, action art and Web-based art, he holds an M.A. in Literature. His performance artworks have been exhibited in several countries around the globe and received amongst other the following grants: ExperimentaSur 2016 (Colombia), Fondart Nacional​ 2019 (Chile) and Fundación YAXS 2017 (Guatemala). He is the author of essays about performance art included in academic publications, as well as a member of Red de Arte de Centroamérica (RACA), Cuirpoétikas (an LGBTQI+ Central American collective), and Performance Studies International (PSI).

Inta Balode
Latvia

Inta Balode is an author of dance texts; a writer, curator, dramaturge and performer, among other things. “Contemporary dance saved my life”; that's what she wrote in her study papers about death and the concept of emptiness. That’s when her soul started separating from the body. Since then, she has been talking about dance, performing dance, and standing for dance. Dance provides her with the most accurate philosophical questions and answers. Since 2004, she has curated dance projects, particularly outside the cities. In 2017, she and a group of co-thinkers established the international non-profit organisation LAUKKU, which promotes contemporary art in peripheral areas. Since summer 2017, she has been running the Latvian Dance Information Center.

Marina Barham
State of Palestine

Marina is cofounder and General Director of Al-Harah Theater, President of the Palestinian Performing Arts Network, Vice President of Euromedinculture Network and TAMASI Collective in the MENA Region. She is an active cultural operator in Palestine, the Middle East and Europe. She spoke at several international conferences, festivals and events, produced over 60 theatre productions, managed several international, regional and local tours and Euro Med Projects, and curated the Palestine International Theatre Festival for Children and Youth, the Yalla Yalla Street Festival, and the Bethlehem Site-Specific Theatre Festival in Palestine.

Patsy Chetcuti
Malta

Patsy Chetcuti holds an MA in Dance (BA(HONS) Dance st. (Melit)). She is a dancer, choreographer and artistic project coordinator. She also teaches contemporary ballet and jazz dance. She has performed and choreographed works, and has collaborated on both theatre and site-specific performances for local and overseas companies and festivals since 2010. Her more recent collaborations with Moveo Dance Company, ZfinMalta Dance Ensemble, the University of Malta Dance Department and Żugraga Dance Organisation – of which she is co-director – also allowed her to lead and manage the projects where she delivered work of professional artistic quality. (Photo credits: Leonardo Barilaro).

Hazem Header
Egypt

Hazem Header is an Egyptian contemporary dancer and choreographer. After studying personal training, bio-mechanics & kinesiology, and after leading a long career in sports, Hazem decided to focus on contemporary dance in 2009. Hazem studied at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center, a governmental center at the Cairo Opera House. In 2014, he founded his own dance company, NÜT Dance Company (NDC), a Cairo-based and legally-recognised entity creating contemporary dance and physical theatre performances, as well as producing cultural events. Through NDC, Hazem created and founded the Breaking Walls Festival in 2016 – the first festival dedicated to site-specific performances in Cairo.

Meera Krishnan
India

Meera Krishnan is an ArThink South Asia (ATSA) Fellow (2017-18), ISPA Global Fellow (2018 &2019) and Ateliers for Solidarity Fellow (2020). She also participated in the 2021 edition of CINARS. Since 2008, she has been senior arts manager of the Prakriti Foundation, where her role includes proposing and drawing project proposals, coordinating five major festivals and managing digital and non-digital media communication. In her capacity as director, she has also been solely responsible for their theatre festival called the Short and Sweet from 2014. Some of her notable projects include a six-city tour of Akram Khan Dance Company’s Gnosis (2012) and Torobaka (2015).

Bridget MacIntosh
Canada

Bridget MacIntosh has held senior municipal cultural management positions with portfolios spanning arts, events, and public art ranging from small-scale activations to major events such as Nuit Blanche Toronto. She continues to collaborate with municipalities across Canada as a cultural strategist, using culture as a tool to nurture civic health and sustainability. She is the Chair of SpiderWebShow Performance, part of the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts’ Linked Digital Future Initiative and co-chairs Mass Culture’s Research Working Group. She is a Next City Vanguard, and a Toronto Arts Council / Banff Centre Cultural Leaders Lab Fellow.

Natalia Mallo
Brazil

Natalia Mallo is a multi-artist, curator and consultant born in Argentina and based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has 25 years of experience in developing projects in the performing arts as composer, musician, dramaturge, performer and director. She is a programming consultant for organisations, governments and third sector, and is currently lead producer and co-curator at the ​​queer arts collective Outburst Americas, artistic director at RISCO Festival, and co-curator and programme coordinator at Cultura Inglesa Festival.

Hangama Obaidullah
Australia

Hangama Obaidullah came to Australia from Afghanistan as a refugee. She received an Award for Excellence, Major Works, and a Commendation Award for her HSC body of artwork. She has since developed her arts practice in painting, drawing, photography and writing. Hangama has exhibited in a variety of public venues in Canberra, other Australian cities and internationally, and she has worked actively as an advocate. Hangama’s artwork draws on her Afghan heritage, she espouses an aesthetic and philosophy of beauty, grace and community service. Her goal is to assist other women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, through Arts practising.

Anastasia Patlay
Russia

Anastasia Patlay is a Moscow-based playwright, curator, and theatre director. Born in Tashkent, Anastasia built her career in Moscow’s documentary theatre Teatr.Doc. Since 2010, she has collaborated with Teatr.Doc as an invited director, and three of her latest shows remain in the theatre’s current repertoire. Other productions are running in the Meyerhold Theatre Centre and the Globus Theatre in Novosibirsk. Anastasia’s performances have travelled in Russia and abroad. She conducts trainings and workshops on the practice of documentary theatre. In her current activity, Anastasia tends to communicate with different art professionals from all around the world.

Filip Pawlak
Poland

Filip Pawlak is a producer, performer and activist. Graduate of the Film School in Katowice and the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, he is currently head of Nowy Teatr’s production office in Warsaw and the Polish ambassador of the Europe Beyond Access project. In the past, he was associated with the Silesian performative arts scene (Dance Theatre Department Bytom, Rozrywka Theater, Rozbark Theater) and Rafał Urbacki participatory projects. His work is focused on increasing the availability of performing arts to people with alternative motorics and disabilities.

Nwabisa Plaatjie
South Africa

Nwabisa Plaatjie is a young theatre-maker, administrative producer and leader with over five years of experience. She holds a Master’s degree in Theatre and Performance from the University of Cape Town, and is an alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship’s Public Management Leadership Institute hosted at the University of Minnesota. Her theatre productions have been performed in South Africa, Germany and China. Currently, she coordinated and curated The Baxter’s Masambe Theatre, driving its relaunch as a space for performance, collaboration, mentorship and networking.

Amath Sarr
Senegal

Amath Sarr is a Senegalese cultural operator. He graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. He underwent training and capacity building on cultural and artistic management, and was certified in the 10th European Development Fund from 2010 to 2014. An artist, author and composer, he is also manager and CEO of the communication and consultancy agency Kumba agency. He is also the president of the Académie Banlieue Culture ABC association, an organisation that supports young people and returning migrants in their training and professional integration in the cultural and creative industries.

Hayk Sekoyan
Armenia

Hayk Sekoyan is a professional theatre producer and social advocate with a strong belief that art and education are co-partners in the work towards human awareness. As the founder and executive artistic director of Theatre for Changes (T4C) – the leading interactive theatre company in Armenia –, Hayk has over 13 years of professional experience in executing theatre-based edutainment programmes in partnership with a wide range of local and international partners. Hayk is the President of the first International Interactive Theatre Festival in Armenia. Since 2006, he has also been serving on the board of UNIMA Armenia.

Neja Tomsic
Slovenia

Neja Tomsic is a visual artist, poet, and writer whose interdisciplinary practice merges drawing, photography, poetry and performance. She is a member of the Nonument Group art collective, which maps, archives and intervenes in monuments, public spaces and buildings that have undergone a change in meaning. She is a PhD candidate researching postcolonial documentary film in contemporary art. She works as a producer and is a co-founder of MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art, a research and production platform devoted to transitory art. She was also the director of SONICA festival (2018-2020).

Gry Worre Hallberg
Denmark

Gry is the founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning performance group and movement Sisters Hope operating at the intersection of performance art, research and activism. Gry is also behind the vision and manifesto Sensuous Society: Beyond economic rationality. She is a speaker, facilitator and teacher, and gave amongst other the TEDx talks Sensuous Society (2013) and Sensuous Learning (2015). She has published a number of articles and an artistic research PhD (University of Copenhagen) titled Sensuous Society - Carving the path towards a sustainable future through aesthetic inhabitation stimulating ecologic connectedness.