Perform Europe Jury

Eleven accomplished performing arts professionals form the Perform Europe Jury, following an open call for applications. 

Together, they represent a balanced and diverse group in terms of disciplines, locations, genders, levels of experience and areas of expertise, in full spirit of Perform Europe’s values.  

The Jury will select the artists, companies, collectives, festivals and venues that will receive Perform Europe grants.

The eleven Jury members are:

Gundega Laiviņa, Chair
Gundega has been one of the pioneers in her native Latvia, building up innovative structures which have contributed towards new forms and thinking in the contemporary performing arts, and inspired other professionals to follow suit. Gundega has extensive experience in curating and mentoring in various capacities across Europe and beyond. 

Ana Letunić
Ana is a contemporary performing arts producer, curator, lecturer, and researcher based in Croatia and Germany. She has worked for several performing arts organisations in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, UK and USA, as well as for European networks. Her research is at the intersection of performance studies and cultural policy. She is currently pursuing a PhD as well as contributing to several initiatives, lecturing  and pursuing academic research across Europe. 

Antonín Brinda 
Antonín has worked as an artist and curator across Central-Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Greece, Turkey) and North Europe (Finland, Estonia). He creates minimalist, conceptual, long-durational works exploring areas such as urbanism, transportation infrastructure, political geography, or international mobility. Antonín lives in the Czech Republic.

Elena Lydia Kreusch
Elena Lydia is an artistic director, producer and scholar currently based between Austria and Serbia. She co-directs a circus organization and festival in Vienna and is currently in the process of setting up an artistic residence space and eco-project in rural Serbia. Her academic research focuses on the social and artistic implications of hypermobility within the field of contemporary circus. She is passionate about intersectional feminism, queer representation and political ecology.

Gerda König 
Gerda comes from Germany. Since 1995 she is artistic director of DIN A 13 tanzcompany, working with dancers with different bodily capabilities. Gerda König challenges habits and normative ideals found in contemporary dance, enriching it in the process through new impulses. Since 2005, in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, she has co produced work with artists in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. DIN A 13 tanzcompany is recognised as one of the globally leading mixed-abled dance ensembles.

Grace Okereke
Grace lives and works in the United Kingdom and is founder of Uprise Rebel, a company which focuses on support for black female choreographers and administrators. In addition, Grace works for several touring companies whose work has been performed throughout Europe, a dance company based in Senegal, and is producer for Diverse City, a disability-led theatre company based in the South West of England.

Haris Pašović
Haris Pašović is an internationally touring artist, theatre and festival director, as well as a professor. From Bosnia-Herzegovina, he has worked extensively in the Balkan countries as well as in Italy, the UK, Singapore and China. He is a member of the European Festivals Associations and an EFFE jury member. He regularly contributes to international forums and conferences.

Jonathan Holloway 
Jonathan has worked for over two decades as artistic director and CEO for international arts festivals and venues in the United Kingdom and Australia, and directed theatre productions and projects across Europe. Jonathan now lives in Spain, from where he works as artistic advisor and consultant to cities and organisations on three continents.

Katarina Lindholm
Katarina is an arts manager and advisor living and working in Finland. She is engaged in sustainable development issues in the arts sector and works towards smarter, greener and fairer structures and models in our performing arts ecosystem. Long-term involvement in Nordic and Baltic projects and networks such as Ice Hot Nordic Dance and keðja has given her vast knowledge of the region.

Olga Drygas 
Olga Drygas is a fempreneur collaborating with Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Poland, as a curator of New Europe International Festival and Generation After Showcase. She is also a guest lecturer at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and a PhD candidate at the Art Institute, Polish Academy of Science. The main focus in her way of working and thinking about mobility is to look at the potentials of cooperative processes that can be described through caring and tenderness. 

Vicenç Mayans
Vicenç is a Catalan who for decades worked as a performer and a dancer with companies across Europe. Today he is dedicated to national and international distribution of performing arts projects with a vision to improve professional realities, abolishing precarious and patriarchal systems and creating better conditions for a common future. He is an active participant in the LGBTQ+ community.