CSC | Migrant Bodies

Monica Gillette

USA / Germany

Monica Gillette is an American dancer and choreographer living in Germany. In recent years, she has been active in developing innovative projects that utilize dance as a vehicle for research and multigenerational cultural exchange. She was the co-artistic director of two research projects by Theater Freiburg and Freiburg University – BrainDance (2014) and Störung/Hafra’ah (2015-16) – in Germany and Israel, the latter in collaboration with choreographer Yasmeen Godder and her company. The projects brought together professional dancers, scientists and people with Parkinson’s in a non-hierarchical environment to research movement and movement disorder. Monica leads workshops and speaks internationally on topics of inclusion and collaborative research. Recent engagements include Tanzhaus NRW, K3/Kampnagel, Fabrik Potsdam, Frei Universität (DE), Hebrew University (IS), Skånes Dansteater (SW), IDOCDE/Impulstanz (AU), Centro per la scene Contemporaneo (IT), and Roehampton University and People Dancing – Foundation for Community Dance (UK).
While living in Los Angeles, Monica worked as a film editor on several television series and later in New York City for the online TED talks recorded during the world-renowned TED conferences. In recent years, she has brought her editing experience together with her choreographic background to serve in the role of dramaturgy and mentorship for several young and emerging choreographers.
Her most recent creation was in collaboration with choreographer/director Gary Joplin at Theater Freiburg for 25 women impacted by cancer, aged 17-74, titled “Die Krone an meiner Wand”. In 2017, Monica and Yasmeen Godder were awarded the inaugural Shimon Peres prize by the German foreign minister for their artistic leadership in the Störung/Hafra’ah project.

Pascal Steiner

Austria – d.id

Pascal Steiner is the director of an assisted living center for unaccompanied and underage refugees in Austria, Burgenland since 2013, held by the private agency and NGO “Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst (Refugee-Service)”. In this role he is responsible for managing the business and costs of the facility, as well as advising and supporting the training and continuing education of the young refugees.
He spent his early years working hard to be able to travel around the world, specifically all of Europe and Asia, discovering several times the magic of India and looking for the pride side of life – still a fun and exciting work in progress.
Beginning at sixteen, Pascal was a bookseller for four years and then spent a decade working as a video editor for Austrian and international television productions. He has toured as a musician and DJ for both large and small scale music festivals across Europe, collaborating with a range of arts and artists before rebooting his life as a social worker in 2004. For the past fifteen years he has worked on projects for the disabled, elderly and young people facing challenging situations.

Peggy Olislaegers

The Netherlands

Peggy Olislaegers is one of the leading independent dance dramaturges in Europe and provides artistic and strategic advice for both choreographers and institutes in the performing arts, working with Balletto di Roma (Italy), Ugo Dehaes (Belgium), Alessandro Sciarroni (Italy) and Nanine Linning (Germany) amongst others. She trained at the Tilburg Academy of Dance and is known for her ability to connect disciplines, and her articulate knowledge of dance and movement, both from the choreographer, performer and audience point of view.

Olislaegers has been the Artistic and General Director of the Dutch Dance Festival/de Nederlandse Dansdagen and is Artistic Associate of Rambert, Britain’s national dance company. She has broad experience working both as a performer and creator in dance, theatre and music productions. She staged 3-minute operas (Yo-Opera Festival, 2007), co-created Kamp Holland (Theatre Company Orkater, 2008) and staged and directed work by composer Harry de Wit (Red Sound Festival, 2009). From 2007 to 2011, she was resident dance dramaturge for Dansateliers Rotterdam.

Roberto Cinconze

CSC – Italy

Roberto Cinconze is an event organizer, administrator and filmmaker. He graduated in Tecniche Artistiche e dello Spettacoio at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Since 2013 he works at Operaestate Veneto Festival and Centro per la Scena Contemporanea in Bassano del Grappa.He is responsible for the organisation of most of the projects supported by the European Union.
He is often contributing to the audiovisual documentation of activities, in fact he studied Filmmaking in two specialized courses funded by ESF (European Social Found) during his three-year degree course. As a Filmmaker he took part in workshops generated by the European Project “Spazio A European network for dance creation” and “VIDEO DANCE (Moving Vitual Bodies)”. He made films and videos for the European projects Dancing Museums, Pivot and EDN. From 2013 he is responsible for Dance Well-movement research for Parkinsons.

Roberto Casarotto

CSC – Italy

Since 2006, Roberto has been responsible for the dance projects and programmes for the Centro per la Scena Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa (CSC) and Operaestate Festival Veneto. Associate director of Aerowaves, he is a member of the board of EDN European Dancehouse Network.

Currently involved in several international projects supported by the EU Creative Europe and Erasmus + Programmes, he develops initiatives aimed at supporting artistic research, mobility and artistic development in the field of dance, the engagement of communities and participation of citizens in cultural activities. He is the initiator of Dance Well – Movement research for Parkinson. Prior to working for dance organisations, Roberto was a professional contemporary dancer. He is the author of the book Nigel Charnockpublished in 2009 by L’Epos. In 2015-17 he has been Artistic Director of Balletto di Roma.