Roberto Cinconze | Migrant Bodies

Darja Mrdjen

Croatia – HIPP

Born in Zagreb – graduated from the School of Applied Arts and Teachers Academy. Working with and for children , grade 1 to 4, in the primary school OŠ Medvedgrad in. She is also actively involved in several TV shows for children, writing columns, drawing illustrations and pictures. She has exhibited solo and in group exhibitions and has led workshops and seminars for teacher and children. She strives to be creative in all she does, exploring and helping. She believes that each day is a day that she can learn from the children she works with, and from the environment and community she lives and creates in. Migrant Bodies Moving Borders is the 2nd time that she participates in a EU project in collaboration with Hrvatski institut za pokret i ples, in an effort to sensitize her pupils to the issues related to identity, home and migration.

Mirna Zagar

Croatia – HIPP

Mirna Zagar has worked in dance for all of her 40 year professional career (dancer, choreographer, Company Director, dance teacher, community leader, writer, and including venue management). Her work has taken her across Europe, and into Canada. Her initial dance engagements started in Zagreb, Croatia, where she was Artistic Director of Zagreb Dance Company for 10 years and then founded Dance Week Festival, Croatia’s primary contemporary dance festival (www.danceweekfestival.com) which enters into its 37th edition in 2020. She also founded the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (Hrvatski institut za pokret i ples, HIPP, www.danceincroatia.com), as a not for profit association dedicated to promoting contemporary dance practices in Croatia, establishing collaborative connections to the international world of dance. She is also the co-founder of the Moving Academy for Performing Arts in The Netherlands (mapa.nl) which continues for 25years now and under new artistic directorship continues to connect artists across Europe and into Asia. She has been involved in numerous EU projects both as project leader and partner. Mirna’s work has also been instrumental in the creation of the Zagreb Dance Centre directing the core programs and managed successfully by the HIPP team for 7 years (2009-2016) before the space reverted to the City of Zagreb to be managed by a repertory theatre. Her accomplishments and work have taken her to Vancouver, Canada were she has been instrumental in the creation of Scotiabank Dance Centre (www.thedancecentre.ca), a unique facility for dance and where she established several core programming streams in support of dance practices and in areas of community engagement. The Dance Centre was one of the two Canadian partners in the initial rendition of Migrant Bodies and Mirna is pleased she has the honour to continue working on this theme in the new project configuration. Mirna has continuously fostered international relationships through dance to enrich experiences of dance artists as well as communities she engages with (she has co-organized two IETM meetings in Zagreb, and with HIPP is currently a member of the European DanceHouse Network). For 10 years she was also on the Artistic Council of the Rencontres Choregraphique International de Seine Saint Denis in France at a time it was a place of encounters for artists from across the world. Working in areas contributing towards inclusive societies is a passion that inspires and ignites her work to establish dance as a major contributor to a healthy society; through the Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance as well as through the Dance Week Festival she has contributed to the rise of disabilities arts practices specifically in dance in Croatia. In addition to the study of contemporary dance she also studied Art History and English Literature at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Giovanna Garzotto

Italy – CSC

Giovanna Garzotto, independent dancer, teacher and dance maker, trained at London Contemporary Dance School. Currently based in Italy, she’s performed in works by, among others, Sharon Fridman, Andrea Costanzo Martini, Ivan Perez. With the group Dance Makers she co-created and performed in Dance Raids, Movimento Itinerante, Itinerary Coreografici in Museo and Itinerary Coreografici in Urbana, works that inhabit unconventional locations and aim at shifting perspectives and activate unexpected perceptions and relations.As assistant choreographer she worked with Itamar Serussi (2013), Stian Danielsen (2014) e Sharon Fridman (2015) for the “Vita Nova” project by Venezia Biennale Danza and is currently cooperating with Chiara Frigo in her re-staging of Ballroom.

She is founder member of NOLIMITA-C-TIONS, a cultural association that since 2011 promotes dance workshops and site specific events with the involvement of local communities and Italian and international artists. Actively involved in the Dance Well-movement research for Parkinson’s Program since 2013, she regularly leads dance classes in Museums and artistic venues and is one of the tutors of the Dance Well Teaching Course. She is one of the artists currently involved in Empowering Dance, a new European project that aimes to research if and how the practice of contemporary dance helps people of all ages to acquire and develop soft skills.

Gordana Svetopetric

Croatia – Hipp

Gordana Svetopetrić– dancer, choreographer, pedagogue and yoga teacher. She graduated in School for New Dance Development, Theater School of Amsterdam, Netherlands, while Gaia Yoga training, training for yoga teachers, ended in GaiaYoga school, Zagreb, Croatia.

After years of dance and choreographic studies, she participated in numerous dance and theater workshops for dance specialization. She worked autonomously and performed with the local and foreign artists of the independent dance scene in Netherland and Croatia. In recent years, her focus is on her own authorial and choreographic work. She works through independent projects and collaborates with dance colleagues from Slovenia, Germany, Netherlands and works in professional projects as author, choreographer, and performer / dancer on Croatian independent scene.

She works as a teacher of contemporary dance at the School of Contemporary Dance Ana Maletić, Zagreb, regularly holds dance workshops for students, professional artists, children.

Cooperates with the Association of People with Cerebral Palsy, Rijeka where is, after ten years of intensive workshops of contemporary dance, produced Dance group Magic (dance collective of people with disabilities). As artistic director and choreographer of dance group Magija, she is also the producer of a festival Inclusive Scene in Rijeka. One of the pioneers and the initiator of the inclusive scene in Croatia.

Augusto Dalle Aste

Italy – CSC

Augusto Dalle Aste has a degree in Economy of Arts and in double bass. Actually he tries to combine his passion for music and his university studies. The several musical experiences he had with orchestras and bands on different kind of music from opera to techno, have given him a large vision of the different actual musical scenes.

He is a neophyte of the contemporary dance reality but he would like to understand how he can contribute by putting himself on the line with curiosity and his abilities.

He is involved in “Migrant Bodies” as administrative manager for CSC – Bassano del Grappa.