Guest | Migrant Bodies

John Mpaliza

CSC – Democratic Republic of Congo / Italy

John Mpaliza, also known as “Peace Walking Man”, is an activist for peace and human rights, an Italian citizen of Congolese origin. For political reasons, in 1991, John had to leave his homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo and he landed in Italy in 1993. After various adventures related to the “life of migrants”, he managed to resume his studies graduating in Computer Engineering at the University of Parma. He worked 12 years as a programmer at the Municipality of Reggio Emilia but, on May 30, 2014, by his choice, he fired himself and he leave everything, including home, devoting himself, full time, to the organization of marches national and international peace programs.

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Mélanie Demers

Montreal – CSC

A multidisciplinary artist, Mélanie Demers founded in Montreal her own dance company, MAYDAY, in 2007. Her work has charmed by its originality, intensity and its complexity, exploring the darker zones of the human condition. Socially engaged as an artist, Mélanie Demers travelled to teach dance in Kenya, Niger, Brazil and Haiti, amongst other destinations. The harsh reality of the developing countries challenged her understanding of the role of art in society. Addressing political issues in a poetic form, Les Angles Morts (2006), Sense of Self (2008), Junkyard/Paradis (2010), Goodbye (2012) and MAYDAY remix (2014) have all been created from this perspective. Lately, WOULD (2015) won the CALQ Prize for best choreography, highlighting the artistic excellence of a work presented in Québec. In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creative cycle with Animal Triste and Icône Pop; both works are touring internationally. In August 2017, Icône Pop was awarded the Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation by Toronto’s SummerWorks Performance Festival. Recently, Mélanie Demers was invited to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö (Sweden) for the creation of Something About Wilderness. With Danse Mutante (2019), she elaborates a choreographic project unfolding on three continents. Destined for multiple mutations, this duet passes through the hands of four female choreographers, and will culminate in Montreal in the Fall of 2019 with a marathon event. To date, Mélanie Demers choreographed twenty works and was presented in some thirty cities across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Nora Chipaumire

New York – CSC

Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and based in NYC, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art and aesthetics since she started making dances in 1998.

chipaumire is currently touring #PUNK 100%POP *NIGGA (verbalized as hash tag punk, one hundred percent pop, star nigga), a three-part live performance album which will have its full world premiere at The Kitchen in NYC in October 2018. Her current and ongoing work includes a digital book project – nhaka – a theory, technology, practice and process to her artistic work. Her upcoming work will be an opera entitled “Nehanda” (2020).

chipaumire is a 2018 Guggenheim fellow and a three-time Bessie Award winner.

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.