The Braswell Arts Center is a space for creativity, collaboration and innovation in all art forms. Since 2017, we are proud to offer dance classes and other artistic experiences for all ages, levels, and body types as well as create fresh initiatives for underprivileged children and development opportunities for emerging artists. Through arts education and exchange, the BAC strives to encourage collaboration, creation, networking and entrepreneurship within the local and international arts community.
Due to government restrictions in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the BAC has been closed for 6 of the last 12 months and — even when we've been able to open — operating with a limited capacity for another 5 months due to distancing restrictions. As you can imagine, the effects of these last 11 months have impacted us greatly. We are in a difficult position at the moment, however we remain positive!
In an effort to raise awareness about the current situation of the BAC, we welcome you to join us for the Braswell Arts Center Virtual Benefit Gala. Featuring a program of high-quality dance performances from artists all around the world, the goal of this fundraiser event is to raise support for the BAC as well as to help us continue moving forward in our mission to #KeepBaselMoving.
It was a great evening! The BAC team is grateful to everyone who donated and attended this special event. We appreciate your support and good energy and we try to push forward with new ideas and programs for the Basel and international community.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Jermaine Maurice Spivey is an educator, choreographer and an award winning performer working in the field of Dance since 2002. He has spent the bulk of his career traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Europe teaching workshops, performing and staging works by artists such as Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Hofesh Shecter, William Forsythe and Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Robyn. His recent choreographic commission, Terms And Conditions (2019), was premiered by Rambert 2 at Sadler’s Wells in London, UK. Jermaine’s most recent commission, The Betweens(2020), was created with collaborator and partner Spenser Theberge and the dancers of LA Dance Project for a drive-in dance performance programmed and produced by LA Dance Project. Jermaine has also created and performed two evening length works with Spenser Theberge, Rather This Then (2017) and Position 3 (2018), the later co-created and performed with filmmaker John De Menil, with support and co-production from Navel LA and Cal Arts Dance. Photo Credits: Jermaine Maurice Spivey
Spenser Theberge is a performer and creator, working across the fields of choreography, dance, movement direction, text, costume design, pedagogy, and installation work. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a former company member with the Nederlands Dans Theater I & II and The Forsythe Company, as well as a guest artist with Kidd Pivot, the Goteborgs Operans Danskompani, the ARIAS Company, and RGWW. Spenser's creations have been commissioned and presented by LA Dance Project, The Broad Museum, MOCA Geffen, REDCAT, The Korzo Theater, Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, Place des Arts, The Juilliard School, and the Queer Biennial III in LA. Spenser's collaborations with partner Jermaine Spivey have been additionally supported by Hollins University, PACT Zollverein, Nuova Officina della Danza, and presented by The Korzo Theater, The Frankfurt LAB, Place des Arts, DISJECTA, Reed College, and NAVEL. As a movement director, Spenser has worked with artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Rami Malek, and he's designed costumes for Andrea Miller, The ARIAS Company, and Frances Chiaverini. He is also the text writer behind Alexander Ekman's award winning "Cacti". Spenser is on the dance faculty at California Institute of the Arts, a YoungArts award winner, a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and a Princess Grace Award winner. Photo Credits: Jacob Jonas
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Bryan moved with his family to New York City at the age of nine. While growing up Bryan was exposed to many urban and social dance styles, receiving his formal dance training at La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts. As a dancer, Bryan went on to perform with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, The Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT), and Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot. He has originated roles in and performed in works by notable choreographers including Jirí Kylián, Ohad Naharin and Crystal Pite. As a choreographer, Bryan is the recipient of the 2017 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, the 2019 Jacobs Pillow Fellowship Award, and the 2020 prestigious German Der Faust Award in choreography. Bryan's workhas been performed around the world with companies such as the Paul Taylor Company, Netherlands Dance Theater, Ballet Theater Basel, Tanz Lucerne Theater, Hessisches Staatsballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Photo Credits: Joao Canziani
Bobbi Jene Smith is from Ames, Iowa. She is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. From 2005-2014 she was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. She has worked and collaborated with a variety of artists around the world including Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and Martha Clarke. She is a certified Gaga teacher and has taught the repertory of Ohad Naharin in schools and universities around the U.S. since 2005. She is in constant process with her three most recent works, A Study on Effort, Harrowing, and Arrowed. Photo: ©Bobbi Jene Smith
Julian NICOSIA is a choreographer and dancer. Born in Saint-Etienne France in 1989. Julian studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon from 2006 to 2010. As a dancer he began his career at the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon in 2010 under the artistic direction of Yorgos Loukos. During five years in the company, Julian performed in and created works for the most notables Choreographer including William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Mats EK, Trisha Brown, Ohad Naharin, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Maguy Marin among others. In 2015, he began to dance for the choreographer Jacopo Godani in Frankfurt am Main. Two years later, he began as his choreographic assistant as well as to re-set his pieces in prestigious company. As a choreographer, Julian created "How long is now" for the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company in 2018. Julian was also invited to film his work "LESLI " at the Fondation BEYELER in Basel, Switzerland in 2019. For his season 2020/2021 Julian will create multiples work around the world: a new "pas de deux" for Maria Kochetkova and Sebastian Kloborg, a new "pas de deux" for Ines Mcintosh and Jack Gasztowtt, a new creation for the Ensemble chorégraphique de Paris (CNSMDP) and a new creation in Mexico full evening. His work will be performed in France, Belgium, Mexico and Switzerland. Photo Credits: Dominik Mentoz
Born in Washington DC, Corey Scott-Gilbert began his dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts and continued at the Juilliard School. After graduating he was invited to the Lyon Opéra Ballet, to then become a member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in 2007. He won the Princess Grace Award in 2009. He was made a member of the Cirque du Soleil in 2010 and appeared with the “Iris” programme as part of the Academy Awards in 2012 . He returned to Europe in 2013 to work as a freelance artist. He is currently collaborating with Sascha Walts, Ligia Lewis and Eszter Salamon. coreyscottgilbert.com Photo Credits: Florian Hetz
Rachelle Scott is French/American and grew up in New York City. She received her dance training from The Alvin Ailey School and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts. At the end of her high school studies, she received the Young ARTS/New York Regional Award in Dance and the Eiger Scholarship Award. Rachelle then went to attend The Juilliard School, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. After graduating from University, Rachelle became a member of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York City, a soloist dancer with Nürnberg Ballett Staatstheater in Germany, and is a current member of Basel Theater in Switzerland. Throughout her dance career, she has danced works by Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal, Alexander Ekman, Ohad Naharin, Cyrstal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Andonis Foniadakis, Jiří Kylián, among others. Rachelle is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and Bavarian Arts Prize. Photo: © Rachelle Scott
Riley is a dance artist and producer in Portland, Maine. He works with dance improvisation, video art, sculpture, music, and live installations centered around states of consciousness through the body in motion. Riley has been an artist-in-residence at SPACE, Bates Dance Festival, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Ellis Beauregard Foundation in Rockland, Maine. Riley is a passionate arts advocate and producer in his home state of Maine since returning from Europe in 2016. He is the co-creator of Portland Dance Month, an initiative to highlight the Fall season of dance & performance in Maine. Riley continues to travel widely to perform in the work of choreographer William Forsythe, currently with A Quiet Evening of Dance. Photo: © Riley Watts
Dayne Florence is Australian, and was born in the city of Sydney. He began his dance education with the Mcdonald College of Performing Arts, and furthered his training with the Ballettschule Theater Basel. Whilst studying in Basel, he had his first professional experience as an apprentice with the Ballet du Rhin in Mulhouse, France. Once he completed his education in Basel, Dayne became a member of the NRW Junior Ballett Dortmund under the directorship of Xin Peng Wang, a soloist artist with Ballet Nürnberg with Goyo Montero, and is now a member of Ballet Basel. Over the years, Dayne has performed works by Jacopo Godani, Marco Geocke, Itzik Galili, Heinz Spoerli, Goyo Montero, Xin Peng Wang, among other choreographers. Photo: © Dayne Florence
PRINCIPAL DANCER. "Magnificent" was how Yolanda Correa's performance in the title role of Liam Scarlett's new The Firebird, created for her in autumn 2013, was described. Since arriving at the Norwegian National Ballet in autumn 2010, she has enchanted Norwegian audiences with strong interpretations of roles from the classical repertoire: the Snow Queen, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Kitri in Nurejev's Don Quixote, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, the title role in MacMillans Manon and the demanding dual role of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake. But she has also danced leading roles in modern works such as Duato's Multiplicity – Forms of Silence and Emptiness, Forsythe's Steptext and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, and Kylián's Wings of Wax, Gods and Dogs, Symphony of Psalms and Stepping Stones. She took the leading roles in Tetley's Voluntaries and Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. She has also interpreted the title role as well as Micaëla in Scarlett's Carmen – a ballet in three acts, the principal role in Scarlett's Vespertine, Mrs. Alving in the ballet production of Ibsen's Ghosts, and a solo role in Ekman's Rooms. Originally from Cuba, Yolanda Correa studied at the Vocational School of Art in Holguín and at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. Before coming to Oslo, she danced with the Cuban National Ballet, where she was given the highest accolade of primera bailarina. She won the International Meetings of Ballet Academies Contest in 1999, and was awarded the prestigious Positano Prize in 2012 for best female newcomer on the international dance scene. In 2014 she was awarded the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera and Ballet Prize. Correa is appearing as a guest star with several companies and has danced on many prominent international stages. Performances Previous acts: in Future Memories – an evening with Jiří Kylián, A Night Creature, Insect Like in Rooms by Alexander Ekman, Agon in An evening with Balanchine, Askepott in Cinderella, Carmen in Carmen – a ballet by Liam Scarlett, Carmen in Carmen - a ballet in three acts, Clara in The Nutcracker, Epic Short in Sleepless beauty, Fru Alving in IBSEN’S GHOSTS, Grand Pas Classique in Tett på Nasjonalballetten, Imitations in Tett på Nasjonalballetten, In The Middle Somewhat Elevated in An Evening with Kylián, Forsythe and Øyen, Julie in Romeo and Juliet, Kitri in Don Quixote, Klara in The Nutcracker, Lescauts elskerinne in Manon, Manon in Manon, Odette / Odile in Swan Lake, Petite Mort in Kylian: Black & White, Same Difference in AN EVENING WITH LEÓN & LIGHTFOOT, Steptext in Back to the Future, Sukkerfeen in The Nutcracker, Sweet Dreams in Kylian: Black & White, Tatjana in Onegin, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux in A Night of Dance x 12, Theme and Variations Solo par in An evening with Balanchine, Tiger Lily in An Evening with Kylián, Forsythe and Øyen, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux in An evening with Balanchine, Without Words in Dream Play. Photo: © Yolanda Correa
Olivia Ancona was born in San Francisco, however grew up in Berkeley, London, and predominately Portland, Oregon. After training at the Juilliard School, she joined the Batsheva Ensemble (2010-2012) under the direction of Ohad Naharin and returned to the main company in 2015.Olivia was a founding member of Sharon Eyal’s LEV, and has worked with Mats EK, Johan Inger, Wim Vandekeybus in the Royal Swedish Ballet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Eastman), Luca Veggetti, Örjan Andersson, Bryan Arias, and Oona Doherty. She was a guest with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and Goteborg Danskompani. In the fall of 2016 Olivia danced, acted, and coached in the film, Suspiria.Throughout the past decade Olivia has taught gaga, improvisation, and research/repertoire workshops for over thirty-five institutions internationally. She also sets Sharon Eyal’s works on companies within Europe. Most recently she joined Alan Lucien Øyen’s, Winter Guests for the productions of ‘Story, story, die’ 2019 and current creation ‘Rivers’ 2021. Olivia is based in Berlin. Photo: © Olivia Ancona
Armando Braswell is a professional dancer and teacher from New York City. After graduating from LaGuardia High School dance department Armando obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance from The Juilliard School in 2006. Armando danced with Ballett Theater Munich, Gauthier Dance Stuttgart and just recently completed his final season as a soloist with Ballett Theater Basel. Aside from his dancing career, Armando has established himself as a guest teacher in high demand, teaching amateurs and professionals worldwide, and has also choreographed for many stages throughout Europe as well as for television. In addition to his artistic activities, Armando is also active in the journalistic field. His popular arts blog, "Interview En L'air", has become widely known in the international dance scene and earned him a place at "Dance For You Magazine” as a permanent correspondent. In 2015, Armando began to build an arts community in Basel where dancers of all levels and all body types could train in a supportive and professional environment. This idea has since expanded and in 2017, he and his wife Lisa founded the “Braswell Arts Center” – a space for innovation and collaboration in all art forms located in Basel, Switzerland. www.armandobraswell.com Photo: Prix de Lausanne 2021 © Aline Paley
Roderick George was born in Houston,Texas, where he began his studies and classical training at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy. Roderick continued to develop his skill by exploring other techniques at The Alvin Ailey School, Miami City Ballet, and LINES Professional Program all the while developing a collaboration of the techniques at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. After his general studies Roderick left his hometown and assimilated in New York City, where he began his undergraduate studies at SUNY Purchase College in 2003. Before starting his professional career, he was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in New York City in 2005 and was elected as a Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003, where he performed for the US President at the Kennedy Center. Roderick joined Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2005, which was very early on in his career engraving the beginning of his footprints in the dance world. Roderick explored more of New York as he danced with Sidra Bell Dance NY, Forces of Nature and the Kevin Wynn Collection, until he decided to move abroad to Switzerland where Roderick joined the Basel Ballet/ Theater Basel in 2007 and later to guest with the Goteborg Operan DansKompani. Roderick joined The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Germany. Where he learnt and shared his greatest moments with William Forsythe. His career has embraced the collaborations of his work and other great choreographers such as Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jerome Bel, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, Richard Wherlock, Tino Seghal and many others. Roderick has found much media attention namely, via his performance at the Swiss MTV Music Awards for DJ Antoine and Hercules & Love Affair music video, "Do You Feel the Same?" Photo: © Roderick George
Kyra Jean Green is an American artist born abroad in France, raised in Florida, and currently residing in Montreal, Canada. She obtained her BFA in dance from The Juilliard School in 2006. The following year in 2007 she was a winner of the Hubbard Street II choreographic competition and was also commissioned by the Kennedy Center to present an evening of her work. She has since presented work internationally. In 2019 Kyra created new works in Germany for Choreolab made in Ulm and in Seattle Washington for Whim W’him’s choreographic shindig. Later that year she also presented her company at Prisma Dance Festival in Panama. She was the winner of Prix Coup de Coeur du Public at Festival Quartiers Danses in September 2016, 2018, and 2020. After ten years of working as a dancer in 2017, Kyra decided it was time to create her own company which she named Trip The Light Fantastic. The company involves dancers, visual artists, and filmmakers based in the Montreal community. The company made its debut at the Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal Canada and has since performed in Panama, Denmark, New York, and Portugal. You can find more info about Kyra and her company at www.TripTheLightFantastic.me Photo Credits: Hunish Parmar
Originally from Michigan, USA, Dominic received his B.F.A from The Juilliard School in 2006. After his studies he joined La La La Human Steps (2006-09) under the direction of Edouard Lock for the production "Amjad". He then spent some time as a guest with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal before joining Nederlands Dans Theater in December of 2009. At NDT he had the opportunity to work with Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Jiri Kylian, Sol Leo and Paul Lightfoot as well as several other choreographers. Following his time at NDT, he joined Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, and toured internationally as a member of their company L-E-V, and is now working as a freelance artist. Photo: © Dominic Santia
Harumi was born in Osaka, Japan, and is currently based in Berlin. She received BFA from The Juilliard School, and worked with many artists and companies such as Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and Staatsballett Berlin. She is a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® trainer since 2015. Parallel to her dancer career, she developed an interest for film editing, and one of her works, “Replaced Vision” has been selected and screened for various international film festivals, and she is one of the editors for Dance Masterclass, an online dance educational platform featuring Daniil Simkin, Polina Semionova, Iana Salenko and other internationally known dancers. www.harumiterayama.com Photo: © Harumi Teryama
Jubal Battisti is a Berlin-based, US-born photographer and dancer. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the New York Institute of Photography. Since moving to Berlin in 2014, Jubal has created still and moving imagery for dance-makers Andreas Heise, Sergiu Matis, Moritz Ostruschnjak, Sebastian Mattias, Josep Caballero García, Marquet Lee, and Roderick George. He has also collaborated with companies such as CORPUS, Dance On Ensemble, Kollektiv 52°07, Skånes Dansteater, Jø Stromgren Kompani, Of Curious Nature, and Staatsballett Berlin. www.jubalbattisti.com. Photo: © Jubal Battisti
Andrea Tortosa Vidal was born in 1986 in Alicante, Spain and received her education at the Estudio de Danza María de Ávila. During her studies she won prizes in Zaragoza (2001, 2003), Torrelavega (2002) and Castellón (2004). She was able to continue her training for one year at NDT 2. Her professional career began at the Basel Ballet from where she moved to the Italian Aterballetto in 2008. She resumed her work at Theater Basel in 2012 and has been dancing in Richard Wherlock’s company ever since. She has created various choreographic works, such as ‹Calzini Diversi› (2010), ‹1x4=1› (2011), ‹Generazione Persa› (2012), ‹Playground› (2015), ‹Being Frank Pedersen› (2017) ‹Untitled› (2016), ‹Nachtklang Experimental› (2018), ‹Studies for one Disklavier piano II› (2018). She regularly gives lessons in classical and modern dance and was nominated Dancer of the Year in 2016. She has worked with choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, Johan Inger, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Angeline Preljocaj, Bryan Arias, Itzik Galili, Stijn Celis, Jiří Pokorný and Richard Wherlock. In 2020 she will lead the education project ‹Suite de Danses Expérimentales›, which will take place together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Fachmaturitätsschule Basel. Photo Credits: Lucia Hunziker Photography
The Switzerland-based swede, Max Zachrisson, is a multifaceted artist working as a Videographer, Composer, Choreographer and Dancer. In 2018, while still engaged as a dancer at the ballet of Theater Basel under the direction of Richard Wherlock, he started his own company, Max Zachrisson Productions. Max Zachrisson grew up in a family of musicians and was already as a child performing in various operas and ballets at the Opera of Gothenburg, his hometown. He began his professional training to become a ballet dancer at age 11 at the Swedish Ballet School and finished his studies at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm in 2007. Since his graduation he has worked with some of the biggest names in the dance world including Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, William Forthythe, Hofesh Shechter, Nacho Duato, Alexander Ekman and many others. During the years as a performer, Max Zachrisson has received many prizes and scholarships. He was nominated for the prestigious German cultural prize “der Faust” in 2016 and was the first dancer ever to receive the Wolfram von Essenbach Cultural Prize the same year. 2012 he was awarded the Bavarian Cultural Prize by the Bavarian state minister of Art. Max Zachrisson’s interest in filmmaking started through the production of smaller dance films with himself dancing as a main focus. With time his fascination of physical movement started to shift and increasingly began to focus on the movements and motion of the camera in relation to the movements on the screen. Today he works with all sorts of videography but always with the mind of a dancer/choreographer combining movement with rhythm. His films has been seen in festivals all over the world such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival, The Gotta Minute Film Festival, Moinho Cine Fest, InShadow Festival and Screendance festival. He won the dance film competition “Movies by Movers” and was awarded Best of festival award of the Third Coast Dance Film Festival in 2013 and received the Encouragement Award from the Moving Body Festival in 2020. Other commissions include Fondation Beyeler, Braswell Arts Center, Fastighetsbyrån, Frontiers Records, BLKB and of course his main employer, Theater Basel. Max Zachrisson is also active as a choreographer and composer and his compositions are often present in his own work. Richard Wherlock commissioned him to compose for the piece “Don’t tell the Kids” premiering in 2018 and again in 2021, this time to compose a full length evening, “Empty Thrones”, premiering at Theater Basel. Photo: © Max Zachrisson
Jon Ole Olstad started dancing at the age of 16 and took his first ballet class when auditioning for a high school dance department. He quickly realized dancing was his big passion and that he would do anything to make his dream of becoming a professional dancer come true. Later he was accepted into the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo, and graduated with a bachelor degree in 2009. After college he was hired for the tour project “Kamuyot”, a collaboration between the Swedish Riksteatern and Batsheva Dance Company led by artistic director Ohad Naharin. During this time he participated in daily ‘gaga’ class, the training form used in Batsheva Dance Company, and developed a great love and respect for this work. In 2010 Jon Ole formed the choreographic duo “Ruth n ´Walter” together with Caroline Skjoershammer. Their first duet “Epilogue” got invited to the Cross Connection Choreography Competition and in 2012 they created “Dear, its time to turn the lights off”, which was performed in different festivals and venues. In 2013, Jon Ole was hired by Nederlands Dans Theater 1, led by artistic director Paul Lightfoot. He has worked with choreographers such as Paul Lighfoot and Sol Leon, Johan Inger, Hofesh Shechter, Marco Goecke, Alexander Ekman, Jiri Kylian, Mehdi Walerski and Crystal Pite. In 2015 he was awarded 1. Prize in the prestigious competition, International Solo- Tanz Festival in Stuttgart. With his solo “and we already knew the names”, he was awarded the first “Prize in Dance” and the first “Prize in Choreography. He started teaching in 2009 and has a huge passion for sharing his knowledge and the love of dance. He has taught at numerous colleges and studios across Norway, as well as in Los Angeles and New York City. His teaching credits include Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program in San Fransisco, New York University/Tisch, The National Academy Of The Arts in Oslo, Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, Movement Lifestyle and Opificio Movimento in Rome. Photo: © Jon Ole Olstad
Carlos Blanco, born in 1989 in Pinar del Río Cuba, began in 2001 his dance studies at the Provincial Art School, Raúl Sánchez García and later in 2004, he went on to study at the prestigious National School of Art. In 2007 he was part of the cast of the Corpus Spíritu, Alma Company, directed by Tangin Fong Matos. In 2009 he became part of the world famous Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, under the direction of Miguel Iglesias and later reached the category of Principal Dancer where he performed works by some of the most renowned choreographers of today. In 2013 he presented „Deslinde“, choreography of his authorship with Lisvet Barcia. In 2015 he joined Acosta Danza, led by world famous Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta. He obtained the Male Performance Award from the UNEAC and the Ramiro Guerra Award Interpretation Award in 2017. Carlos Luis has performed all over the word in some of the most iconic festivals, Galas and opera houses. He worked for new roles as such as for principal parts by contemporary choreographers of our time, a.o. Rafael Bonachela, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Kenneth Kvamstrom, Jan Linkens, Itsik Galili, Tangin Fong Matos, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Goyo Montero, Carlos Acosta, Saburo Teshigawara, Juliano Núñez, Miguel Altunaga, Marianela Boan, Maria Rovira, Jorge Crecis and Pontus Lidberg. Since season 2020/2021, he is a member of Ballet Nuremberg. Photo: © Carlos Luis Blanco Ramos
2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn New York, Shamel began his dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is 2003 YoungArts Finalist and a first prize (level 1) winner of the YoungArts competition. Shamel then went on to receive his BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Shamel has created a triptych of award winning multidisciplinary performance art works known as his “BLACK series” which has been performed and toured extensively to many festivals around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct at The Juilliard School and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. Shamel is the choreographer of the play “Help” by acclaimed poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, directed by Taibi Magar, and commissioned at The Shed in New York. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography. Shamel is the artistic director/founder of TRIBE , a New York based multidisciplinary arts collective. TRIBE is a 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artist In Residence for the 2020-2021 season. For more information, visit www.shamelpitts.com or www.itsatribe.org. Photo: © Shamel Pitts
From Valencia, Spain, Alba began her dance career at the age of 17 with Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana dance company. In 2007, she joined the Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 under the leadership of Nacho Duato, and after, she was a soloist with the Ballet Theater Basel.In 2012, Alba began her choreographic career with a work titled ”Bipolar Skin”. The work was awarded second prize at the Certamen Internacional de Coreografía Burgos & New York, and won the Audience Choice Award at the 5th Copenhagen International Choreography Competition. She has been nominated for a 21st. PREMIOS MAX de las artes escénicas (21st. MAX Awards in Spain), and received second prize at Synodales - Concours Chorégraphique Contemporain for her choreography "The Breathing Room". In 2019 she won the Gold Medal and received the best choreography award at the 5th Beijing Ballet and Choreography Competition for her work "Remember me, like this”, and a choreography award at the Oltner Tanztage, NEW IDEAS II for her work "Before You Land”. Alba has creating original work for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Opèra National du Rhin (France) and ZhDK in Zürich. With upcoming commissions for SFDanceworks in San Fransisco (USA), Austinmer Dance Theatre (Australia). Alba is the co-founder, director and choreographer of Snorkel Rabbit Company. Photo Credits: Jubal Battisi
Classical Pianist, Composer, Arranger and Music Teacher. Classical pianist and accompanist since 1999 in Italy and abroad. At present I work as: Ballet Pianist at the Basel Theater, Music Theory Teacher at HWS Huber Widemann Schule, Freelance Composer, Pianist for competitions like "Prix de Lausanne", "Beijing International Ballet Competition" and ballet workshops. Photo: © Bruno Raco
Javier Rodríguez Cobos professional dancer, freelance choreographer and performance artist born in Spain and based in Basel since 2008. As a dancer, he has been part of different international dance companies such as Compañía Nacional de Danza, Introdans, Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin and Ballett Theater Basel (current). He’s been active choreographically since 2007 creating works for stage, museums, open air performances as well as choreographing for theatre plays for professional dancers and actors. In 2016 he founded the dance collective Loop Tanz, where he regularly presents his work at Neuestheater in Dornach. Photo Credits: Jubal Battisti
Icelandic professional dancer, freelance choreographer and performance artist based in Basel. Since 2008 he has been involved as a performer in multiple dance companies, theatres, mixed media and site specific productions. Pedersen’s choreographic career consists of commissioned work for Theater Basel (current employment), National Theater Mannheim, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Iceland Dance Company, among others. His work has been showcased in Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, The United States and The United Kingdom as well as participating in various international art festivals and choreographic platforms.
Javier and Frank have been supporting and advising on each others choreographic work for the past 5 years. Originating from opposite ends of Europe, their approach and upbringing towards art and culture has very different roots, which intwines, inspires and enriches their collaborative work and artistic vision.Along side visual artist Guillaume Musset, they created a series of dance videos inspired and realised during the lockdown of the pandemic in 2020 under the collective “Seasonal Suite”. Photo: © Frank Fannar Pedersen
Guillaume Musset artist photographer born in France and living and working in Basel. He lived and studied in Paris, Strasbourg and Zürich, and graduated with a Master in Fine Arts in 2010. He works for theater and dance and grows a personal body of work revealing the extra of the ordinary. He had the chance to exhibit his work at the Swiss Design Awards 2018 as a nominee in photography. He worked for Theaterfestival Basel 2014/2016/2018 and contributes to Hochparterre magazine monthly since 2013. Photo Credits: Oliver Hochstrasser
Tana Rosás Suñé was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1989 and started her training at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza del Instituto del Teatro, Barcelona. After she awarded a scholarship for a summer course in Tacnesi Centrum Prague conservatory, she went as an exchange student to the dance school in Montpellier, to the Brussels Conservatory of Dance and to the Koninkilijk Conservatorium in The Hague, the Netherlands. She joined workshops at the P.A.R.T.S conservatory (Belgium) with David Zambrano and with Roberto Olivan in the Institut del Teatre, Barcelona. She started her professional dance career in 2007 at the Metros Dance Company in Barcelona. After two years at the IT Dansa Barcelona, she joined the Ballett Theater Basel in 2010. Tana was part of the Interdans Festival in 2013 and 2014. She has performed works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Joelle Bouvier, Hofesh Shechter, Johan Inger, Angelin Preljocaj, Nacho Duato, Sharon Eyal, Bryan Arias, Alexander Ekman, Richard Wherlock and others.
Anthony Ramiandrisoa is Malagasy/ French dancer born in Madagascar and grew up in Lyon (France). He did his education in the Conservatory Region of Lyon and then in the Conservatory National Superior Music and Dance of Lyon where he was graduated and he integrates the Junior Ballet. During his school time, Anthony has worked with many different teachers and choreographers. Anthony is member of Ballett Theater Basel since August 2012 and he worked with many different renown choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal, Richard Wherlock, Bryan Arias, Jiri Pokorni, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Itzik Galili, Stjin Celis, Ed Wubbe.
Lisa Horten-Skilbrei is born and raised in Oslo. She began her dance journey with competitive disco dancing and represented Norway in European and World championships for many years. She was introduced to more artistic dance forms during high school and then directly accepted into the Norwegian National Academy of the Arts where she completed a Bachelor in Jazz Dance. During her studies she traveled internationally and received scholarships and trained with Nederlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She’s been part of FA//TN, a research movement by Tomislav English, since 2016, assisting workshops at B12 festival in Berlin. Lisa joined Ballet Basel in 2017 and has performed works by Sharon Eyal, Bryan Arias, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Jiri Pokorny, Stijn Celis, and Richard Wherlock.
Gaia Mentoglio wurde 1997 in Napoli, Italien, geboren. Von 2002 bis 2014 studierte sie an der Art Garage School in Pozzuoli. Von 2014 bis 2017 nahm sie am Bachelor-Programm der Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden teil, wo sie an Workshops von Ohad Naharins Gaga-Technik, William Forsythe und vielen anderen Lehrern und Choreographen teilnahm. Seit 2017 tanzt sie beim Ballett Theater Basel.
Eva Dewaele is from Belgium. After completing training at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp, she was engaged by the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Theater Luzern, the Opera Göteborg, the Opéra de Lyon, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She has danced in many pieces as well as in world premieres of famous choreographers. In 2006, she met Christian Spuck when she danced in his creation Return of Ulysses. With the start of the 2012/13 season, she joined Ballett Zürich and danced in more of Spuck’s choreographies. In the 2014/15 season she became a ballet master. As a choreographer, Eva Dewaele created pieces for young choreographer series at several companies. Her choreography Passing by was created for the Junior Ballett and the piece Mit Blick auf for the Hodler retrospective of the Fondation Beyeler. Eva Dewaele has also appeared in several feature films such as Marmorera, Atrophy Bank or solo final. She staged the production of Christian Spuck's Anna Karenina at the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow, the Korean National Ballet, the Bavarian State Ballet and the Norwegian National Ballet.
Malcolm Sutherland is a choreographer/dance artist based in Dunblane, Scotland. He has worked in the professional dance world for thirteen years, and has been creating his own work since 2011. Malcolm spent seven years as a professional dancer with Staatsballet Nürnberg, Germany and since 2015 has worked as a freelance artist. He has created three full length dance works for stage, all premiering at the Tafelhalle in Nürnberg. Malcolm's works for companies include Greed commissioned for the company of Theater St Gallen, Switzerland. His works for school's include creating Aftermath for the students of Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome as part of Resid’AND. Malcolm's work for festivals includes Lost for words at Resolution (The Place) and Shelf Life at Interdans (Belgium). He has also been involved in several artist development programmes such as The Cohan Collective and completed his MA Choreography with Distinction in 2018. Malcolm's work has appeared in finals at several choreographic competitions including the Copenhagen International Choreographic Competition. Photo Credits: Fanni Tutek-Hajnal.
Dévi SELLY is coming from the French island, La Réunion, she began to study dance in a conservatory. She left La Réunion to pursue a professional career. First she trained in Cannes, under Rosella Hightower, and after graduating she studied at Rudra Bejart. She starts dancing with the Maurice Bejart company "Le Concour". Following this she joined Ballett Theater Basel as a stagiaire, and then joined NDT II for 3 years. In 2014, she returned to Basel as a soloist to work with Richard Wherlock. Besides her work as a dancer at Ballett Theater Basel, she is currently teaching online as a certified coach of the method SAFE® FLOOR and SAFE® BARRE, a choreographic assistant to Jorge Garcia Perez and works as a dancer for Alba Carbonell Castillo. Since 2019, ponctualy she is teaching classes and workshops at Braswell Arts Center. In her dance carrer she worked with numerous choreographers like Richard Wherlock, Jírì Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Hofesh Schechter, Johan Inger, Pontus Lidberg, Stephan Thoss, Bryan Arias, Itzik Galili, Thomas Noone, Jiri Pokorny, Alexander Ekman, Marco Goecke, Cayetano Soto, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Ohad Naharin, Hans Van Manen, Lukas Timulak, Ken Ossola, Douglas Lee and Nacho Duato... @devi.selly_munzter Photo Credits: Urs Recher
Idan Sharabi was born in Israel, 1984. He graduated Thelma Yellin and The Juilliard School before he danced in Netherlands Dans Theater and Batsheva Dance Company. He was chosen to create for NDT Upcoming Choreographers 10′ and has won The Zeraspe Award 06′, Copenhagen International Choreography Competition 2012 & 2014, The Mahol Shalem International Competition 13′, and The Hannover International Choreography Competition 2014. Idan received the PAIS grant for performances of existing shows in 2015 for Interviews/Makom, Minister of Culture Prize for Best Performance of 2015, Balle tmester Albert Gaubiers og Poul Waldorffs Fond scholarship in Denmark, and received Dododotan Best Performance 2014 for “We Men” as a performer. Between 2011 and 2014 he created for companies: “TheProject” of The Israeli Opera House, KCDC, The Israel Ballet, Ballet Junior de Geneve, NND, ZDT, and EBBC Madrid. In 2012, Sharabi was chosen to be one of the nine promising young artists of Israel by American Express and founded his group, Idan Sharabi &Dancers, in September 2012 . Since then, he has created several works for the group which were invited to festivals in Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Holland, Russia & Israel. Throughout the years, Sharabi has been teaching and creating with students/young dancers in schools & companies such as Contemporary Dance School Hamburg, Gothenburg Ballet Academy, Alvin Ailey School, The Italian Dance Alliance, Springboard Dance Montreal, The Maslool Dance Program, The Sadna in Ga’aton, Israel, Ballet Junior De Geneve, Zhukov Dance Theater SF and more. His 2014/15 residencies included companies such as DDT, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet Chilleno, NDT II, and he will premiere an original work in March 2016 with Ballet Luzern. Sharabi has been supported by American Express TYP Project, Israel Ministry of Culture, The Israel Festival, Suzanne Dellal, Bikurey Ha’Itim, The AICF, The Israeli Opera House, The Juilliard School Donors and a donor of The Dance Library of Israel Organization.
Francesco Nappa is a multifaceted artist, choreographer, director, painter, digital music composer and stage and costume designer. Born in Naples, where he started his dance studies which he accomplished at the English National Ballet School. At the early age of 17 he joined Les Ballets de Montecarlo, where soon was promoted Principal Dancer. His dancer’s career continues at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, then at the Netherlands Dans Theater I in Den Haag. He has worked, created and performed pieces by choreographers such as: K.Armitage, G.Balanchine,T.Brandsen, S.L.Cherkaoui, N.Duato, W.Forsythe, J.Godani, J.Inger, J.Kylian, J.C.Maillot, P.Martins, O.Naharin, J.Neumeier, K.O’Day, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and others. Along his carrier he has been awarded of several dance prices and been part of many dance galas and festival around the world. From 2005, he started his career as freelancer artist, conducting a personal research within the stylistic contemporary experimentation that brought him to create choreographic pieces for some of the main European theaters and ballet companies. The original stylistic code of Nappa is characterized by a fluidity in the movements, a continuous flowing and exploding energy and poetry. Photo: © Luric
Jeremy Shaw (b.1977, Canada) is a visual artist based in Berlin. His work explores altered states and the cultural and scientific practices that aspire to map transcendental experience. Often combining and amplifying strategies of verité filmmaking, conceptual art, music video, esoteric and scientific research, he creates a post-documentary space in which disparate belief-systems and histories are thrown into an interpretive limbo. Shaw participated in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and is the recipient of the 2016 Sobey Art Award. Solo exhibitions include Kunstverein in Hamburg (2018), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2018), The Store x The Vinyl Factory, London (2017), Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2013), MoMA PS1, New York (2011), and Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2006). Photo: © Jeremy Shaw
Born in Germany, Andreas Heise studied dance at the Palucca University for Dance in Dresden and in more recent years has trained in Acting in New York, Norway and East 15 Acting School in London where he also studied theatre direction. His career as a dancer began under Uwe Scholz at the Leipziger Ballett in 1998. In 2003, Andreas joined the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo where he performed many leading roles, including Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Lenski in Onegin, Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, Oswald in Ghosts, Albrecht in Giselle and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also created roles in ballets by Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, John Neumeier, Nacho Duato, Christopher Wheeldon, Liam Scarlett, David Dawson and Jorma Elo. He has also taught extensively for the Norwegian National Ballet School and for DV8’s touring productions of John and Can We Talk About This. In 2006 Andreas started to choreograph regularly for the Norwegian National Ballet and his creations for the company include Liebestod, Nucleus, Souls' Complexion, Meditative Rose and Montverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda as a collaboration between the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. In 2013 he created How I would like to... for the Ballet Company in Ekaterinburg, Russia and later reproduced this work with dancers from Wiesbaden at the International Competition for Choreographers in Hannover 2014. In 2015, Andreas created the trio Me, Myself and I at the Palucca University for Dance in Dresden for the 90th anniversary celebrations of the school as well as a work for the Norwegian National Youth Company. In 2015 he made his UK debut as Associate Director/Choreographer of Paul Curran’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at Garsington Opera. In 2016 he staged his creation How I would like to... for Koblenz Ballet in Germany where he also created his new work Orfeo in Fall 2017. In June 2017 Andreas had his choreographic debut at the Salzburg Festival in a production of Handel’s Ariodante next to Opera Director Christof Loy and Cecilia Bartoli in the leading role. In November 2017 his new work Air was created for Bachelor Students of the 3. year at Kunsthøgskolen in Olso. Further commissions as a choreographer include a new production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at the Nederlandse Reisopera under the direction of Paul Carr in April 2018. In Fall 2018 Andreas created his first full length ballet Sandmann for the Ballet Company in Graz, Austria. His debut as Director/Choreographer in a new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in a collaboration between the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet premiered in March 2019, and a production of Strauss’ Capriccio under the direction of Christof Loy at Teatro Real in Madrid took place in May 2019. His version of Schubert’s Winterreise was premiered at the International Music Festival in Marvão, Portugal in July 2019 and had its german premiere on September 15th in 2019 at the Erholungshaus in Leverkusen under Bayer Kultur. The new creation Lamento was presented at the Stuttgarter Ballett in November 2019, before Andreas joined Christof Loy for a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin at the Norwegian National Opera in February 2020. In April 2020 Andreas returns to the Oper Graz for his new choreographed version of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and in January 2021 he will direct and choreograph the full evening Sacred Mozart at Haus für Mozart as part of the Festival Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Austria. Photo: © Andreas Heise
In collaboration with local businesses, we have started a silent auction to support our efforts to #KeepBaselMoving. We are grateful for our Basel friends who did not hesitate to be a part of this special event!
The latest bid for each item is displayed below. Simply use the provided form below to bid on your item, or send an email with your name, email, telephone number as well as item name and bid to admin@braswellartscenter.com.
With this prize, you and a friend can attend a ballet performance of your choice at Theater Basel!
Current bid: CHF 150
Win this package and you and your team will experience an awesome team building workshop at the Braswell Arts Center (or Online) with Armando Braswell. This dance workshop is for up to 15 people and for 2 hours.
Current bid: CHF 900.00
"Made my Day"
(90cm x 90cm)
This piece is beautifully vibrant and painted by Pedro Martin Rojo. "Made my Day" is a 90cm x 90cm piece of pure beauty. This mesmerizing painting is bound to make your day.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 550.00
This BAC goodies package is filled with BAC branded booties, an official Dance Nerd T-shirt, a 1'50m double-sided Harlequin dance floor to dance at home as well as a free BAC dance class of your choice.
Current bid: CHF 325.00
This prize includes a 2-hour painting experience for two at “Paint It Easy” in Basel Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 225.00
This delicious dinner package includes a bottle of Rosé and a surprise dinner for two brought to you by Restaurant “Cartell” in Basel, Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 200.00
Benefit from this one-hour private dance lesson with Juilliard graduate and former Ballett Theater Basel soloist, Armando Braswell.
Current bid: CHF 250.00
"Jazz Singer"
(90 cm x 90 cm)
This exquisite one-of-a-kind piece features a woman with very expressive green eyes. It is also painted and signed by Pedro Martin Rojo himself.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 1750.00
Get this one-of-a-kind piece of abstract art by our in-studio artist, Paula Näff. This large art work is in two pieces.
Current bid: CHF 600.00
A gift certificate for dinner for two brought to you by Restaurant “La Manufacture” in Basel, Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 175.00
"Armando Braswell"
(90 cm x90 cm)
This beautifully vibrant art piece is by the talented Pedro Martin Rojo. Liven up your room with this unique painting.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 400.00
BAC is a small and young business and like all small businesses, we have been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic.
We are in a difficult and precarious position, however we remain positive! Any donations made will go directly to supporting the future of BAC and is deeply appreciated!
To make a donation, please click on the button below. If you have any trouble submitting your donation form, please let us know.
Donations can also be made via PayPal (admin@braswellartscenter.com) or bank transfer:
Braswell Arts Center
IBAN: CH23 0023 3233 2014 9401 W
BIC: UBSWCHZH80A
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a very tough time for the world. The past year has been full of uncertainty and restrictions and -- ironically in such a pandemic-- it has been difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle when “stay at home” orders of quarantine have left our routines to stay active no longer consistent. The minds and bodies of the Basel community have been under an extraordinary amount of stress and, as we know, movement plays a big role in mental and physical health recovery. When this pandemic is past us, it is time to change this story.
#KeepBaselMoving is an initiative aimed to revive the struggling dance and fitness industry through an organized and united effort to inspire and educate the Basel public. Through various movement workshops, performances, lectures, installations, creative advertisements and community events, we plan to not only to get children and adults moving again, but also introduce them to arts and culture and -- most importantly -- give them tools and resources to create fun and healthy habits for the future.
#KeepBaselMoving is not only a “post COVID stimulus” but also a way to inspire the people of Basel while promoting community and teamwork among Basel businesses. We see this as an opportunity to promote a positive message about movement and it's impact on health as well as bring attention to the diversity of the offerings in Basel and the importance of the Basel movement community. Through the support of corporate sponsors, we can create and nurture a high-quality lasting platform, open to all ages and all body types.
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The Braswell Arts Center is a space for creativity, collaboration and innovation in all art forms. Since 2017, we are proud to offer dance classes and other artistic experiences for all ages, levels, and body types as well as create fresh initiatives for underprivileged children and development opportunities for emerging artists. Through arts education and exchange, the BAC strives to encourage collaboration, creation, networking and entrepreneurship within the local and international arts community.
Due to government restrictions in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the BAC has been closed for 6 of the last 12 months and — even when we've been able to open — operating with a limited capacity for another 5 months due to distancing restrictions. As you can imagine, the effects of these last 11 months have impacted us greatly. We are in a difficult position at the moment, however we remain positive!
In an effort to raise awareness about the current situation of the BAC, we welcome you to join us for the Braswell Arts Center Virtual Benefit Gala. Featuring a program of high-quality dance performances from artists all around the world, the goal of this fundraiser event is to raise support for the BAC as well as to help us continue moving forward in our mission to #KeepBaselMoving.
It was a great evening! The BAC team is grateful to everyone who donated and attended this special event. We appreciate your support and good energy and we try to push forward with new ideas and programs for the Basel and international community.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Jermaine Maurice Spivey is an educator, choreographer and an award winning performer working in the field of Dance since 2002. He has spent the bulk of his career traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Europe teaching workshops, performing and staging works by artists such as Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Hofesh Shecter, William Forsythe and Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Robyn. His recent choreographic commission, Terms And Conditions (2019), was premiered by Rambert 2 at Sadler’s Wells in London, UK. Jermaine’s most recent commission, The Betweens(2020), was created with collaborator and partner Spenser Theberge and the dancers of LA Dance Project for a drive-in dance performance programmed and produced by LA Dance Project. Jermaine has also created and performed two evening length works with Spenser Theberge, Rather This Then (2017) and Position 3 (2018), the later co-created and performed with filmmaker John De Menil, with support and co-production from Navel LA and Cal Arts Dance. Photo Credits: Jermaine Maurice Spivey
Spenser Theberge is a performer and creator, working across the fields of choreography, dance, movement direction, text, costume design, pedagogy, and installation work. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a former company member with the Nederlands Dans Theater I & II and The Forsythe Company, as well as a guest artist with Kidd Pivot, the Goteborgs Operans Danskompani, the ARIAS Company, and RGWW. Spenser's creations have been commissioned and presented by LA Dance Project, The Broad Museum, MOCA Geffen, REDCAT, The Korzo Theater, Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, Place des Arts, The Juilliard School, and the Queer Biennial III in LA. Spenser's collaborations with partner Jermaine Spivey have been additionally supported by Hollins University, PACT Zollverein, Nuova Officina della Danza, and presented by The Korzo Theater, The Frankfurt LAB, Place des Arts, DISJECTA, Reed College, and NAVEL. As a movement director, Spenser has worked with artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Rami Malek, and he's designed costumes for Andrea Miller, The ARIAS Company, and Frances Chiaverini. He is also the text writer behind Alexander Ekman's award winning "Cacti". Spenser is on the dance faculty at California Institute of the Arts, a YoungArts award winner, a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and a Princess Grace Award winner. Photo Credits: Jacob Jonas
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Bryan moved with his family to New York City at the age of nine. While growing up Bryan was exposed to many urban and social dance styles, receiving his formal dance training at La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts. As a dancer, Bryan went on to perform with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, The Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT), and Crystal Pite’s company Kidd Pivot. He has originated roles in and performed in works by notable choreographers including Jirí Kylián, Ohad Naharin and Crystal Pite. As a choreographer, Bryan is the recipient of the 2017 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, the 2019 Jacobs Pillow Fellowship Award, and the 2020 prestigious German Der Faust Award in choreography. Bryan's workhas been performed around the world with companies such as the Paul Taylor Company, Netherlands Dance Theater, Ballet Theater Basel, Tanz Lucerne Theater, Hessisches Staatsballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Photo Credits: Joao Canziani
Bobbi Jene Smith is from Ames, Iowa. She is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. From 2005-2014 she was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. She has worked and collaborated with a variety of artists around the world including Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and Martha Clarke. She is a certified Gaga teacher and has taught the repertory of Ohad Naharin in schools and universities around the U.S. since 2005. She is in constant process with her three most recent works, A Study on Effort, Harrowing, and Arrowed. Photo: ©Bobbi Jene Smith
Julian NICOSIA is a choreographer and dancer. Born in Saint-Etienne France in 1989. Julian studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon from 2006 to 2010. As a dancer he began his career at the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon in 2010 under the artistic direction of Yorgos Loukos. During five years in the company, Julian performed in and created works for the most notables Choreographer including William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Mats EK, Trisha Brown, Ohad Naharin, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Maguy Marin among others. In 2015, he began to dance for the choreographer Jacopo Godani in Frankfurt am Main. Two years later, he began as his choreographic assistant as well as to re-set his pieces in prestigious company. As a choreographer, Julian created "How long is now" for the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company in 2018. Julian was also invited to film his work "LESLI " at the Fondation BEYELER in Basel, Switzerland in 2019. For his season 2020/2021 Julian will create multiples work around the world: a new "pas de deux" for Maria Kochetkova and Sebastian Kloborg, a new "pas de deux" for Ines Mcintosh and Jack Gasztowtt, a new creation for the Ensemble chorégraphique de Paris (CNSMDP) and a new creation in Mexico full evening. His work will be performed in France, Belgium, Mexico and Switzerland. Photo Credits: Dominik Mentoz
Born in Washington DC, Corey Scott-Gilbert began his dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts and continued at the Juilliard School. After graduating he was invited to the Lyon Opéra Ballet, to then become a member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in 2007. He won the Princess Grace Award in 2009. He was made a member of the Cirque du Soleil in 2010 and appeared with the “Iris” programme as part of the Academy Awards in 2012 . He returned to Europe in 2013 to work as a freelance artist. He is currently collaborating with Sascha Walts, Ligia Lewis and Eszter Salamon. coreyscottgilbert.com Photo Credits: Florian Hetz
Rachelle Scott is French/American and grew up in New York City. She received her dance training from The Alvin Ailey School and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts. At the end of her high school studies, she received the Young ARTS/New York Regional Award in Dance and the Eiger Scholarship Award. Rachelle then went to attend The Juilliard School, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. After graduating from University, Rachelle became a member of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York City, a soloist dancer with Nürnberg Ballett Staatstheater in Germany, and is a current member of Basel Theater in Switzerland. Throughout her dance career, she has danced works by Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal, Alexander Ekman, Ohad Naharin, Cyrstal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Andonis Foniadakis, Jiří Kylián, among others. Rachelle is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and Bavarian Arts Prize. Photo: © Rachelle Scott
Riley is a dance artist and producer in Portland, Maine. He works with dance improvisation, video art, sculpture, music, and live installations centered around states of consciousness through the body in motion. Riley has been an artist-in-residence at SPACE, Bates Dance Festival, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Ellis Beauregard Foundation in Rockland, Maine. Riley is a passionate arts advocate and producer in his home state of Maine since returning from Europe in 2016. He is the co-creator of Portland Dance Month, an initiative to highlight the Fall season of dance & performance in Maine. Riley continues to travel widely to perform in the work of choreographer William Forsythe, currently with A Quiet Evening of Dance. Photo: © Riley Watts
Dayne Florence is Australian, and was born in the city of Sydney. He began his dance education with the Mcdonald College of Performing Arts, and furthered his training with the Ballettschule Theater Basel. Whilst studying in Basel, he had his first professional experience as an apprentice with the Ballet du Rhin in Mulhouse, France. Once he completed his education in Basel, Dayne became a member of the NRW Junior Ballett Dortmund under the directorship of Xin Peng Wang, a soloist artist with Ballet Nürnberg with Goyo Montero, and is now a member of Ballet Basel. Over the years, Dayne has performed works by Jacopo Godani, Marco Geocke, Itzik Galili, Heinz Spoerli, Goyo Montero, Xin Peng Wang, among other choreographers. Photo: © Dayne Florence
PRINCIPAL DANCER. "Magnificent" was how Yolanda Correa's performance in the title role of Liam Scarlett's new The Firebird, created for her in autumn 2013, was described. Since arriving at the Norwegian National Ballet in autumn 2010, she has enchanted Norwegian audiences with strong interpretations of roles from the classical repertoire: the Snow Queen, the Sugar Plum Fairy and Clara in The Nutcracker, Kitri in Nurejev's Don Quixote, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Tatiana in Cranko's Onegin, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, the title role in MacMillans Manon and the demanding dual role of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake. But she has also danced leading roles in modern works such as Duato's Multiplicity – Forms of Silence and Emptiness, Forsythe's Steptext and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, and Kylián's Wings of Wax, Gods and Dogs, Symphony of Psalms and Stepping Stones. She took the leading roles in Tetley's Voluntaries and Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. She has also interpreted the title role as well as Micaëla in Scarlett's Carmen – a ballet in three acts, the principal role in Scarlett's Vespertine, Mrs. Alving in the ballet production of Ibsen's Ghosts, and a solo role in Ekman's Rooms. Originally from Cuba, Yolanda Correa studied at the Vocational School of Art in Holguín and at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. Before coming to Oslo, she danced with the Cuban National Ballet, where she was given the highest accolade of primera bailarina. She won the International Meetings of Ballet Academies Contest in 1999, and was awarded the prestigious Positano Prize in 2012 for best female newcomer on the international dance scene. In 2014 she was awarded the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera and Ballet Prize. Correa is appearing as a guest star with several companies and has danced on many prominent international stages. Performances Previous acts: in Future Memories – an evening with Jiří Kylián, A Night Creature, Insect Like in Rooms by Alexander Ekman, Agon in An evening with Balanchine, Askepott in Cinderella, Carmen in Carmen – a ballet by Liam Scarlett, Carmen in Carmen - a ballet in three acts, Clara in The Nutcracker, Epic Short in Sleepless beauty, Fru Alving in IBSEN’S GHOSTS, Grand Pas Classique in Tett på Nasjonalballetten, Imitations in Tett på Nasjonalballetten, In The Middle Somewhat Elevated in An Evening with Kylián, Forsythe and Øyen, Julie in Romeo and Juliet, Kitri in Don Quixote, Klara in The Nutcracker, Lescauts elskerinne in Manon, Manon in Manon, Odette / Odile in Swan Lake, Petite Mort in Kylian: Black & White, Same Difference in AN EVENING WITH LEÓN & LIGHTFOOT, Steptext in Back to the Future, Sukkerfeen in The Nutcracker, Sweet Dreams in Kylian: Black & White, Tatjana in Onegin, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux in A Night of Dance x 12, Theme and Variations Solo par in An evening with Balanchine, Tiger Lily in An Evening with Kylián, Forsythe and Øyen, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux in An evening with Balanchine, Without Words in Dream Play. Photo: © Yolanda Correa
Olivia Ancona was born in San Francisco, however grew up in Berkeley, London, and predominately Portland, Oregon. After training at the Juilliard School, she joined the Batsheva Ensemble (2010-2012) under the direction of Ohad Naharin and returned to the main company in 2015.Olivia was a founding member of Sharon Eyal’s LEV, and has worked with Mats EK, Johan Inger, Wim Vandekeybus in the Royal Swedish Ballet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Eastman), Luca Veggetti, Örjan Andersson, Bryan Arias, and Oona Doherty. She was a guest with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and Goteborg Danskompani. In the fall of 2016 Olivia danced, acted, and coached in the film, Suspiria.Throughout the past decade Olivia has taught gaga, improvisation, and research/repertoire workshops for over thirty-five institutions internationally. She also sets Sharon Eyal’s works on companies within Europe. Most recently she joined Alan Lucien Øyen’s, Winter Guests for the productions of ‘Story, story, die’ 2019 and current creation ‘Rivers’ 2021. Olivia is based in Berlin. Photo: © Olivia Ancona
Armando Braswell is a professional dancer and teacher from New York City. After graduating from LaGuardia High School dance department Armando obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance from The Juilliard School in 2006. Armando danced with Ballett Theater Munich, Gauthier Dance Stuttgart and just recently completed his final season as a soloist with Ballett Theater Basel. Aside from his dancing career, Armando has established himself as a guest teacher in high demand, teaching amateurs and professionals worldwide, and has also choreographed for many stages throughout Europe as well as for television. In addition to his artistic activities, Armando is also active in the journalistic field. His popular arts blog, "Interview En L'air", has become widely known in the international dance scene and earned him a place at "Dance For You Magazine” as a permanent correspondent. In 2015, Armando began to build an arts community in Basel where dancers of all levels and all body types could train in a supportive and professional environment. This idea has since expanded and in 2017, he and his wife Lisa founded the “Braswell Arts Center” – a space for innovation and collaboration in all art forms located in Basel, Switzerland. www.armandobraswell.com Photo: Prix de Lausanne 2021 © Aline Paley
Roderick George was born in Houston,Texas, where he began his studies and classical training at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy. Roderick continued to develop his skill by exploring other techniques at The Alvin Ailey School, Miami City Ballet, and LINES Professional Program all the while developing a collaboration of the techniques at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. After his general studies Roderick left his hometown and assimilated in New York City, where he began his undergraduate studies at SUNY Purchase College in 2003. Before starting his professional career, he was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in New York City in 2005 and was elected as a Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003, where he performed for the US President at the Kennedy Center. Roderick joined Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2005, which was very early on in his career engraving the beginning of his footprints in the dance world. Roderick explored more of New York as he danced with Sidra Bell Dance NY, Forces of Nature and the Kevin Wynn Collection, until he decided to move abroad to Switzerland where Roderick joined the Basel Ballet/ Theater Basel in 2007 and later to guest with the Goteborg Operan DansKompani. Roderick joined The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Germany. Where he learnt and shared his greatest moments with William Forsythe. His career has embraced the collaborations of his work and other great choreographers such as Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jerome Bel, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, Richard Wherlock, Tino Seghal and many others. Roderick has found much media attention namely, via his performance at the Swiss MTV Music Awards for DJ Antoine and Hercules & Love Affair music video, "Do You Feel the Same?" Photo: © Roderick George
Kyra Jean Green is an American artist born abroad in France, raised in Florida, and currently residing in Montreal, Canada. She obtained her BFA in dance from The Juilliard School in 2006. The following year in 2007 she was a winner of the Hubbard Street II choreographic competition and was also commissioned by the Kennedy Center to present an evening of her work. She has since presented work internationally. In 2019 Kyra created new works in Germany for Choreolab made in Ulm and in Seattle Washington for Whim W’him’s choreographic shindig. Later that year she also presented her company at Prisma Dance Festival in Panama. She was the winner of Prix Coup de Coeur du Public at Festival Quartiers Danses in September 2016, 2018, and 2020. After ten years of working as a dancer in 2017, Kyra decided it was time to create her own company which she named Trip The Light Fantastic. The company involves dancers, visual artists, and filmmakers based in the Montreal community. The company made its debut at the Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal Canada and has since performed in Panama, Denmark, New York, and Portugal. You can find more info about Kyra and her company at www.TripTheLightFantastic.me Photo Credits: Hunish Parmar
Originally from Michigan, USA, Dominic received his B.F.A from The Juilliard School in 2006. After his studies he joined La La La Human Steps (2006-09) under the direction of Edouard Lock for the production "Amjad". He then spent some time as a guest with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal before joining Nederlands Dans Theater in December of 2009. At NDT he had the opportunity to work with Crystal Pite, Johan Inger, Jiri Kylian, Sol Leo and Paul Lightfoot as well as several other choreographers. Following his time at NDT, he joined Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, and toured internationally as a member of their company L-E-V, and is now working as a freelance artist. Photo: © Dominic Santia
Harumi was born in Osaka, Japan, and is currently based in Berlin. She received BFA from The Juilliard School, and worked with many artists and companies such as Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and Staatsballett Berlin. She is a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® trainer since 2015. Parallel to her dancer career, she developed an interest for film editing, and one of her works, “Replaced Vision” has been selected and screened for various international film festivals, and she is one of the editors for Dance Masterclass, an online dance educational platform featuring Daniil Simkin, Polina Semionova, Iana Salenko and other internationally known dancers. www.harumiterayama.com Photo: © Harumi Teryama
Jubal Battisti is a Berlin-based, US-born photographer and dancer. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the New York Institute of Photography. Since moving to Berlin in 2014, Jubal has created still and moving imagery for dance-makers Andreas Heise, Sergiu Matis, Moritz Ostruschnjak, Sebastian Mattias, Josep Caballero García, Marquet Lee, and Roderick George. He has also collaborated with companies such as CORPUS, Dance On Ensemble, Kollektiv 52°07, Skånes Dansteater, Jø Stromgren Kompani, Of Curious Nature, and Staatsballett Berlin. www.jubalbattisti.com. Photo: © Jubal Battisti
Andrea Tortosa Vidal was born in 1986 in Alicante, Spain and received her education at the Estudio de Danza María de Ávila. During her studies she won prizes in Zaragoza (2001, 2003), Torrelavega (2002) and Castellón (2004). She was able to continue her training for one year at NDT 2. Her professional career began at the Basel Ballet from where she moved to the Italian Aterballetto in 2008. She resumed her work at Theater Basel in 2012 and has been dancing in Richard Wherlock’s company ever since. She has created various choreographic works, such as ‹Calzini Diversi› (2010), ‹1x4=1› (2011), ‹Generazione Persa› (2012), ‹Playground› (2015), ‹Being Frank Pedersen› (2017) ‹Untitled› (2016), ‹Nachtklang Experimental› (2018), ‹Studies for one Disklavier piano II› (2018). She regularly gives lessons in classical and modern dance and was nominated Dancer of the Year in 2016. She has worked with choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, Johan Inger, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Angeline Preljocaj, Bryan Arias, Itzik Galili, Stijn Celis, Jiří Pokorný and Richard Wherlock. In 2020 she will lead the education project ‹Suite de Danses Expérimentales›, which will take place together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Fachmaturitätsschule Basel. Photo Credits: Lucia Hunziker Photography
The Switzerland-based swede, Max Zachrisson, is a multifaceted artist working as a Videographer, Composer, Choreographer and Dancer. In 2018, while still engaged as a dancer at the ballet of Theater Basel under the direction of Richard Wherlock, he started his own company, Max Zachrisson Productions. Max Zachrisson grew up in a family of musicians and was already as a child performing in various operas and ballets at the Opera of Gothenburg, his hometown. He began his professional training to become a ballet dancer at age 11 at the Swedish Ballet School and finished his studies at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm in 2007. Since his graduation he has worked with some of the biggest names in the dance world including Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, William Forthythe, Hofesh Shechter, Nacho Duato, Alexander Ekman and many others. During the years as a performer, Max Zachrisson has received many prizes and scholarships. He was nominated for the prestigious German cultural prize “der Faust” in 2016 and was the first dancer ever to receive the Wolfram von Essenbach Cultural Prize the same year. 2012 he was awarded the Bavarian Cultural Prize by the Bavarian state minister of Art. Max Zachrisson’s interest in filmmaking started through the production of smaller dance films with himself dancing as a main focus. With time his fascination of physical movement started to shift and increasingly began to focus on the movements and motion of the camera in relation to the movements on the screen. Today he works with all sorts of videography but always with the mind of a dancer/choreographer combining movement with rhythm. His films has been seen in festivals all over the world such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival, The Gotta Minute Film Festival, Moinho Cine Fest, InShadow Festival and Screendance festival. He won the dance film competition “Movies by Movers” and was awarded Best of festival award of the Third Coast Dance Film Festival in 2013 and received the Encouragement Award from the Moving Body Festival in 2020. Other commissions include Fondation Beyeler, Braswell Arts Center, Fastighetsbyrån, Frontiers Records, BLKB and of course his main employer, Theater Basel. Max Zachrisson is also active as a choreographer and composer and his compositions are often present in his own work. Richard Wherlock commissioned him to compose for the piece “Don’t tell the Kids” premiering in 2018 and again in 2021, this time to compose a full length evening, “Empty Thrones”, premiering at Theater Basel. Photo: © Max Zachrisson
Jon Ole Olstad started dancing at the age of 16 and took his first ballet class when auditioning for a high school dance department. He quickly realized dancing was his big passion and that he would do anything to make his dream of becoming a professional dancer come true. Later he was accepted into the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo, and graduated with a bachelor degree in 2009. After college he was hired for the tour project “Kamuyot”, a collaboration between the Swedish Riksteatern and Batsheva Dance Company led by artistic director Ohad Naharin. During this time he participated in daily ‘gaga’ class, the training form used in Batsheva Dance Company, and developed a great love and respect for this work. In 2010 Jon Ole formed the choreographic duo “Ruth n ´Walter” together with Caroline Skjoershammer. Their first duet “Epilogue” got invited to the Cross Connection Choreography Competition and in 2012 they created “Dear, its time to turn the lights off”, which was performed in different festivals and venues. In 2013, Jon Ole was hired by Nederlands Dans Theater 1, led by artistic director Paul Lightfoot. He has worked with choreographers such as Paul Lighfoot and Sol Leon, Johan Inger, Hofesh Shechter, Marco Goecke, Alexander Ekman, Jiri Kylian, Mehdi Walerski and Crystal Pite. In 2015 he was awarded 1. Prize in the prestigious competition, International Solo- Tanz Festival in Stuttgart. With his solo “and we already knew the names”, he was awarded the first “Prize in Dance” and the first “Prize in Choreography. He started teaching in 2009 and has a huge passion for sharing his knowledge and the love of dance. He has taught at numerous colleges and studios across Norway, as well as in Los Angeles and New York City. His teaching credits include Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program in San Fransisco, New York University/Tisch, The National Academy Of The Arts in Oslo, Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, Movement Lifestyle and Opificio Movimento in Rome. Photo: © Jon Ole Olstad
Carlos Blanco, born in 1989 in Pinar del Río Cuba, began in 2001 his dance studies at the Provincial Art School, Raúl Sánchez García and later in 2004, he went on to study at the prestigious National School of Art. In 2007 he was part of the cast of the Corpus Spíritu, Alma Company, directed by Tangin Fong Matos. In 2009 he became part of the world famous Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, under the direction of Miguel Iglesias and later reached the category of Principal Dancer where he performed works by some of the most renowned choreographers of today. In 2013 he presented „Deslinde“, choreography of his authorship with Lisvet Barcia. In 2015 he joined Acosta Danza, led by world famous Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta. He obtained the Male Performance Award from the UNEAC and the Ramiro Guerra Award Interpretation Award in 2017. Carlos Luis has performed all over the word in some of the most iconic festivals, Galas and opera houses. He worked for new roles as such as for principal parts by contemporary choreographers of our time, a.o. Rafael Bonachela, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Kenneth Kvamstrom, Jan Linkens, Itsik Galili, Tangin Fong Matos, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Goyo Montero, Carlos Acosta, Saburo Teshigawara, Juliano Núñez, Miguel Altunaga, Marianela Boan, Maria Rovira, Jorge Crecis and Pontus Lidberg. Since season 2020/2021, he is a member of Ballet Nuremberg. Photo: © Carlos Luis Blanco Ramos
2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn New York, Shamel began his dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is 2003 YoungArts Finalist and a first prize (level 1) winner of the YoungArts competition. Shamel then went on to receive his BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Shamel has created a triptych of award winning multidisciplinary performance art works known as his “BLACK series” which has been performed and toured extensively to many festivals around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct at The Juilliard School and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. Shamel is the choreographer of the play “Help” by acclaimed poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, directed by Taibi Magar, and commissioned at The Shed in New York. He is the recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Choreography and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award winner in Choreography. Shamel is the artistic director/founder of TRIBE , a New York based multidisciplinary arts collective. TRIBE is a 92Y Harkness Dance Center’s Artist In Residence for the 2020-2021 season. For more information, visit www.shamelpitts.com or www.itsatribe.org. Photo: © Shamel Pitts
From Valencia, Spain, Alba began her dance career at the age of 17 with Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana dance company. In 2007, she joined the Compañia Nacional de Danza 2 under the leadership of Nacho Duato, and after, she was a soloist with the Ballet Theater Basel.In 2012, Alba began her choreographic career with a work titled ”Bipolar Skin”. The work was awarded second prize at the Certamen Internacional de Coreografía Burgos & New York, and won the Audience Choice Award at the 5th Copenhagen International Choreography Competition. She has been nominated for a 21st. PREMIOS MAX de las artes escénicas (21st. MAX Awards in Spain), and received second prize at Synodales - Concours Chorégraphique Contemporain for her choreography "The Breathing Room". In 2019 she won the Gold Medal and received the best choreography award at the 5th Beijing Ballet and Choreography Competition for her work "Remember me, like this”, and a choreography award at the Oltner Tanztage, NEW IDEAS II for her work "Before You Land”. Alba has creating original work for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Opèra National du Rhin (France) and ZhDK in Zürich. With upcoming commissions for SFDanceworks in San Fransisco (USA), Austinmer Dance Theatre (Australia). Alba is the co-founder, director and choreographer of Snorkel Rabbit Company. Photo Credits: Jubal Battisi
Classical Pianist, Composer, Arranger and Music Teacher. Classical pianist and accompanist since 1999 in Italy and abroad. At present I work as: Ballet Pianist at the Basel Theater, Music Theory Teacher at HWS Huber Widemann Schule, Freelance Composer, Pianist for competitions like "Prix de Lausanne", "Beijing International Ballet Competition" and ballet workshops. Photo: © Bruno Raco
Javier Rodríguez Cobos professional dancer, freelance choreographer and performance artist born in Spain and based in Basel since 2008. As a dancer, he has been part of different international dance companies such as Compañía Nacional de Danza, Introdans, Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin and Ballett Theater Basel (current). He’s been active choreographically since 2007 creating works for stage, museums, open air performances as well as choreographing for theatre plays for professional dancers and actors. In 2016 he founded the dance collective Loop Tanz, where he regularly presents his work at Neuestheater in Dornach. Photo Credits: Jubal Battisti
Icelandic professional dancer, freelance choreographer and performance artist based in Basel. Since 2008 he has been involved as a performer in multiple dance companies, theatres, mixed media and site specific productions. Pedersen’s choreographic career consists of commissioned work for Theater Basel (current employment), National Theater Mannheim, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Iceland Dance Company, among others. His work has been showcased in Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, The United States and The United Kingdom as well as participating in various international art festivals and choreographic platforms.
Javier and Frank have been supporting and advising on each others choreographic work for the past 5 years. Originating from opposite ends of Europe, their approach and upbringing towards art and culture has very different roots, which intwines, inspires and enriches their collaborative work and artistic vision.Along side visual artist Guillaume Musset, they created a series of dance videos inspired and realised during the lockdown of the pandemic in 2020 under the collective “Seasonal Suite”. Photo: © Frank Fannar Pedersen
Guillaume Musset artist photographer born in France and living and working in Basel. He lived and studied in Paris, Strasbourg and Zürich, and graduated with a Master in Fine Arts in 2010. He works for theater and dance and grows a personal body of work revealing the extra of the ordinary. He had the chance to exhibit his work at the Swiss Design Awards 2018 as a nominee in photography. He worked for Theaterfestival Basel 2014/2016/2018 and contributes to Hochparterre magazine monthly since 2013. Photo Credits: Oliver Hochstrasser
Tana Rosás Suñé was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1989 and started her training at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza del Instituto del Teatro, Barcelona. After she awarded a scholarship for a summer course in Tacnesi Centrum Prague conservatory, she went as an exchange student to the dance school in Montpellier, to the Brussels Conservatory of Dance and to the Koninkilijk Conservatorium in The Hague, the Netherlands. She joined workshops at the P.A.R.T.S conservatory (Belgium) with David Zambrano and with Roberto Olivan in the Institut del Teatre, Barcelona. She started her professional dance career in 2007 at the Metros Dance Company in Barcelona. After two years at the IT Dansa Barcelona, she joined the Ballett Theater Basel in 2010. Tana was part of the Interdans Festival in 2013 and 2014. She has performed works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Joelle Bouvier, Hofesh Shechter, Johan Inger, Angelin Preljocaj, Nacho Duato, Sharon Eyal, Bryan Arias, Alexander Ekman, Richard Wherlock and others.
Anthony Ramiandrisoa is Malagasy/ French dancer born in Madagascar and grew up in Lyon (France). He did his education in the Conservatory Region of Lyon and then in the Conservatory National Superior Music and Dance of Lyon where he was graduated and he integrates the Junior Ballet. During his school time, Anthony has worked with many different teachers and choreographers. Anthony is member of Ballett Theater Basel since August 2012 and he worked with many different renown choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal, Richard Wherlock, Bryan Arias, Jiri Pokorni, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Itzik Galili, Stjin Celis, Ed Wubbe.
Lisa Horten-Skilbrei is born and raised in Oslo. She began her dance journey with competitive disco dancing and represented Norway in European and World championships for many years. She was introduced to more artistic dance forms during high school and then directly accepted into the Norwegian National Academy of the Arts where she completed a Bachelor in Jazz Dance. During her studies she traveled internationally and received scholarships and trained with Nederlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She’s been part of FA//TN, a research movement by Tomislav English, since 2016, assisting workshops at B12 festival in Berlin. Lisa joined Ballet Basel in 2017 and has performed works by Sharon Eyal, Bryan Arias, Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Jiri Pokorny, Stijn Celis, and Richard Wherlock.
Gaia Mentoglio wurde 1997 in Napoli, Italien, geboren. Von 2002 bis 2014 studierte sie an der Art Garage School in Pozzuoli. Von 2014 bis 2017 nahm sie am Bachelor-Programm der Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden teil, wo sie an Workshops von Ohad Naharins Gaga-Technik, William Forsythe und vielen anderen Lehrern und Choreographen teilnahm. Seit 2017 tanzt sie beim Ballett Theater Basel.
Eva Dewaele is from Belgium. After completing training at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp, she was engaged by the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Theater Luzern, the Opera Göteborg, the Opéra de Lyon, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She has danced in many pieces as well as in world premieres of famous choreographers. In 2006, she met Christian Spuck when she danced in his creation Return of Ulysses. With the start of the 2012/13 season, she joined Ballett Zürich and danced in more of Spuck’s choreographies. In the 2014/15 season she became a ballet master. As a choreographer, Eva Dewaele created pieces for young choreographer series at several companies. Her choreography Passing by was created for the Junior Ballett and the piece Mit Blick auf for the Hodler retrospective of the Fondation Beyeler. Eva Dewaele has also appeared in several feature films such as Marmorera, Atrophy Bank or solo final. She staged the production of Christian Spuck's Anna Karenina at the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow, the Korean National Ballet, the Bavarian State Ballet and the Norwegian National Ballet.
Malcolm Sutherland is a choreographer/dance artist based in Dunblane, Scotland. He has worked in the professional dance world for thirteen years, and has been creating his own work since 2011. Malcolm spent seven years as a professional dancer with Staatsballet Nürnberg, Germany and since 2015 has worked as a freelance artist. He has created three full length dance works for stage, all premiering at the Tafelhalle in Nürnberg. Malcolm's works for companies include Greed commissioned for the company of Theater St Gallen, Switzerland. His works for school's include creating Aftermath for the students of Accademia Nazionale di Danza in Rome as part of Resid’AND. Malcolm's work for festivals includes Lost for words at Resolution (The Place) and Shelf Life at Interdans (Belgium). He has also been involved in several artist development programmes such as The Cohan Collective and completed his MA Choreography with Distinction in 2018. Malcolm's work has appeared in finals at several choreographic competitions including the Copenhagen International Choreographic Competition. Photo Credits: Fanni Tutek-Hajnal.
Dévi SELLY is coming from the French island, La Réunion, she began to study dance in a conservatory. She left La Réunion to pursue a professional career. First she trained in Cannes, under Rosella Hightower, and after graduating she studied at Rudra Bejart. She starts dancing with the Maurice Bejart company "Le Concour". Following this she joined Ballett Theater Basel as a stagiaire, and then joined NDT II for 3 years. In 2014, she returned to Basel as a soloist to work with Richard Wherlock. Besides her work as a dancer at Ballett Theater Basel, she is currently teaching online as a certified coach of the method SAFE® FLOOR and SAFE® BARRE, a choreographic assistant to Jorge Garcia Perez and works as a dancer for Alba Carbonell Castillo. Since 2019, ponctualy she is teaching classes and workshops at Braswell Arts Center. In her dance carrer she worked with numerous choreographers like Richard Wherlock, Jírì Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Hofesh Schechter, Johan Inger, Pontus Lidberg, Stephan Thoss, Bryan Arias, Itzik Galili, Thomas Noone, Jiri Pokorny, Alexander Ekman, Marco Goecke, Cayetano Soto, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Ohad Naharin, Hans Van Manen, Lukas Timulak, Ken Ossola, Douglas Lee and Nacho Duato... @devi.selly_munzter Photo Credits: Urs Recher
Idan Sharabi was born in Israel, 1984. He graduated Thelma Yellin and The Juilliard School before he danced in Netherlands Dans Theater and Batsheva Dance Company. He was chosen to create for NDT Upcoming Choreographers 10′ and has won The Zeraspe Award 06′, Copenhagen International Choreography Competition 2012 & 2014, The Mahol Shalem International Competition 13′, and The Hannover International Choreography Competition 2014. Idan received the PAIS grant for performances of existing shows in 2015 for Interviews/Makom, Minister of Culture Prize for Best Performance of 2015, Balle tmester Albert Gaubiers og Poul Waldorffs Fond scholarship in Denmark, and received Dododotan Best Performance 2014 for “We Men” as a performer. Between 2011 and 2014 he created for companies: “TheProject” of The Israeli Opera House, KCDC, The Israel Ballet, Ballet Junior de Geneve, NND, ZDT, and EBBC Madrid. In 2012, Sharabi was chosen to be one of the nine promising young artists of Israel by American Express and founded his group, Idan Sharabi &Dancers, in September 2012 . Since then, he has created several works for the group which were invited to festivals in Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Holland, Russia & Israel. Throughout the years, Sharabi has been teaching and creating with students/young dancers in schools & companies such as Contemporary Dance School Hamburg, Gothenburg Ballet Academy, Alvin Ailey School, The Italian Dance Alliance, Springboard Dance Montreal, The Maslool Dance Program, The Sadna in Ga’aton, Israel, Ballet Junior De Geneve, Zhukov Dance Theater SF and more. His 2014/15 residencies included companies such as DDT, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet Chilleno, NDT II, and he will premiere an original work in March 2016 with Ballet Luzern. Sharabi has been supported by American Express TYP Project, Israel Ministry of Culture, The Israel Festival, Suzanne Dellal, Bikurey Ha’Itim, The AICF, The Israeli Opera House, The Juilliard School Donors and a donor of The Dance Library of Israel Organization.
Francesco Nappa is a multifaceted artist, choreographer, director, painter, digital music composer and stage and costume designer. Born in Naples, where he started his dance studies which he accomplished at the English National Ballet School. At the early age of 17 he joined Les Ballets de Montecarlo, where soon was promoted Principal Dancer. His dancer’s career continues at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, then at the Netherlands Dans Theater I in Den Haag. He has worked, created and performed pieces by choreographers such as: K.Armitage, G.Balanchine,T.Brandsen, S.L.Cherkaoui, N.Duato, W.Forsythe, J.Godani, J.Inger, J.Kylian, J.C.Maillot, P.Martins, O.Naharin, J.Neumeier, K.O’Day, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and others. Along his carrier he has been awarded of several dance prices and been part of many dance galas and festival around the world. From 2005, he started his career as freelancer artist, conducting a personal research within the stylistic contemporary experimentation that brought him to create choreographic pieces for some of the main European theaters and ballet companies. The original stylistic code of Nappa is characterized by a fluidity in the movements, a continuous flowing and exploding energy and poetry. Photo: © Luric
Jeremy Shaw (b.1977, Canada) is a visual artist based in Berlin. His work explores altered states and the cultural and scientific practices that aspire to map transcendental experience. Often combining and amplifying strategies of verité filmmaking, conceptual art, music video, esoteric and scientific research, he creates a post-documentary space in which disparate belief-systems and histories are thrown into an interpretive limbo. Shaw participated in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and is the recipient of the 2016 Sobey Art Award. Solo exhibitions include Kunstverein in Hamburg (2018), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2018), The Store x The Vinyl Factory, London (2017), Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2013), MoMA PS1, New York (2011), and Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2006). Photo: © Jeremy Shaw
Born in Germany, Andreas Heise studied dance at the Palucca University for Dance in Dresden and in more recent years has trained in Acting in New York, Norway and East 15 Acting School in London where he also studied theatre direction. His career as a dancer began under Uwe Scholz at the Leipziger Ballett in 1998. In 2003, Andreas joined the Norwegian National Ballet in Oslo where he performed many leading roles, including Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Lenski in Onegin, Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, Oswald in Ghosts, Albrecht in Giselle and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also created roles in ballets by Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, John Neumeier, Nacho Duato, Christopher Wheeldon, Liam Scarlett, David Dawson and Jorma Elo. He has also taught extensively for the Norwegian National Ballet School and for DV8’s touring productions of John and Can We Talk About This. In 2006 Andreas started to choreograph regularly for the Norwegian National Ballet and his creations for the company include Liebestod, Nucleus, Souls' Complexion, Meditative Rose and Montverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda as a collaboration between the Norwegian Opera and Ballet. In 2013 he created How I would like to... for the Ballet Company in Ekaterinburg, Russia and later reproduced this work with dancers from Wiesbaden at the International Competition for Choreographers in Hannover 2014. In 2015, Andreas created the trio Me, Myself and I at the Palucca University for Dance in Dresden for the 90th anniversary celebrations of the school as well as a work for the Norwegian National Youth Company. In 2015 he made his UK debut as Associate Director/Choreographer of Paul Curran’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at Garsington Opera. In 2016 he staged his creation How I would like to... for Koblenz Ballet in Germany where he also created his new work Orfeo in Fall 2017. In June 2017 Andreas had his choreographic debut at the Salzburg Festival in a production of Handel’s Ariodante next to Opera Director Christof Loy and Cecilia Bartoli in the leading role. In November 2017 his new work Air was created for Bachelor Students of the 3. year at Kunsthøgskolen in Olso.Further commissions as a choreographer include a new production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at the Nederlandse Reisopera under the direction of Paul Carr in April 2018. In Fall 2018 Andreas created his first full length ballet Sandmann for the Ballet Company in Graz, Austria. His debut as Director/Choreographer in a new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in a collaboration between the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet premiered in March 2019, and a production of Strauss’ Capriccio under the direction of Christof Loy at Teatro Real in Madrid took place in May 2019. His version of Schubert’s Winterreise was premiered at the International Music Festival in Marvão, Portugal in July 2019 and had its german premiere on September 15th in 2019 at the Erholungshaus in Leverkusen under Bayer Kultur. The new creation Lamento was presented at the Stuttgarter Ballett in November 2019, before Andreas joined Christof Loy for a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin at the Norwegian National Opera in February 2020.In April 2020 Andreas returns to the Oper Graz for his new choreographed version of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and in January 2021 he will direct and choreograph the full evening Sacred Mozart at Haus für Mozart as part of the Festival Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Austria. Photo: © Andreas Heise
With this prize, you and a friend can attend a ballet performance of your choice at Theater Basel!
Current bid: CHF 150
Win this package and you and your team will experience an awesome team building workshop at the Braswell Arts Center (or Online) with Armando Braswell. This dance workshop is for up to 15 people and for 2 hours.
Current bid: CHF 900.00
This prize includes a 2-hour painting experience for two at “Paint It Easy” in Basel Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 225.00
"Made my Day" (90cm x 90cm)
This piece is beautifully vibrant and painted by Pedro Martin Rojo. "Made my Day" is a 90cm x 90cm piece of pure beauty. This mesmerizing painting is bound to make your day.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 550.00
This BAC goodies package is filled with BAC branded booties, an official Dance Nerd T-shirt, a 1'50m double-sided Harlequin dance floor to dance at home as well as a free BAC dance class of your choice.
Current bid: CHF 325.00
Benefit from this one-hour private dance lesson with Juilliard graduate and former Ballett Theater Basel soloist, Armando Braswell.
Current bid: CHF 250.00
This delicious dinner package includes a bottle of Rosé and a surprise dinner for two brought to you by Restaurant “Cartell” in Basel, Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 200.00
"Jazz Singer" (90 cm x 90 cm)
This exquisite one-of-a-kind piece features a woman with very expressive green eyes. It is also painted and signed by Pedro Martin Rojo himself.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 1750.00
Get this one of a kind piece of art by our in-studio artist Paula Näff. This large art work is a two piece.
Current bid: CHF 600.00
A gift certificate for dinner for two brought to you by Restaurant “La Manufacture” in Basel, Switzerland.
Current bid: CHF 175.00
"Armando Braswell"
(90 cm x90 cm)
This beautifully vibrant art piece is by the talented Pedro Martin Rojo. Liven up your room with this unique painting.
Shipping on your own cost.
Current bid: CHF 400.00
BAC is a small and young business and like all small businesses, we have been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic.
We are in a difficult and precarious position, however we remain positive! Any donations made will go directly to supporting the future of BAC and is deeply appreciated!
To make a donation, please click on the button below. If you have any trouble submitting your donation form, please let us know.
Donations can also be made via PayPal (admin@braswellartscenter.com) or bank transfer:
Braswell Arts Center
IBAN: CH23 0023 3233 2014 9401 W
BIC: UBSWCHZH80A
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a very tough time for the world. The past year has been full of uncertainty and restrictions and -- ironically in such a pandemic-- it has been difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle when “stay at home” orders of quarantine have left our routines to stay active no longer consistent. The minds and bodies of the Basel community have been under an extraordinary amount of stress and, as we know, movement plays a big role in mental and physical health recovery. When this pandemic is past us, it is time to change this story.
#KeepBaselMoving is an initiative aimed to revive the struggling dance and fitness industry through an organized and united effort to inspire and educate the Basel public. Through various movement workshops, performances, lectures, installations, creative advertisements and community events, we plan to not only to get children and adults moving again, but also introduce them to arts and culture and -- most importantly -- give them tools and resources to create fun and healthy habits for the future.
#KeepBaselMoving is not only a “post COVID stimulus” but also a way to inspire the people of Basel while promoting community and teamwork among Basel businesses. We see this as an opportunity to promote a positive message about movement and it's impact on health as well as bring attention to the diversity of the offerings in Basel and the importance of the Basel movement community. Through the support of corporate sponsors, we can create and nurture a high-quality lasting platform, open to all ages and all body types.
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