Archives: Artists

Dancer, choreographer, singer and actress. She is one of the most versatile artists in the field of jazz dance. Known for her sensational 20s Charleston and solo jazz dance style she has garnered over 200 million views online. She has toured the world since 2010, teaching and performing her original work in over 35 countries around the globe.

Trained in competitive ballroom dance since the age of 6, modern jazz and theatre since 2006. Ksenia’s current specialisation is solo dance styles to different types of jazz music: ragtime, swing, bebop, cool jazz, contemporary jazz, 20s charleston, etc.

Ksenia regularly performs with live ensembles and orchestras. To name a few, Christian McBride Trio (US), Postmodern Jukebox (US), Barcelona Jazz Orchestra (Sp), Keystone Sextet (Fr), etc.

Being a versatile soloist Ksenia Parkhatskaya is also much in demand at classical music festivals. She has performed original choreographies to jazz arrangements of classical pieces with the Paris Opera Orchestra at “Un Violon Sur Le Sable” and “Symphonie d’ete” (Fr). Ksenia danced in the full length opera piece at O/Modernt (Swe) and performed for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet company (US).

Along with being a dancer, Ksenia is a singer. Together with her husband, bass player and composer David Duffy, she leads her ensemble – K Quintet. Following on from the award-winning 2020 single Rose and Blue she presents her full-length debut Colours.

Active in theatre since the age of 17, he studied at the SNDO in Amsterdam from 1980 to 1984. After graduating, his work focused mainly on dance and music improvisation, collaborating with renowned artists such as Mark Tompkins, Vera Mantero, David Zambrano and Steve Paxton. In 2004, he moved to Vienna, where he collaborated with a.o. Oleg Soulimenko, Christine Gaigg and Michikazu Matsune and . Together with Robert Steijn, he formed the performance duo United Sorry. His latest solo performance, “This moment with you,” will premiere on April 28th 2026 at Studio brut. In addition to his stage work, he is deeply involved in the inclusive art project Mellow Yellow and has led workshops at institutions including Tanzquartier Wien, CCN-Montpellier, and SNDO Amsterdam.

Ezra LeBank is a Professor of Movement and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at California State University Long Beach. Meditation, Aikido, and acrobatics work their way into his curiosity of dance improvisation. His approach is inspired by many wonderful teachers including Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Mike Vargas, Nita Little, and Steve Paxton. He has been invited as a teacher at International Contact Festival Freiburg, West Coast Contact Improv Jam, Seattle Festival for Dance Improvisation, Poland Contact Festival, Oberlin CI@50, and many more. He has created and performed Contemporary Circus and Dance Theatre across the world. Through his research company Bad Goat Dance, he studies Dirt Work & Cloud Tectonics as methods of bringing ourselves closer to the earth and to each other.

Lisa Nelson is a dance-maker, improvisational performer, and collaborative artist who has been exploring the role of the senses in the performance and observation of movement since the ’70s. Stemming from an investigation of video and dance, she developed an approach to real-time editing and performance she calls “Tuning Scores.”

Nelson travels widely to perform, teach and create dances and maintains long-term collaborations with other artists, including Steve Paxton, Scott Smith, Image Lab, and Daniel Lepkoff. She has co-edited Contact Quarterly international dance and improvisation journal since 1976. She’s received various encouragements over the years, including an Alpert Award in the Arts in 2002 and an United States Artist Award in 2020. Her writings are published in numerous journals (print and online) as well as books. A collection of documents is available on oralsite.be.

Along her workshops held in 2001 in Brussels and organized by Contredanse, Lisa Nelson collaborated on the publication Vu du corps. Since 2014, she’s collaborating with Baptiste Andrien and Florence Corin for Contredanse Editions on the presentation and translation of the Tuning Scores, notably through a booklet and two video games: Touché and 3d Tuning Game.

Mohammadreza (Momo) Akrami is an Iranian-Canadian dance and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, San Francisco, and Brussels. With a multifaceted background in mathematics, physics, and theater, Momo brings a unique perspective as a creator, dancer, and teacher. His diverse dance lineage encompasses Flying Low/Passing Through/Improvisation with David Zambrano, Butoh/Noguchi Taiso with Atsushi Takenouchi and Imre Thorman, and Grotowski/post-Grotowski theater. His physical practice is enriched by martial arts such as Wing Chun, Escrima, and Chi Kung.

Momo has taught at various institutions including Simon Fraser University, Dance Arts Institute (formerly Toronto Dance Theatre) in Toronto, UC Berkeley, Studio 303 (Montreal), ODC (San Francisco), and BOE (San Francisco). His teaching philosophy integrates his dance lineage, personal practice, and life experiences, fostering an inclusive and exploratory learning environment.

Momo’s artistic practice explores the intersection of dance, image, and sound to shift perceptions of time and self. Grounded in his lived reality in Iran, his projects examine bodily autonomy and collective agency. Committed to questioning artistic norms, Momo creates environments that foster exploration, driven by his fascination with epistemology, playfulness, and cultural appropriation.

Multidisciplinary artist with education in contemporary dance.
P Bastys explores movement through concept of transformation.
Miss Plastica is artist name used when working on transformative performances.

With a classical ballet training at the M. K. Čiurlionis National art school (LT) and
bachelor in contemporary dance at The Danish National School of Performing Arts (DK), P Bastys had few projects in a contemporary dance field.

Worked with choreographers such as Mia Habib (NO) with a following two year tour in France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Yvonne Rainer (US) where he took part in live performances of Yvonne Rainer’s retrospective exhibition at the “Raven Row” gallery in London.

As well he did few collaboration projects with other freelance artists.

After few years working as a contemporary dancer, Povilas shifted his focus and started working at the cabaret Mademoiselle in Brussels.

There Povilas established its alter ego Miss Plastica.
During his four year journey at the cabaret scene, Povilas started exploring Miss Plastica’s performances on other stages and performance constations such as Beyeler fondation (CH), Mo Museum (LT) and other non theatre spaces such as music festivals and galleries.
P Bastys found an interest to explore pop culture and entertainment fields.
There he found a lot of freedom for expression and possibilities to improve creative quality level at those spaces.

Momentaly Povilas is organising cabaret events in Lithuania where he is establishing performance space setting for alternative short performances.

Besides dance, artist is closely working with makeup, costume and set design to bring out very personalised performances.