ROBIN DINGEMANS
Bal Moderne Ft. M.E.D.A.L.S.S.
Bal Moderne Ft. M.E.D.A.L.S.S. is an innovative and inclusive dance project created for all ages, currently touring for children and young people – a place where movement becomes language, storytelling and meetings across borders. The project aims to celebrate pluralism and diversity, and is inspired by positive intercultural childhood experiences of the project's initiating artist, Robin Dingemans. Māori pōwhiri (welcoming ceremonies) and the warmth and sense of community of Māori and Pacifica cultural and artistic spaces were very formative to Robin's understanding of the transformative power of the arts. The project is also a contemporary interpretation of the popular Bal Moderne format, where accessibility, quality and creativity go hand in hand. https://www.rosas.be/en/projects/501-bal-moderne
Seven international choreographers have been invited to create contemporary social dances – each with their own unique style, background and story. The participants take part in choreographies that mix the playful with the symbolic, the traditional with the innovative. Here, each person has the opportunity to express themselves in their own way and contribute their personality to the form of the dance.
Current touring version for kids: This project wants to arouse curiosity, strengthen children's self-confidence and provide a concrete experience of diversity and community. Dance becomes a tool for empathy, interculturality and creative learning. In the meeting with up to three choreographers, the children experience and learn about dance live – but it doesn't end there. The digital material (mini-interviews, instructional videos, inspiration) enables continued work in the classroom (coming summer 2025). All dances are easy to learn, but at the same time carry artistic edge and unexpected elements that challenge the children's perspective and imagination. The project is also a safe space where the children's own reactions, expressions and interpretations are not only welcomed - they are part of the whole. Bal Moderen Ft. M.E.D.A.L.S.S. is a tool for the joy of movement, cultural understanding and pedagogical renewal. A chance to invite the world into the classroom - through dance.
Funded and supported by Weld, Stockholm and The Arts Council of Sweden.
Maria Naidu
Maria Naidu debuted as a dancer in 1987 and as a choreographer two years later. Over the years, her work has been performed in sixteen countries on five continents. She is educated at the Ballet Academy in Gothenburg and at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City, where she lived and worked for thirteen years. For eight of these years, she was employed by the renowned company Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS. As a dancer and choreographer, Maria strives to make dance accessible to a wide audience, without sacrificing artistic excellence. Her work is based on a strong belief in dance's ability to communicate without boundaries, beyond language, background and intellect. In recent years, she has primarily worked with issues related to identity, cultural/ethnic belonging, body ideals and representation.
Escarleth Romo Pozo
Escarleth Romo Pozo is a Nicaraguan-Peruvian dance artist based in Scandinavia. She uses performance as a lens and tool to be with the world; attending to our inner landscapes in resonance & dissonance with outside forces. Performances that include bodies, dance, ceremonies, rituals and choreographies. She is interested in continuous re-creation and expansion of the body as an act of defiance & resistance towards constructed impositions and explorations of our potentialities.
Destiny Af Kleen
Destiny Af Kleen’s work and projects are grounded in social care, a genuine interest in her audience (and people in general), and operate from an activist and political standpoint. Using ”place” as a starting point, Destiny has worked on several participant-based projects that address the shared public space. In her work with DansPlats Skog (an artist-driven production space and dance stage), she reflects extensively on the concepts of place development and Urban Norm. Over the past few years, she has created a series of installations and site-specific works that tour in Gävleborg County, danced with horses, built dance floors in the forests of Hälsingland, planted 40 trees for consolation, and created and patented two hugging machines. Destiny’s work ”Dansa med hästar” (Dancing with Horses), co-choreographed by Sara Soumah (MELO) and co-created by 12 horses and 6 humans, premiered in August 2022 and is being recreated in multiple locations during 2023/24. In the fall of 2022, Destiny composed lullabies for unborn children in collaboration with the mothers-to-be. In 2023, she created a piece where she got lost with the audience and danced the performance piece ”Regndansen” (Rain Dance) for and with thousands of people across the country. In the summer of 2025, ”SLY” will premiere, a music and dance piece inspired by the lives of sawmill workers in Ljusne during the 19th century and the British colonization of Ghana. Destiny will explore how the depletion of the forest and the erasure of generations of people have shaped the world today. The work revolves around inheritance and how physical scars are passed down. From 2023 to 2025, she is pursuing a master’s degree in NPP (New Performative Practices) at Stockholm University of the Arts(SKH).
Ama Kyei
Ama Kyei. I’m a Finnish- Ghanaian dancer, dance teacher, choreographer and doula. I looove groove, flow, music and presence also known as dance. Besides my passion for dance I love nature, children, colors and community. My heart burns for creating for and with children and youth. I'd love to see a world where children and youth got to grow up being in their superpowers.
Liv Aira
Liv Aira holds a bachelor's and master's degree in dance and choreography from the Institute of the Arts in Barcelona. She founded the dance company Invisible People Contemporary Dance in 2018 and in 2024 she opened the doors to Jillat - the world's first Sami dance center. She is passionate about bringing performing arts and professional dance to rural areas and her passion lies in Sami culture. "When I create dance art today, it's not just about the movement itself, but about everything that surrounds it – nature, people, my history, the history of others, our future, my future, joy, sadness. The creative process often begins with me "asking for permission" and a dialogue begins. I ask questions, curious about how my family has been affected throughout history and in the present. It's always a challenge, sometimes unsettling and scary, because it feels like I should have the answers already, just like my language – it should just be there. But now it doesn't. Art for me is an expression of courage – a way to open the doors that I have keys to, but am afraid to use. Because I have been told to keep these doors locked and preferably throw away all the keys, even burn the whole door.
Sebastian Björkman
Sebastian Björkman, Sámi family name Partapuoli, is a dancer and dance teacher with roots from Ammarnäs, but also in some of the families that were forcibly relocated from the Karesuando area in the 1930s. Through dance, he seeks to return to the voices of his origins, both with modern dance but also with one leg left in urban dance culture, which he has been active in for about 15 years. Through his dance, he explores different ways of relating to his Sami heritage and identity and how it can be expressed in his art. He is educated in Streetdance at the University of the Arts in Stockholm and has focused primarily on the styles of popping and locking. Recently, he has worked with the interdisciplinary work Guoddi and before that with Marit Shirin Carolasdotter and the Riksteatern in the work Jarkelidh.
Sean MacDonald
Sean MacDonald is a movement artist from Aotearoa New Zealand. He is of both Māori and Pākeha heritage and his whakapapa/ancestry is to the iwi/tribes of Ngāti Kahungunu Ki Waimārama, Ngāti Raukawa ki Hokio Beach, Rangitāne ki Wairau Bar and Tūwharetoa ki Taupo. For the past 30 years he has worked and played primarily in the genre of contemporary dance as performer, choreographer, and teacher. Sean was awarded a Te Tumu Toi NZ Arts Foundation Laureate in 2023.