Pitching Session Saxony

The FORWARD DANCE COMPANY is the mixed-abled dance company of LOFFT – DAS THEATER in Leipzig. Under the artistic direction of Gustavo Fijalkow, it works with different choreographers to explore socio-political themes. This results in dance performances for specific locations in public spaces as well as for the stage. Since its founding in 2020, the FORWARD DANCE COMPANY has performed at venues including the German Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale and opened the 2024 Weimar Art Festival. 

The go plastic company (Dresden/Leipzig) has been exploring the intersections of contemporary dance, performance and hybrid formats for years. Their work combines physical precision with striking sound and visual spaces, translating these into choreographic movements of thought. Since 2023, the focus has been on audio description as an aesthetic force: as a choreographic voice, dramaturgical layer and poetic extension of the stage. 

In her forty years of artistic work, Irina Pauls reflects on social upheavals before and after 1989/90. She continuously researches, among other things, changing relationships between people in the post-mining region south of Leipzig. In the deformed and charred landscape, Pauls seeks out the potential for renewal: rituals are revived and combined with contemporary dance forms. A new approach to cultural heritage creates dancing communities. 

Miller de Nobili ist das gemeinsame künstlerische Projekt von Maria Chiara de’ Nobili und Alexander Miller. Mit Wurzeln im Breaking, urbanen Tanz, zeitgenössischem Tanz und Schauspiel verschmelzen ihre Arbeiten heterogene choreografische Sprachen zu einer gemeinsamen körperlichen Form. Das Ensemble versteht Tanz als künstlerische Sprache mit sozialer Verantwortung und schafft zugängliche Performances, die sich durch radikale Körperlichkeit und technische Präzision mit aktuellen Spannungen und unseren gemeinsamen sozialen Realitäten auseinandersetzen. 

Sahar Damoni’s artistic practice emerges from embodied research, contemporary dance, and physical theatre. She explores trauma, psychology, and women’s experiences within Palestinian Arab Christian contexts. Through somatic memory, vibration, trembling, and an “archaeology of the flesh,” she reveals silenced narratives. Her work challenges sociopolitical limitations imposed on the body, transforming performance into resilience, resistance, and embodied freedom.