Springback Academy: 2022 selection

Springback Academy had more than 150 applications this year – a record-breaking number, with so many strong candidates that it was exceptionally difficult to choose just ten. But here they are, the ten selected writers for Springback Academy 2022. We look forward to all of us meeting together with at Spring Forward 2022 in Elefsina, Greece, 28 April to 1 May.

Bas Blaasse (BE) is a freelance writer based between Brussels, Belgium and the Netherlands. He writes about contemporary visual and performance art, is an editor at HART magazine, and publishes fiction. He studied philosophy in Leuven, Berlin, Brussels and Copenhagen, and photography and visual arts in Breda.

Karina Buckley (IE) studied ballet and biochemistry before moving into broadcasting in 2000. She completed a certificate in Dance Studies at Inchicore College of Further Education, Dublin and her dance teacher training is ongoing. She’s currently exploring the interplay between cameras and choreography in the realm of screendance and is excited by the possibilities technology offers to dancers and dance-makers. Karina is co-founder of Climate Without Borders, a global network of weather communicators working to raise climate awareness and promote climate action with fact-based storytelling. Where facts fail to convince, stories are key and Karina firmly believes that dance – and other artistic endeavours – can be effective agents of social inclusion and change. She has previously written about dance for Ireland’s national public service media organisation and for the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.

Inês Carvalho (PT) is a dance artist and communications specialist in the performing arts sector. She graduated at the University of Porto with a BA in Journalism and a Postgraduate in Contemporary Dance. She also holds a Master’s in Arts Management from Middlesex University London. She started her professional career in dance in her hometown Porto as a performer, choreographer and teacher. At the same time, she developed her work in media collaborating with press and TV. Currently, she explores dance writing at the magazines Dance Art Journal (UK) and Gerador (PT) while working as a freelance communications coordinator in Portugal, UK and Finland. In 2020, she founded diagonal dance – a creative agency providing marketing and communications services to dance artists and organisations.

Berit Einemo Frøysland (NO) grew up in Lærdal in Norway. She studied writing at Westerdals School of Communication and graduated as a contemporary dancer at Balettakademien in Stockholm in 2016. She was based in Berlin for the next five years, where she worked as a dancer and a choreographer, staging several works at dock 11. In 2019, she went to Tokyo on the cultural exchange scholarship from the Berlin Senate. During this trip she started writing for Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift, the leading journal for theatre and dance in Scandinavia, where her writing is now regularly featured. In 2020/2021, she was amongst three nominated for ‘Årets kritikk’ (Review of the year) from Kritikerlaget for her text on Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival. Recently, she moved back to Norway and is currently based in Oslo.

Plamen Harmandjiev (BG/AT) is a theatre and dance writer from Sofia, currently based in Vienna. He holds a BA in Theatre Studies and Theatre Management from The National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia. During his bachelor’s he spent a year at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, Germany, and is currently part of the Theatre, Film and Media Studies master programme of the University of Vienna. He has written critical reviews, articles and interviews for various professional Bulgarian theatre, puppetry, and dance print/online outlets. He was involved in writing for multiple international performing arts festivals, both in and outside Bulgaria. His interest in dramaturgy led to an internship at Landestheater Linz. Along with his writing practice he has collaborated in performances of artists like She She Pop and most recently Robert Wilson as Assistant Director in The Tempest, at the National Theatre Ivan Vazov, Sofia.

Georgia Howlett (UK/IT) is a dancer and writer based between the UK and Italy. She graduated from Central School of Ballet in London and since 2020 has been living in Rome to deepen her contemporary dance studies at Dance Arts Faculty. Georgia has performed contemporary and classical works by international choreographers as well as dance works for television and has choreographed pieces in collaboration with the Royal College of Music and Central St Martins University for Arts. Georgia contributes critical reviews and features for The Upcoming online culture magazine.

Hang Huang (FR) began his passion for dance with Wim Wenders’s film Pina. Ever since, he has watched numerous dance performances, from established names to emerging ones, in France as well as in other European countries. He started his blog dancevisa.com in 2018 and actively follows dance news online. In addition, with his marketing know-how, he volunteers for the French non-profit association Mécènes DanseAujourdhui and gives advice to certain dance-related artists. His dream is to become a true dance marketer engaging more people around the world to love and support dance.

Ariadne Mikou (GR/IT) is a Greek-born dance artist-scholar based in Italy. With a background as an architect, her research is focused on the social forms that emerge from the crossover between corporeal, spatial and screen-based arts. She is currently an editor for the international portal The Theatre Times and a writer of academic articles that explore expanded and interdisciplinary choreographic practices, community-making processes and site interventions. Since 2011, she has been the co-founder of futuremellon/NOT YET ART, an art collective that has enabled her to expand her choreographic and curatorial explorations. She also holds a PhD in interdisciplinary choreographic practice that was fully funded by the University of Roehampton (London). In 2021, she was awarded a Research Grant for the Creative Europe project Dancing Museums-The Democracy of Beings from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice where she is also a Research Assistant for the SPIN project Memory in Motion: Re-Membering Dance History (2019–2022).

Lea Pischke (DE) is a choreographer, dancer and writer based in Berlin. Lea graduated from École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille with a degree in Fine Art, and with an MA in Creative Music Technology from Bath Spa University, UK. After participating in the DanceIntensive programme at Tanzfabrik Berlin, she completed her training in choreography at SEAD in Salzburg and P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Her latest works Spectral Schematics (BE) and Darija Divan (DE), with residencies at CND, Paris, RAMDAM – un centre d’art, Lyon, Espace Darja, Casablanca, and the European Centre for the Arts, HELLERAU/Dresden, have been presented in Belgium, France, Bulgaria and Germany. JUA KALI, her collaboration with Kenyan choreographer Jared Onyango, premiered in Berlin in 2021. Lea is a contributor to STREAM, a platform for live art writing associated with Tanzfabrik Berlin.

Sedera Ranaivoarinosy (FR) is a freelance writer, journalist and translator based in Paris. She studied journalism and dramatic literature in New York and came back home to work in the philanthropy and social economy sectors for 5 years before going freelance to go back to her great love: writing, in French and in English. Her work centres around amplifying initiatives that foster change in the world. When writing about art, she seeks to capture the transformative power of performance on its viewers. She is currently working on a book project rooted in the history of women in the hip-hop movement, with dance as a central focus.