Springback Academy 2024

Daria Ancuța (RO) is a 21-year-old theatre critic, playwright and emerging dance writer based in Bucharest. Currently a third-year student at The National University of Theatre and Film “I. L. Caragiale”, where she is pursuing a BA degree in Theatre Criticism & Cultural Management. Writing her final thesis on the relationship between artistic creation and critical reception, she is passionate about understating the dynamics of the artist-critic duo in both theatre and dance. Her articles and reviews have been published in the two most important performing arts magazines in Romania – Scena.ro and Teatrul azi. Daria is also editor-in-chief of Dissolved Magazine – an online platform through which she strives to promote young arts journalists in Romania and engage readers in a dynamic cultural dialogue. Since 2020, she has participated in a wide range of international theatre and dance festivals as a critic, curator and moderator for panel discussions. Given the fact that she comes from an academical background mainly focused on theatre, the first step in overcoming her imposter syndrome when writing about dance was her participation in the Resolution Review 2024 programme at The Place (London). IG: instagram.com/daria__ancuta FB: facebook.com/dariancuta

Researcher in the fields of performing arts and posthumanism, independent curator, editor, theatre and dance critic based in Cracow (Poland). She is a graduate of theatre studies and film studies. She is currently developing her doctoral project at Jagiellonian University. In recent years she has been researching ecological thought in performing arts and co-creating projects based on the formula of artistic research. Among them were the art and research residency program ‘Biopolis’, the interdisciplinary feminist project ‘KASSIA’, and the ‘Look Around’ site specific project curated collectively for the exhibition of countries and regions as part of the international scenographic exhibition Quadriennale Prague 2023. She was a cofounder of the Curatorial Workgroup collective. She is an editor of Dialog magazine and she publishes regularly in Didaskalia, Dwutygodnik and teatralny.pl. She is an artistic companion of choreographer Agata Siniarska. FB: https://www.facebook.com/zuza.berendt IG: https://www.instagram.com/zuzanna_berendt

Ingeborg Zackariassen (NO) is an artist/choreographer/writer based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has an MFA in Contemporary Performative Arts from the University of Gothenburg. After a 24-year career with GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Skånes Dansteater and Norwegian National Ballet, she continues to be an active performer and choreographer on the independent art scene. In addition to Springback Magazine, her writing has been published by Arbetaren, Danstidningen, Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift, Tidskriften Horisont and Scenkonstguiden. She was awarded an international critic’s grant from Creative Europe Culture Programme: Beyond Front@ Bridging Periphery 2024/25. Ingeborg is co-founder and artistic director of No Deadline and co-curator of the annual art festival Rabbit/Duck. IG: @ingeborg_zackariassen FB: facebook.com/ingeborgzackariassen Web: no-deadline.com

Marína Srnka (BE/RS) is a poet, dance writer and photographer currently based in Belgium. After graduating from Cle - Cultures Littèraires Europèennes with a double master's degree from the universities of Bologna and Strasbourg, she is now doing a master’s degree in Cultural Studies at KU Leuven. Her main interests lie in the intersections between the arts, cultural history, and health humanities, and over the years she has developed a profound interest in dance and performance studies. She writes dance reviews for various magazines, most notably Dance Context Webzine (CZ) and Pzazz (BE). FB: facebook.com/marina.srnka.9 IG: instagram.com/m_srnka

Simina Popescu (RO) (they/she) is an author, illustrator and journalist from (and momentarily based in) Bucharest, Romania, with a degree in Graphic Communication Design from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Simina's debut graphic novel, Leap, a queer coming of age story set in a Romanian ballet school, is out this fall under Macmillan US. The research for this book took them into a deep exploration of the local classical and contemporary communities, as well as incited a great love for dancing herself. Whenever they're not drawing or writing, Simina can be found sneaking in to watch rehearsals at the Bucharest National Opera or moving her creaky knees on marley floors around the world, from Batsheva's Suzanne Dellal centre to Alvin Ailey's in New York. FB: https://www.facebook.com/simina.popescu.3 IG: https://www.instagram.com/siminaapopescu

Francesc Nel·lo Deakin (DE/ES/AU) is a dancer and writer currently working as a freelancer in Germany. He studied at the Koninklijke Balletschool van Antwerpen and at the Hamburg Ballet school, after which he joined the young dance company ITDansa in Barcelona. He then became a member of the Hessisches Staatsballett in Wiesbaden and danced there for four years, performing works by choreographers like Sharon Eyal, Imre & Marne van Opstal and Xie Xin. Having now entered the world of freelance work, he is looking to expand into other fields of art such as dance and film criticism, as well as writing fiction. He received a small prize in 2023 for a short story written in Catalan in the "XXVII Certamen Literari Alba Sant Jordi". IG: @francescnello X: @Alumnedecinema

Luke Macaronas is an experimental performance maker, writer and producer from Naarm (Melbourne) of Greek and Serbian descent. Drawing on his training in Balkan folk dance, transcultural theatre, cabaret, ballet and butoh, as well as queer subculture and Christian ritual, his work seeks to revive theatre as an ecstatic intervention on the mundane. Luke is a member of the internationally acclaimed Japanese physical theatre company Gekidan Kaitaisha (Theatre of Deconstruction), and has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Art History and Theatre Studies from The University of Melbourne. He completed his Honours thesis with the Naarm-based theatre company Rawcus, researching the aesthetics of sensation and affect in disability theatre. He lives between Athens, Tokyo and Naarm.

Graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse with a degree in Performing Arts in 2015, he threw himself fully into creation. He created Collective/less in 2018, whose first piece Mémoire d'un Oubli will be released in January 2019. As a performer, he works with several companies. In 2020, following his confinement, he resumed his studies with a master's degree in project management and international cultural establishments at Lyon 2 University, working at the Alliance Française de Gaborone, the théâtre les Bambous in Réunion and the Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes et de Bretagne. Since 2022, he has been combining the resumption of his artistic projects, the start of a dance criticism project aimed at young artists, the search for projects as a choreographic performer, and support for the production, development and dissemination of circus companies. September 2024 will see the release of the Kulture.S podcast, which will have fun popularizing the vocabulary of the choreographic field, and in September 2025 with a creation for young audiences in cooperation with Botswana: L0 (l'ailleurs est l'avant). Robin Lamothe : Directeur artistique - Collective/less

Hannah Finnimore works in dance marketing and is based in Yorkshire, UK. She has studied a wide variety of dance styles since 2006, and holds a first class Dance BA from the University of Surrey. Her dissertation, examining choreography in horror, received the Pauline Hodgsen Memorial Award for the Best Piece of Dance Analysis. She has undertaken a placement year with Hofesh Shechter Company, and acted as a One Dance UK Ambassador. She participated in Siobhan Davies Dance's Next Choreography Programme and East London Dance's Fi.ELD Producer's programme. Since 2021, she has worked extensively in arts marketing in Northern England. Hannah currently works with Yorkshire Dance, where she has supported the promotion of numerous festivals and community co-productions. She continues to pursue her interests in dance in cinema, and the role of the arts in place-making and identity-making. FB: @hannah_finnimore X: @HannahFi

Born in Iran, I discovered my artistic home in Paris, completing my dance studies at Acts Ecole de Danse Contemporaine. From captivating residencies to transformative internships, my journey is a tapestry of creativity. Grounded in dramatic literature from Art University in Iran, I not only contributed to theater magazines but also wrote compelling theatre pieces. Leading workshops at the University of Shiraz, I seamlessly blended my love for dance and the written word. Now, as I emerge in the dance world, I passionately research and choreograph my unique dance pieces. With a fusion of cultural influences and artistic disciplines, I'm set to redefine the boundaries of contemporary dance, promising an exhilarating and diverse contribution to the global artistic landscape. Insta: fatii_.gh

Donald Hutera has been writing and speaking about dance, theatre, live performance and the arts both in the US and the UK since 1977. Publications and websites to which he's contributed include The Times of London, The New York Times, Animated (Foundation for Community Dance, now known as People Dancing), Dance Umbrella, londondance.com and many others. He co-authored The Dance Handbook with former Time Out dance editor Allen Robertson, edited The Rough Guide to Choreography and is featured in Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. An experienced post-show host, Hutera has been a jury member for, among others, the Total Theatre Awards, BE Festival and Casa Festival. In 2013 he began curating, producing, creating and providing dramaturgy for GOlive Dance and Performance Festival and, the following year, co-founded Chelsea Arts Collective aka CAC with visual artist/philosopher Lilia Pegado.

Kelly is based in Edinburgh, Scotland and has been writing about dance, and the arts in general, for over 20 years. She has been Dance Editor and Kids Editor for The List Magazine since 1999 and Dance Critic and feature writer for The Scotsman newspaper since 2000. In this capacity she has interviewed choreographers and dancers across the world, and reviewed thousands of shows (including around 100 over three weeks each year at the Edinburgh Festival). Kelly has also written for Dance Europe, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Sunday Herald, The Daily Record, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, and contributed articles to many theatre and dance programmes, including several for the Dance Consortium and Edinburgh International Festival. She is a regular guest on BBC Radio Scotland’s Janice Forsyth Show, on the review panel. Kelly has also been part of the curation panel for ‘Made in Scotland’, an annual showcase of theatre and dance at the Edinburgh Fringe, and sat on Scottish Government funding panels awarding grants to youth dance projects.

Sanjoy Roy has written on dance for the Guardian since 2002, and contributed to many other publications including the New Statesman, Dance Gazette, Dancing Times, and he is London correspondent for Dance International magazine. He was formerly production editor and book designer for Dance Books Ltd. He wrote the Guardian's popular Step by step guides to dance, and conceived and scripted the much-loved animation series Planet Dance: a visitor's guide to contemporary dance. He has been a writing mentor at Springback Academy since 2014. He keeps an archive of his writing at sanjoyroy.net.

Laura Cappelle is an arts writer and sociologist who lives in France. She has been the Financial Times’ Paris-based dance critic since 2010 and covers French theatre for the New York Times. Additionally, she writes ‘France/Dance’, a monthly column for Dancing Times, and has contributed to the Guardian, Pointe, Dance Magazine and the Globe and Mail, among other publications. She earned a PhD in sociology at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 in 2018, with a doctoral thesis about the creation process in ballet companies. She is currently an associate researcher with the CERLIS (Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux). In 2015, she was the dance consultant for the BAFTA-nominated docudrama Rudolf Nureyev – Dance to Freedom, directed by Richard Curson Smith. In 2020, she edited a new French-language introduction to western dance history, Nouvelle Histoire de la danse en Occident (Seuil).