Willeke, Belgium

As a queer person, my relationship with my body has often felt fractured or performative, but dance has opened a space for both healing and discovery. It allows me to meet my body with curiosity rather than judgment - to explore what it can do, what it can become, and how it connects to the world around it. I approach movement as research, a way to test ideas through experience and sensation.

Lately, I’ve been drawn to themes of monstrosity and otherness - how the unfamiliar, the excessive, and the strange can expand how we understand ourselves.

Živa, Slovenia

This is my second year moving, exploring and expanding at NEFCD. From radical optimism last year, my research now led me to radical consciousness. I am deep diving into this mystery that is still unsolved despite so many years of scientific research. I just by keep asking questions and keep looking for multiple possible answers. Exploring consciousness is exploring dance and exploring dance is exploring consciousness. I want to know how these two elements connect and how all of this connects to the people and the world around me. One thing that I’m constantly keeping in my mind is that we are not passive observers, but active participants in the construction of our experience of the world. That’s the only certainty.

Tora, Sweden

I am from Sweden. It’s my second year here and I like to do stuff. I’m into dance poetry art reading friends whatever, I really do a lot of different stuff but my latest obsession is running and a spikemat…

Alice, Italy

Hi reader! I’m Alice, I’m a 19 years old student at the NEFCD. Dance arrived in my life at the early age of 3. In these 16 years dancing I have practiced various style of dance.However lately I realised that the contemporary dance is the one that make me fell the best and free to express my self entirely. I’m so excited for this new upcoming year!

Hanna, Sweden

Hej! My name is Hanna. I’m born in February 2001; the year of anticipated computer failure, the first Lord of the rings film and a well-known riot in the Swedish city Gothenburg. 

Before this program I studied a one year contemporary dance program at the Ballet Academy in Stockholm, where I was born. I am intrigued by the function dance harbors as a ritualistic practice, regardless if one views oneself as a religious or spiritual person or not. I feel closest to myself when I move and enjoy ‘proof’ of my ability to carry myself, whether that’s in a studio or hiking in nature. I think dance treats us to a medium of wordless communication. I also enjoy mime and clown, I have a lot of natural play in me, or ’barnasinne’ in swedish. 

Outside of dance I enjoy whatever might interest me during that time. I tend to dive deep and then it sticks for however long it does. Right now I’m back into criminology and a strategic card video game called Hearthstone. Honourable mentions but in no particular order also include: reading, sewing and knitting, food(!), animals, doing collages or painting aquarelle, psychology and yoga.

LAB program

Grim, Sweden

I am here to practice trust — to meet myself in the full range of my movement and discover freedom within it. Experience sensations that can’t be pinned down or ”understood” by thought. To be released and active at the same time when moving as well as giving and receiving equally in space. I am also composing music, singing, playing the piano and exploring improvisational spaces between musicians and dancers.

Mentorship program

Daniela, Italy

I'm still learning about myself and finding out who I am. For now, this I know: I love dance, nature, Jesus, books, puzzles, learning and discovering. I'm afraid of needles, of making mistakes and of the dark. (I got to see the northern lights!)

Genevieve, USA

Hello! My name is Genevieve, and this is my second year at NEFCD. Though I mainly trained in classical ballet growing up, I love exploring the vast types of dance that encompass the art form and have trained in different styles such as contemporary, tap, and Irish dance.  I love the strange and peculiar, and I am always on the lookout for oddities in life. I look forward to encountering new and different perspectives/approaches to dance and growing as both an artist and a human.

Anastasia, Russia

I am a dancer and physical theatre performer. In my practice, I search for a language where movement, emotion, and narrative merge into a single whole. What matters most to me is the process — improvisation, listening, and the pursuit of physical truth rather than fixed form. My participation in the NEFCD mentorship program is an opportunity to strengthen my body and refine my contemporary dance technique, allowing me to deepen my research in movement and expand my artistic possibilities.

Alja Turk, Slovenia

I’m Alja – a mover, creator, and curious soul from Slovenia. I studied dance in Spain, a place I’d love to return to one day for work, but also for the sunshine, sangria, patatas bravas, and some surfing in between. :)

Alongside dance, I’m finishing my psychology studies, with a passion for exploring how movement and the mind intertwine. In the future, I’d love to engage in therapeutic dance practices more deeply, but right now my my attention is on evolving my choreographic voice. That’s why I’m joining the NEFC – to receive guidance, exchange ideas, and grow further as an artist.

SPRING program

Mara, Germany

Hej, I‘m Mara, I come from Germany and I will be joining the half year dance program here at NEfCD. 

Since my childhood I was dancing and now after I finished my studies in Pedagogy und Musicpedagogy in my study city Würzburg, I will follow that dream to dance intensively for an amount of time. 

My plan for the future is to combine my experience in music and pedagogy with dance and use creative methods to get in touch with new people. 

I am looking forward to everything that awaits me. 

Julia, Austria/Hungary

I'm here to make the connection with my body stronger, to play with my body to see what it's capable of.

I want to find a deep aliveness as in my body so in my whole being, so it helps me later to help others.

I want to experience life in as many ways as possible.

Here I have space for all of this, to live this and explore this, which I'm very grateful for🌞

Homeyra, Iran

A German writer once said: “Art may not put bread on the table, but it is the wine of life.”

To be honest, I'm an artoholic. It started with Persian calligraphy, then painting, and later continued with dance. Who knows what will come after that? But one thing is certain: I will always remain in the world of art.

P.S. At first, I thought I was here to learn about dance, but I realized it's so much more than that. Practice, physics, art, research.

Jurij, Germany

I discovered dance during school breaks in the basement of my school in Berlin, where a few classmates and I would gather to experiment with breaking. Since then I have been exploring both choreography and freestyling. I felt the rush of nailing a phrase, the pure joy of improvising at jams and the butterflies before stepping on stage. I’m now exploring ways to combine my breaking and hip-hop background with contemporary dance.

Malina, Germany

I came here to dive deeply into dance- to explore more about myself, my body, to exchange with other people and get inspired by them.

Through art and dancing I am constantly learning about the world -big things as well as small things, and at the same time I’m learning about myself.

I enjoy being with other people, going out to bars and clubs or to concerts, seeing movies in the cinema, listening to music, cooking, game nights, and being outdoors. I also like doing things with my hands like knitting or to scribble and I am obsessed with pretty bowls for food. I always look for them on fleemarkets and in second-hand stores. Here in Härnösand I find myself often enjoying the beautiful view on the water and the forest next to it, thinking or listening to some good music. Right now I’m in my Bob Dylan Period.

Viola, Sweden

I am in my first year of studying and very excited about the development that this education means for my understanding of artistry and being alive. I wish to learn more about the states of desire, awareness and risk within my own body and in relation to the surrounding world. I am right now interested in exploring dance and performing arts from the perspectives of trust, givenness, love, availability and transcendence.

May Wyss, Germany

When I dance I feel free in my body and in expressing myself. I am fascinated by how the body works and by the deeper knowledge it holds.

My element is water. I go swimming in every stream, lake or sea I pass by, no matter what time of the year. The water holds me and heals me.

Music is also a passion of mine. I love singing and writing songs.

I would love to research more on how we can combine sounds and voice with dance and movement.

I always try listening to my intuition and now it is calling me back to Sweden.

Looking forward to dance, connect and grow together as a group.

Shani Arazy, Israel

Shani is a multidisciplinary artist working mainly in the fields of choreography, painting and writing.

In her works Shani researches the body in it's wider perception both physically and spiritually, and forms her research into real life cases of documentart crimes and personal experiences.

Shani is a member and co-founder of pangolin poetry group and magazine.

Previously Shani studied fine arts in Oranin Academic College and even graduated from The School Of Visual Theatre Jerusalem in 2022

Ayami, Japan

It’s my second year in Sweden.

I studied science at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Science in Japan until March of last year, but after graduating I came here wanting to learn more about contemporary dance and what’s happening in Europe.

I’m currently interested in the context and mechanisms that generate movement, the basis and the reason for the creation of movements that are inseparable from the individual.

Since coming here, I’ve discovered a variety of physical sensations, not just the slugs that resemble dog poop, but also the sense that the brain stops depending on the language, the difference in the angle of sunlight, the difference in forests, and of course a body connected to dance ʕʘ‿ʘʔ

And often when I’m on the train in Sweden I see these giant wild marshmallow-like things outside the window,

what are these?

https://bc-ayamimoriwaki.net

Beatrice, Italy

I’m a performer. I grew up in Pennabilli, a small town in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. A landscape that offers uncontaminated nature, which has always fascinated and inspired me. I love going for walks, experiencing nature, its sounds and its silences. I have always been fascinated by the relationship of the body and rhythm; the body and nature; voice and silence. I have always found it suprising the ways in which sound may or may not affect the body. Art is wonderful. Moving is so powerful that it unites everyone, even people who are no longer there. It serves as a warm, welcoming light amid a world of conflict. My goal joining the mentorship program is to continue growing, to shape my artistic identity in an ever-stronger, more innovative way. 

Vera, Finland

I am from Finland. 

I have graduated as a dancer from Tampere Conservatoire and am now continuing my studies at NEFCD. 

Contemporary dance is my biggest interest, but I also have a diverse background with different techniques, such as Urban dance styles. 

During the winter I like to go snowboarding, and I am not a big fan of warm weather