That’s All Folks!

Damiano Ottavio Bigi is an Italian choreographer, dancer and performer. He started from the Rome Opera to Dimitris Papaioannou’s company, passing through several companies (CNDC d’Angers e il CCN di Nantes) before becoming a member of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (2005), where he still works as a guest artist.

In 2010 he participated in the film PINA by Wim Wenders. The encounters of his career led him to confront different experiences and visions, enriching his world and inspiring his path. In 2016 he was awarded the “Premio Capri Danza International” and in 2020 the “Premio Sfera d’Oro per la Danza”.

Alessandra Paoletti is an Italian actress and director active in the field of research theatre and contemporary dance. She graduated from the National Academy of Drama “Silvio D’Amico”, as an interpreter and as a director/choreographer, she moves through different languages and visions.

Among the most significant encounters and collaborations of her artistic career are those with A.Knapp, J.A.Stanzak, T.Ostermeier, J.Muller/Fura dels Baus, J. Sanchis Sinisterra, R.Garcia and L.De Bei, winning with the latter “Le Maschere del Teatro Prize” and the “Golden Graal Award”.

She has long collaborated with the Istanbul Municipal Theatre as a foreign director.

Ching-Ying Chien was born in Taiwan in 1988 and trained at the National Taiwan University of Arts. She began working with Akram Khan Company in 2013 as a dancer. Her performance in Until the Lions won the Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) at the 2016 National Dance Awards (UK).

Now, she acts as a rehearsal director and regularly teaches workshops for the Company. Outside of theatre, she was the dancer and choreographer for Stranger, a music video for hip-hop musician Plan B, and a number of videos for British electronic band The Chemical Brothers, both projects directed by Adam Smith. Together with Akram Khan, she co-created a duet for Can We Live with Robots, a TV documentary commissioned by Channel 4.

In 2020, she started working with James Thierrée-Compagnie du Hanneton on the creation of MO’s and ROOM. Her latest work, Vulture, was performed at the Lilian Baylis Studio of Sadler’s Wells and the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts.

Dylan Littleton Phillips (2001) is one of Australia’s leading contemporary circus artists, and has been described as having a creative wisdom and physicality well beyond his years. Growing from a background of hand balancing and partner acrobatics, Dylan now uses his virtuosic physicality to engage audiences with his movement and dance whilst creating stark and poetic images with his body.

At 17, he joined world renowned Australian contemporary circus company Gravity and Other Myths to be part of the creation of their Helpmann award winning production Out of Chaos. His career highlights with the company to date include performing in venues such as Oper Graz, Austria, Tohu Theatre, Canada, Grec Theatre, Spain, opening The Edinburgh International Arts Festival in front of 16,000 spectators and performing in the Edinburgh Playhouse with the company’s 60-person work. After being a creative artist on their past 4 major works, Dylan was delighted with the honour to be a key creator and performer on The Mirror which was commissioned by the Chameleon Theatre, Berlin and The Sydney Opera House, Australia. Dylan has performed internationally over 350 shows, and countless performances in Australia including all the major arts festivals.

Dylan’s work outside the company has allowed him to tour his own award-winning work to France, the Czech Republic and China, and was recently awarded funding from Arts South Australia to develop his own duo work (Genre: Physical Theatre, Dance & Circus), SISSY, which premiered in the Czech Republic in June 2023.

In 2024, his quantity of professional engagement has slowed due to his commitment to deepen his craft, which after being awarded the Marten Bequest Scholarship, and accepted into the prestigious Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London, he will spend two years continuing to develop as an artist within the dance traditions. Dylan sees this time as integral to his development and is dedicated to becoming the most versatile artist he can be.

Daisy was born in Oakland, California, and studied dance in Berkeley, San Francisco, London, and Geneva, where she was a member of the Ballet Junior. She began her professional career with the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, before returning to San Francisco, where she worked primarily with Erika Tsimbrovsky. Since 2007 she has collaborated extensively with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, taking part in several of his creations. She now regularly represents him as a rehearsal director and coach. In 2011-12 she joined Alain Platel (les ballets c de la b) for the creation of C(h)oeurs. That same season she took part in the founding of the theater/movement collective IfHuman, currently associate artists at Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels. At IfHuman, she collaborates in the creations Fear & Desire, Ne Parlez Pas d’Amour and  Yes No Maybe. Later in 2012 she was a guest artist with the Norwegian National Ballet.   In 2013, Quan Bui Ngoc (les ballets c de la b), created the solo Kasane no Irome for her and a contemporary music ensemble, and later she joined one of his group creations Untold. Also in 2013-14, she works on the creation Wulong – a music and dance piece for young children by Iris Bouche on short films of dance. In 2014 she began working with Constanza Macras / Dorky Park in Berlin, most recently participating in the creations of The Ghosts (2015) and The Pose (2017). During the winter/spring of 2016 she was a member of the Göteborgs Operan Danskompani in Sweden, at the invitation of director Adolphe Binder. She also has an ongoing collaboration with theater and opera director Cecilia Ligorio, acting as choreographer and dancer for productions in Europe and the United States.

Tzela Christopoulou was born in Athens, Greece in 1986. She graduated from the Department of Social Theology of the University of Athens. In 2005, she began her career as an assistant set & costume designer for numerous theatre and dance production. Since 2017 she has been working with Dimitris Papaioannou and Euripides Laskaridis as an assistant set designer and prop master on their world tour. In the last 2 years, she has started new collaboration as prop master and scenographer for advertisements and music videos.

David Blouin is a Sound and Light designer born in Montréal and based in Athens. Since a young age, he has manifested the need for music sensation and sound exploration. While discovering music, he was creating loud and harsh noises starting from the ones coming from his father’s metal workshop. Then he began building his sonic universe with non-usual recording methods, contact microphones experiment, audio feedback and custom instruments made from metal plates, springs and other resonating materials.

For more than 18 years, he has evolved as a sound engineer/designer and technical director in a diverse body of work, including Theater, Dance, Music and Contemporary Art. He collaborated with Usine-C, Frédéric Auger, J’aime Hydro, Mélanie Demers, ELEKTRA, Le Carré des Lombes, Charo Foo Tai Wei, Alessandra Paoletti & Damiano Bigi and more. In 2019 he met Dimitris Papaioannou’s company in Montreal, and since then, he started a new collaboration as on tour stage manager (Transverse Orientation) and sound designer/engineer (INK).

Lucien Laborderie is a light designer based in Parigi, Francia. Greatly influenced by contemporary dancing, he seeks simple and abstract lights, trying to get closer to bodies and performers. Inspired by artists such as Annie Leuridan, Claude Régy or Jan Martens, he explores slowness, radicality, monochromes and single sources.

After an amateur approach to concert lighting and a first technical course in Nantes, Lucien Laborderie graduated in Lighting Design from ENSATT, Lyon. While working as a designer for several young French companies, he is also a lighting operator for the Greek choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou and the Théâtre du Peuple in Bussang, France.