Eszter Salamon looks at the past 100 years as a history of wars, and together with six dancers brings to the stage folk dances and other popular forms originating from conflict zones of all five continents. Embracing the approach of an archaeological history, this ‘dance of death’ brings about an impressively sombre yet stirring scenario that sheds light on an invisible world and dance history.

Eszter Salamon is a choreographer, dancer and performer. Her work has been internationally presented in the context of the performance and visual arts. She is the author of solos “What A Body You Have, Honey” (2001) and “Giszelle” (2001) in collaboration with Xavier Le Roy, “Reproduction” (2004), a piece for eight dancers, “Magyar Tàncok” (2005) with Hungarian folk dancers and musicians, “Nvsbl” (2006), a film-choreography in collaboration with Bojana Cvejic “AND THEN” (2007) and together with Arantxa Martinez, the concert-performance “Without You I Am Nothing” (2007) starring Lukas Minkus and Ramon Pozo, “Dance#1/Driftworks” (2008), “Voice Over” (2009), a piece commissioned and interpreted by Cristina Rizzo, “Dance for Nothing” (2010), with Bojana Cvejic, Cédric Dambrain and Terre Thaemlitz, “TALES OF THE BODILESS” (2011), in collaboration with Christine De Smedt “Dance#2” and “Melodrama” (2012), a solo ‚documentary performance’. Between October and November 2014, she presented a performative solo exhibition “Eszter Salamon 1949” in the frame of the exhibition series “Satellite” at Jeu de Paume. In 2015, Eszter Salamon restages for the Cullberg Ballet “Reproduction”, her group piece from 2004 in a new version – “Reproduction (2015)” – and continues exploring both the notion of monument and the practice of rewriting history with “MONUMENT 0.1: Valda and Gus” (Premiere October 2015 at PACT Zollverein). As a dancer, she collaborated with Sidonie Rochon, Mathilde Monnier and François Verret. Since January 2015 she is Associated Artist at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin.

Ana Vujanović (Dramaturgy) is a freelance cultural worker – researcher, writer, lecturer, dramaturge, curator – in the fields of contemporary performing arts and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade. She is a cofounder and a member of the editorial collective of TkH [Walking Theory], the Belgrade-based theoretical-artistic platform, and chief editor of TkH journal for performing arts theory. Her particular commitment has been to empower the independent scenes in Belgrade and former Yugoslavia (Druga scena, Clubture regija, and others). She has lectured and given workshops at various universities and independent educational programmes throughout Europe. She engages in artworks in the fields of performance, theatre, dance, and video/film, as dramaturge, co-author, performer and artistic collaborator. She publishes regularly in journals and collections (TkH, Maska, Frakcija, Teatron, Performance Research, TDR and others) and is author of four books, most recently “Public Sphere by Performance” with Bojana Cvejićc ́ (Berlin: b_books, 2012). She is currently international visiting professor at the Dpt. for Human Movement/Performance Studies, University of Hamburg. In recent years her research interest has been focused on the intersections between performance and politics in neoliberal capitalist societies.

Boglárka Börcsök (Performer) was born in Hungary. After finishing her studies in Linz at Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität, she joined the Training Cycle at P.A.R.T.S and graduated in 2010. On the outset, she performed in different festivals for young artists such as ‘Atelier’ PACT Zollverein, TanzImpulse Salzburg, Lucky Trimmer with her solo “discounts”. Since then she was working alongside Kate McIntosh, Ula Sickle, Cecilia Lisa Eliceche and Daniel Linehan. Boglárka was part of the group presenting “this variation” by Tino Sehgal during documenta(13). She participates in a film called “Place of the Dead Roads” by Joachim Koester. In 2014 Boglárka is preparing a new performance within the frame of the “research into the unknown” at the Workshop Foundation in Budapest. The result of the research titled “experiment nr.2” is shown at the Mu Theater in April. Later this year she joins Kareth Schaffer for “Die Tanzrecherche NRW #15” in Düsseldorf to begin working on “Unheard Of: The Performative Possibilities of Foley Artist Labour”.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the US, Ligia Lewis (Performer) lives and works between Berlin and Los Angeles. She received her B.F.A from Virginia Commonwealth University. Upon graduating Lewis moved to Europe and since has worked in multiple contexts including visual arts and theatre. Making use of theatre, dance and text, her performances engage pop culture, affect, and empathy. To this end she crafts nuanced embodiments giving form to enigmatic performances. As a performer Lewis has performed extensively across Europe and abroad in theatre, dance and film productions, including the following: dance company Les Ballets C de la B, in films by Uli Edel and Wu Tsang, with artists Eszter Salamon, Jeremy Wade, Kat Valastur, Ariel Efraim Ashbel, Wojciech Kosma, Tracy Rose and others. Her experiences working across mediums and with a wide array of artists shaped and broadened Lewis’s sensibilities. The rendering of embodiment and its ability to shape new discourses draws Lewis to her ongoing performance practice.

João dos Santos Martins (Performer) was born in 1989 in Portugal. He has studied dance and choreography in various institutions across Europe and works as a performer and choreographer since 2008. He created “Le Sacre du Printemps” (2013) with Min Kyoung Lee, “Masterpiece” (2014) and “Continued Project” (2015). He collaborated in “Tropa Fandanga” (2014) by Teatro Praga and in “Retrospective” by Xavier Le Roy (2012-2014). He is currently preparing a new piece along with Cyriaque Villemaux, “Self-titled”, which will premiere in Portugal in October 2015.

Yvon Nana-Kouala (Performer) is based in Bordeaux. He is a dancer (AKA company, Irène TASSEMBEDO company, among others), a performer, an actor and an artistic director for several projects. He is the creator of the Burkina Faso Corp’Art company and later of France Corp’ART and Founding member of Ecrans Association as well as artistic co-director of the Tobina network. Since 2002, along with his choreographer creations, Yvon Nana-Kouala shares his passions with school students and organises dance, drums and theatre workshops and trainings ending with the performances of the participants in front of the students’ parents. He’s the artistic director of the choreographic event “C’est Mériadeck Ici!” (Bordeaux).

Born and raised in New York City, dancer Luis Rodriguez was educated at the Alvin Ailey School, The La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Juilliard School in 2002. He has danced with Nationaltheater Mannheim, Ballet Gulbenkian, Companhia Olga Roriz, and has been a guest artist with Ballett Frankfurt. He has also been engaged with productions for Le Temps d’Images Festival, the Korzo Theater, DV8 Physical Theater and the Cullberg Ballet where he has been employed between 2006 and 2012. As a freelance artist, he has collaborated with a spectrum of choreographers such as Josep Caballero García, in residency at K3/Kampnagel, with colleague Rachel Tess in residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, choreographer Christoph Winkler in his production “Das Wahre Gesicht” and most recently with fellow colleague Sergiu Matis on “Explicit Content” among others. This upcoming summer 2015, Luis joins Tino Seghal’s “This Variation” at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.

Originally born in Washington DC, Corey Scott-Gilbert (Performer) began his dance training at Baltimore School for the Arts, going on to attend Juilliard School in New York under the direction of Harkarvey and Rhodes. After graduating with a BFA in 2005, Corey accepted an invitation from France to be a soloist with Lyon Opéra Ballet. In 2007, Corey joined Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, where he was a 2009 recipient of the Princess Grace Award. In 2010, he joined Cirque du Soleil to create and be featured in “Iris”. Through this, he performed at the the Oscars 2012. In 2013 he returned to Europe to explore work as a freelance artist abroad. Currently Corey is working and collaborating with Sasha Waltz, Richard Siegal and Eszter Salamon.

Sylvie Garot (Lights) is based in Paris. She designs stage lighting for the performing arts world and creates visual art installations. She first became interested in lighting design after taking a research workshop with the stage designer Josef Svoboda in 1990 – an encounter that was to prove decisive for her. She then left the physical theatre company she had been running for the past five years to devote herself exclusively to designing lighting. Each project is an opportunity for her to continue research into creating new spaces of reflection in collaboration with choreographers, directors, visual artists, stage designers, musicians and video-makers. For 10 years, she has specialised in making films of light video projected onto the stage space, which she considers and uses as light sources offering other spatio-temporal perceptions. After “Nvsbl” (2005), “AND THEN” (2007), and “Dance#1/Driftworks” (2008), “TALES OF THE BODILESS” (2011), “MONUMENT 0” is Sylvie Garot’s fifth collaboration with Eszter Salamon.

After musical studies in electro-acoustique composition at the Conservatoire de Lyon and as Jazz saxophonist at the music school of Villeurbanne, Wilfrid Haberey (Sound) founded in 1989 with Nathalie Veuillet the compagnie Là Hors De, where he was responsible for music and video creations. Since 2012, he has collaborated as composer or videographer with different companies such as Mathurin Bolze, Adrien M/Claire B and Pascale Henry. Additionally he creates video installations, lights and sounds for different occasions, such as Biennale d’art contemporain, Fête des Lumières or Mapping Festival.

Vava Dudu (Costumes) is a Fashion designer and pluridisciplinary artist. As a stylist she produces collections for shops in Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Osaka, and New York as well as several photo series for diverse magazines. Considering clothes as an art medium as well as music, drawing or poetry, she also showed her work in galleries and art centers, often including performing acts by La Chatte.

Olivier Mulin (Costumes Assistant) made his debut in 1998 with Jean-Paul Gaultier and worked as a freelance designer for different houses such as Kenzo, Sonia Rykiel or Missoni among others. In 2005 his started styling for magazines such as Standard and WAD. Since 2007 he is consultant for the men’s wear line of Paul&Joe, for which he also worked for the female collection in 2011. Occasionally he works for the organization of prestigious events (Mundi, Samsung, Volcom, Marks&Spencer) and intervenes since 2010 in the look of rock bands such as The Dø, TwinTwin and YaltaClub. Between 2005 and 2008 he also created costumes for the choreographer Juha Pekha Marsalo; in the theatre he collaborated with Vincent Thomasset and has been dressing the pieces of Nathalie Broizat from the beginning.