Module 4: Introducing the selected participants from Norway!

It is time for the last set of introductions before the fourth Digital Leap learning module starts! Before the participants – both artists and producers working with dance and circus – head to Marseille, we want to introduce them properly. Last but not least – here is the delegation from Norway!

Karolina Bieszczad-Stie holds a PhD in Performing Arts from Brunel University in London. Since 2017 she runs a creative platform called Butoh Encounters where Butoh dance serves as an umbrella for various collaborative projects, such as “New You New Me” – a fashion show presented at Oslo Runway, “The Last Supper” – a Butoh dining experience or “Multiverse” – a holographic performance. Her interest lies in contextualising Butoh within futurology and transhumanism, and her recent projects include “Rebellion of the Cell” in collaboration with the Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming (CanCell) at UiO and Yuko Kaseki as well as “Limit(less)” – a human-robot dance duet in collaboration with the Department of Engineering Cybernetics at NTNU, robotics researcher Mathias H. Arbo, KUKA and Azumaru. She is currently working on a performative NFT with Eric Bieszczad-Stie and micro-choreography for Homo Evolutis with CanCell. Born in Poland, educated in England, Karolina resides now in Norway.

Karolina took part in the third learning module held in Terrassa to learn about digital distribution of performing arts, and will join us again in France to expand her knowledge in digital audience engagement.

Edwin Cabascango is an Ecuadorian dancer, choreographer and teacher currently living in Oslo. He has studied Master in Dance at KHIO – Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norwegian College of Dance and Metrodanza. As a teacher he has taught contemporary partnering for Fight Federation in Ecuador, Ballet Nacional del Ecuador, Budapest Dance theater, National Ciurlionis School of Art and PRODA – profesjonell dansetrening in Oslo. He has performed and taught in Europe, Asia and South America. 

Edwin is the creator of Texture and Movement, a space dedicated to exploring the physical and perceptive side of the body through contemporary dance techniques and somatic principles such as martial arts. For him it is crucial that dancers’ practice and training go together with performative experience: “My goal is to change and activate the physical perception of our body and remind us of the infinite possibilities of the movement.”

Daniel Mariblanca (left) and Davone Sirmans (right)

Davone Sirmans is a creative, a thinker, and a strategic planner. Originally from the United States, she calls Bergen home after 15+ years of global work with the US Department of Defense. She is the company and tour manager for the transgender inclusive dance and performance company, 71BODIES. Davone’s definition of self is ever-shifting and evolving. She is a giver of love, light, breath, and space. Sharp wit with cold feet. Multifarious. Black. Woman. Queer. Unashamed and unapologetic.

71BODIES, a transgender inclusive dance and performance company based in Bergen, was created by Daniel Mariblanca in 2016. The company continues to naturally evolve in a sustainable way whereby one project inspires the other and the next and so on. A core intention of the company is to work with/in marginalized communities; in particular communities where the body is at the center of the discussion. The interest of 71BODIES is centered on generating artistic expressions through the personal stories and lived experiences of people that do not belong to mainstream society.