Creative Children´s Dance

 Annika Wolf's courses are marked by the fact that improvisation and creative impulses from the children form the central artistic element. After training as a dance teacher, she continued her training in New York, Los Angeles and Cologne. Since 2008 Annika has been working as a choreographer in numerous schools in Düsseldorf, and since 2013 as a teacher at tanzhaus nrw. In January 2020, she took over the artistic supervision and coordination for the dance department of the Kulturamt NRW. "For me, it's about the children getting a feeling for themselves and their movements. I accompany many children and young people over the years and it makes me particularly happy when I notice the progress they make and how proud they are of themselves," says Annika.

Gabriela Santos holds a BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she was able to dance numerous works by American choreographers such as Bill T. Jones, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and many more. Gabriela also taught at the Ballet Academy East in New York, gave numerous workshops, and took every opportunity to complete internships with prominent teachers while dancing in professional projects. Beyond New York, Gabriela worked as a dance teacher, choreographer, and dancer in Peabody Preparatory of Dance in Baltimore. Very soon after completing her studies, Gabriela was contracted as a stage dancer by TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 1, where she performed daily in several theatre productions. She is currently working towards her master’s in dance pedagogy at the Palucca University of Dance. Gabriela has been teaching dance in Germany since 2019.

Nadja Görts was last dancing in Musicals and she has an MA degree in Dance Pedagogy, Research and Artistic Practice from Sporthochschule Cologne. As a choreographer she has worked in Germany and internationally in Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Tunisia. Her recent dance film „Würde“ received several awards in international festivals. As a music theatre pedagogue she regularly supports the team at Junge Oper am Rhein. Her training as a yoga teacher with a specialization in yoga therapy, dance and movement pedagogy was undertaken in Bali and she has been working as a yoga teacher and trainer for several years. Nadja is also a full-time mum of a two-year old daughter and experiences from her own pregnancy have influenced her personal teaching style.

Sofia Klein Herrero was born in Düsseldorf and received her dance training at the Escuela de Ballet Carmina Ocaña y Pablo Savoye in Madrid, as well as at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila de Madrid, where she completed a Bachelor in Choreography and Dance in 2018. Sofia has danced in numerous ballet companies and theatres (Aalto Ballett Essen, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Oper Wuppertal, Ballett Bautzen, Musik Theater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Pasodos Dance Company Mallorca, and many more).
Her work as a dance teacher includes various dance schools, workshops and companies where she taught different styles: ballet, contemporary, modern dance, pointe, creative children's dance, preballet, stretching, improvisation technologies, choreography, as well as yoga, pilates, balletfit and body conditioning. Since 2020 she is studying a Master in Dance Education (Classical Dance) at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen. Sofia Klein Herrero works as a dancer, dance teacher, choreographer and fitness trainer.

Stefanie Schwimmbeck arbeitet seit ihrem Studium an der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln freischaffend als zeitgenössische Tänzerin und Tanzvermittlerin. Als Tanzvermittlerin reichen ihre Erfahrungen von diversen partizipatorischen Projekten über zeitgenössisches Tanztraining für Laien aller Altersstufen und professionelle Tänzer:innen bis hin zu Lehrtätigkeiten an Hochschulen. Sie ist Lehrkraft in der Kreativen Werkstatt der Brotfabrik Bonn-Beuel für kreativen zeitgenössischen Tanz für Kinder und Jugendliche und gestaltet die alljährliche Schulaufführung mit ihren Tanzschüler*innen im Alter von 4–18 Jahren. In Düsseldorf ist sie regelmäßig Teil des Tanzlabors „move on…“ im Akki – Aktion & Kultur mit Kindern e.V.. Die Tanzvermittlung schlägt für sie eine Brücke zwischen Tänzer*innen, Schüler*innen und Zuschauenden und nimmt eine zentrale Rolle in der Stärkung der Kunstform Tanz ein.

Surena is a university-taught lawyer, and: She is currently among the most highly regarded urban dancers in the region. Her first contact with dance came up both through her family’s Iranian dances and Michael Jackson’s shows. During her schooldays, Surena gained access to hip hop culture, trained with her crew and in numerous workshops, later founding her own group “ShitHappenz”. She describes her time in France as especially impressive, first and foremost the Paris hip hop clubs. “It was not about self-representation or battling one another but rather about sharing moves and connecting.” This spirit and the agency for hip hop culture remain very important for Surena. She started teaching when she was only 17, at first in Bremen, today in all of Germany and France. Additionally, she was an artist at the legendary Bochum Urbanatix show four years in a row, campaigning for integrational projects in cultural contexts. She takes part in various battles, representing “female hip hop” with her special style.

Tanja Emmerich started dancing ballet at age eight. Later on, she took additional classes in modern dance and jazz with Carlo Melis and others. As a youth, she discovered the variety on offer at tanzhaus nrw and took even more classes in jazz dance and hip hop. Tanja studied at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem and completed her dance pedagogy studies at the Weber-Schule in Düsseldorf. Following this, she obtained a certificate as a dance pedagogue at the Ballettseminar Stuttgart under the direction of Eva Steinbrecher. She has been teaching children, youths and adults in different dance styles while also working regularly as a choreographer for dance and theatre productions such as the Neusser Musical-Wochen. She has been a member of the core instructional team at tanzhaus nrw since 2015.

Tereza Matos completed her studies in classical ballet and modern dance at Brazil’s Universidade Federal da Bahia. She was subsequently invited to journey to Germany by renowned Wuppertal choreographer Pina Bausch, later studying at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Here, she graduated as a classical ballet dance pedagogue in 2008. Tereza took part in several opera and musical theatre productions. She accumulated more than 35 years of stage experience in pieces like “Orpheus und Eurydice”, “Hair”, “Die Bassgeige” and as a guest dancer at Essen’s Grillo Theater, as well as in Dortmund and Aachen. Among her colleagues and role models are Jean Cébron and Susanne Linke, both seminal choreographers, in their works closely linked with the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Nach ihrem Studium in Tokio arbeitete Tomoko Tezuka seit vielen Jahren als Tänzerin, Performerin und Bewegungspädagogin in der freien Tanzszene in Düsseldorf. Sie ist spezialisiert auf Contact Improvisation, Langzeit-Improvisation und ortsspezifische Arbeiten. Diese Erfahrung bringt sie in einen spielerischen, kreativen Unterricht für Kinder, Jugendliche und Erwachsene ein. Geprägt von der Contact Improvisation (u.?a. „Underscore" mit Nancy Stark Smith) kooperiert sie mit Künstler:innen wie Gabriele Koch und Karen Bößer sowie mit Musiker:innen wie Shunsuke Oshio. Als Dozentin unterrichtet sie Menschen aller Altersgruppen. Ihre Arbeit ist geprägt von einer sensiblen Beobachtung sozialer und gesellschaftlicher Dynamik. Wie bewegen wir uns miteinander? Wie entstehen authentische Momente der Begegnung, Fürsorge, Nähe und Distanz? Diese Fragen fließen in ihren Unterricht ebenso ein wie in ihre künstlerischen Projekte. Tomoko ist Mutter von drei Kindern. Ihre Erfahrung aus Familie und künstlerischer Praxis verbindet sie zu einem lebendigen, achtsamen, intuitiven Unterricht, in dem Neugier, Spiel und gegenseitige Unterstützung im Mittelpunkt stehen.

Wibke Hartewig ist seit ihrer Jugend begeisterte Tänzerin und trainierte u.a. Ballett, Modern Dance, Zeitgenössisch, Butho, Tanztheater, Contact Improvisation, BMC, Tango und Gaga bei Tänzer*innen wie Tadashi Endo, Anna Pocher, Minako Seki, Frauke Havemann, LaborGras, Frey Faust, Catharina Gadelha und Ale Jara. Als promovierte Tanz- und Theaterwissenschaftlerin (Ruhr-Universität Bochum und Royal Holloway, University of London) unterrichtete sie u.a. an der Folkwang Universität der Künste im Studiengang Tanz und seit 2013 an der Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main im Studiengang Contemporary Dance Education. Sie ist als freischaffende Tanzpädagogin und Tanzwissenschaftlerin tätig. Durch ihre zusätzliche Ausbildung zur Integrativen Tanztherapeutin DGT cand. bringt sie eine besondere Sensibilität für den Umgang mit persönlichen Themen der Tanzenden mit. Mit ihrem jüngeren Sohn entwickelte sie ihr „Tanzen mit Baby“, das sie seit 2017 in Köln anbietet.