Open Class: Dance for people with dementia

Dancer, teacher and choreographer Alfonso Bordi, born in Mexico, followed his dance education the Boston and Atlanta Schools of Ballet. Following different dancing engagements in Canada, Ireland and Germany, he is now among the most outstanding protagonists at Düsseldorf company NEUER TANZ under the direction of visual artist VA Wölfl.

When Dawna Dryhorub first started ballet dancing at age three, the decision was already taken: “I want to be a dancer!” She took additional classes in tap dance, jazz dance and folkloristic dance, subseqently pursuing her dance education at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre where she specialised in Graham and classical dance. She received an invitation to collaborate on a project in Düsseldorf during the mid-1990s and swiftly became an artist close to the “Werkstatt”, the precursor of tanzhaus nrw. The native Canadian remained in Germany and participated in various productions by, among others, Rodolpho Leoni and Samir Akika. She offered trainings at Folkwang Tanzstudio for many years and was a guest lecturer for classical dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts. 2020 will see Dawna concluding her Master’s degree in dance sciences from Bern University in 2020.