Igor Koruga works as an independent artist in the field of performing arts (contemporary dance and choreography). He received his education in the field of anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and in dance authorship at the Universities of Arts in Berlin and Amsterdam. He is the author of several dance and multimedia works: Landscape of Desire (2023), Why Not? (2022) Closeness of Touch (2022); How to Explain Pictures to a Man (2021); One, Two, Three, Comrade Come, Dance With Me (2021), Lounli Planet (2020); Hopelessness (2017), Only Mine Alone (2016), etc. He works as an assistant for stage movement in theatre performances and on film, and as a dramaturg in the field of dance. He has collaborated with numerous authors and directors: Tanja Mandić Rigonat, Jovana Tomić, Đurđa Tešić, Bojan Đorđev, Maja Pelević, Dimitrije Kokanov, Olga Dimitrijević, Isidora Stanišić… As a performer, he has appeared on the stages of various theatres in Europe (Dansens Hus Stockholm; Tanzquartier Vienna; Leopold Museum Vienna, HAU Berlin, Uferstudios Berlin, Kammerspiele Munich, Bitef Theatre, Atelje 212, etc.). As a pedagogue, he has worked in various educational platforms: Station Service for contemporary dance; Goethe Institute; Yugoslav Drama Theatre; Belgrade Dance Institute. He is a member of the team for archiving performing arts practices in the region. As a researcher in the field of theory of performing arts, he has contributed to prominent regional magazines (Maska Ljubljana, Walking Theory Belgrade, Kretanja / Movements Zagreb, etc.). He has received stipends by various programmes: Akademie Schloss Solitude; Tanzstipendium by the mayor of Berlin; DanceWEB; Nomad Dance Academy. He won the first prize and the Critic’s Prize at the Festival of Choreographic Miniatures, the 43 rd Infant Festival and the Annual prize of the National Organization for Rare Diseases of Serbia (NORBS).

Nela Antonović graduated from Smiljana Mandukić’s contemporary ballet school that she attended from 1964 to 1972, after that she became a professional member of Smiljana Mandukić’s Belgrade Contemporary Ballet, in which she stayed until 1984. All along, she attended the “Lujo Davičo” Ballet School, workshops of various techniques with pedagogues and choreographers from Europe and America (Milana Broš, Martha Graham, Kazuo Ono, Eugenio Barba, Caroline Carlson…) She is the winner of the City of Belgrade’s “October Flower” award for contemporary solo dance (1972). She acquired the title of scientific researcher as a Master of Technical Sciences and transferred this knowledge to the field of dance and physical theatre, and later completed specialist interdisciplinary studies at the ONCA Faculty of Arts in Oslo, Norway. She founded the non-government theatre “Teatar Mimart” 1984 in Belgrade, where she realized over 70 original dance performances, physical theatre and 500 Art performances. Awards: for the choreography “First Competition of YU Choreographers”, Zagreb (1989); for the dance performance Circle, BRAMS (1994); for nurturing the Choreo-drama Free Fall BRAMS (1996); award for the performance Institute for the Change of Destiny at the “Golden Lion” festival, Lviv (1998); Special award “Kiev Travnevi” in Kiev, in San Marino, Moscow, Naples, St. Petersburg, Gelsenkirchen, Cairo, Prague… “Golden Hands Award” lifetime achievement award by World Mime Organization in 2020. She is the creator of the Mimart method, for which she received the International award “Grozdanin kikot” (2019). Nela Antonović published her long-term research experience in the books: Mimart tree rings (2000), Phenomenology of movement (2004), e-book 25 (2009) and, e-Monography Mimart (2014).

Jelena Jović Stevanović was born in London. She graduated from the “Lujo Davičo” ballet school in 1975 (in the class of Prof. Spomenka Prokić). She danced at Kaća Stojkov’s “Experimental Ballet”, in her first jazz ballet group. In Paris and London, she attended classical and jazz ballet seminars – with Jean Babilée, Peter Goss, John O’Brien in 1981. She met Lindsay Kemp and worked in his troupe in 1980 and 1981, which determined her future path. She worked with Dušan Trninić in the “Belgrade Chamber Ballet”, and then with Nada Kokotović, Damir Zlatar Fraj – Choreodrama on TV. She was a longtime collaborator of Petar Slaj. As a choreographer, she worked in YDT, the National Theatre, BDT (in dramatic performances). Since 1994, she has been a member of the Ister Theater, where she worked as a dancer, actress, choreographer… In 2008, Ister received the “Dimitrije Parlić” award for the play of the year. She created and realized the independent author’s play I’m Still Walking, as a part of the European project “DoPoDo”, which premiered at the Belgrade festival Kondenz. She is currently serving her second term in the status commission of the Association of Ballet Artists of Serbia. She has been working with children for ten years, and as part of this pedagogical work, she has been making costumes and choreographies on her own.

Boris Čakširan graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade as a painter-costume designer, but also works as a set designer, choreographer, and director. He has always been interested in physical expression, so in his childhood and youth he was engaged in gymnastics, figure skating and folklore. When he was 17, he suffered an injury that stopped him on his way. After that, he entered the university and started working as a costume designer, building a career one of our most important costume designers, primarily on film, doing TV series and theatre plays. He returned to dance in 1984 by going to the Contemporary Dance Festival in Bytom, Poland, where he worked on independent projects for 11 years. After that, he worked as a guest choreographer at the MASPA school at the Kibbutz Dance Company for 6 years. In 1998, he founded the ERGstatus contemporary dance project in Belgrade, as an educational project with international artists – pedagogues, which he has been running since 1999 in the form of an independent dance theatre. As a choreographer, he collaborated with the Mudra Theatre, the Bidadari dance troupe, the “Let’s…” group, but he also works in dramatic performances at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, the “Boško Buha”; Theatre and many others. As a fighter for inclusive practices, he was also one of the founders and artistic director of the festival of engaged theater Off Frame in Belgrade, as well as a co-founder of IIAN – International Network of Inclusive Theatre.

Sanja Krsmanović Tasić graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade and from the Faculty of Physical Education in Novi Sad, specializing in modern and jazz dance under the guidance of Ljiljana Mišić. She has evolved as an artist through collaborations with Torger Vetal (Odin Teatret), Yoshi Oida, Ren Mireck, Carolyn Carlson, Katsumi Sakakura, Shirom Daimond, Deborah Hunt, and many others. A member and soloist of Belgrade Contemporary Ballet led by Smiljana Mandukić from 1982 to 1991, she also belonged to the MIMART movement theater and the Belgrade Dance Theatre ensemble. Co-founder, choreographer, and dance educator at the Center for Artistic Dance and the Center for Movement and Dance. From 1993 to 2014, she was a core member, both artistically and organizationally, of DAH Theatre, a theater company, and DAH Theatre Center for Theatre Research, where she actively participated as an actress, choreographer, and program director. Within this context, she contributed as an author, co-author, and team member to the development of numerous artistic and socially engaged projects and Festivals. She founded Hleb Theatre in 2014, where she developed a new stage form called “essay in motion”, fusing her experience in contemporary dance and theater. Alongside Boris Čakširan, she authored the dance performance involving dancers with and without disabilities titled “Blame It on Gauss” (FRAME OF BODY, “Let’s… “ Group). In 2017, she initiated the “Days of Smiljana Mandukić” festival and project, dedicated to preserving and archiving intangible dance heritage in support of the youngest and oldest choreographers and dancers in our country. Some of her most significant authored projects include “Smiljana Mandukić – Essay in Motion”; “The Body Remembers”; documentary dance performance, “Splinter”; featuring dancers aged 18 to 95, “Spinning Wheel”; “Daikon – Essay in Motion about the Dancer’s Body”; (DOPODO project), the musical “Words of Stone”; “Mothers”; “On (Con)science – Essay in Motion about Dada Vujasinović”; “Farewell”; “Borrowed Memories”; (NETMEM project), “Tales of Bread and Blood”; “Sisters in Arms”; the first New Zealand-Serbian coproduction, “Welcome”; and many others. She conducts workshops and performs worldwide. She serves as the President of the International Drama and Theatre Education Association – IDEA and President of CEDEUM.

Tatjana Pajović is the founder and artistic director of the Theater Project Objective Drama – POD Theatre, 2000. She is a trained ballerina (“Lujo Davičo” school), actress and theatre/drama pedagogue. She graduated in Political Science for International Affairs at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade – Department of International Studies. She trained professionally in the field of performing arts and theatre pedagogy at the Specchi e Memorie Theatre in Milan (1995-1998, mentor: director Massimo Gianetti). She is one of the founders and members of the first professional theatre troupe SIGNUM from Belgrade in 1988-1993. With Nenad Čolić, the founder and a member of the Plavo Theatre in 1995. After years of experience working with great pedagogues in the field of dance and drama, having worked in classical and musical theatre, having become acquainted with the work of Grotowski, Artaud, Barba, and Massimo Gianetti, she definitively opted for a research theatre approach through the heritage of anthropological theatre and work in smaller, dedicated groups. This is where POD Theatre originates – a process based on constant research and establishing the relationship between the role of Man and the role of Artist, developing a special methodology for working with children, young people, professional artists and adults of different ages and backgrounds. Since 1995, she has created, co-created, managed and mentored various artistic projects, events, performances, workshops, and seminars in Serbia and abroad. In 2014, she started the Community Theatre project – intergenerational cooperation, which includes POD Theatre in the European network of the community theatre project CARAVAN NEXT.

Anđelija Todorović graduated from the “Lujo Davičo” ballet school in Belgrade. She participated in many workshops in Paris, London, and Belgrade. From 1980 to 1983, she was a member of the troupe “Belgrade New Ballet” under the leadership of Dušan Trninić. Until 1986, she participated in the performances of the National Theatre, the Belgrade Drama Theatre, etc. and collaborated with contemporary choreographers and directors: Damir Zlatar Fraj, Nada Kokotović, Lidija Pilipenko, Miljenko Štambuk, Miljenko Vikić, Janez Pipan, Ivica Kunčević. From 1986 to 1992, she was a member of the Terazije Theatre, where she performed soloist roles in repertoire performances. She is the co-founder of the SIGNUM troupe (1986), which, under the artistic direction of choreographer Dejan Pajović, creates performances that participate in festivals in Yugoslavia and abroad. Together with a group of authors, she founded the Ister theatre in 1994, of which she is also artistic director, which participates with its projects in all significant festivals of contemporary theatre in Serbia and Montenegro, as well as in festivals in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt. With Ister, she achieved awards: “Dimitrije Parlić” Professional Award in 2008 for the dance performance of the year, awards from INFANT Festival, Festival of Small Theater Forms, Sterijino Pozorje theatre festival… She works as an independent choreographer in many drama performances in Belgrade theatres, as well as in theatres in Sombor, Niš, Užice, Vranje, and Vršac, for which she has received awards. She collaborates in the field of contemporary dance and contemporary theatre with renowned domestic and foreign choreographers of contemporary dance expression – Isidora Stanišić, Dalija Aćin, Dušan Murić, Dragana Bulut, Bojana Mladenović, Damir Todorović, Odile Duboc, Saša Božić… From 2013 to 2017 she was a president of the Association of Ballet dancers in Serbia and the director of the Festival of choreographic miniatures in Belgrade.