DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY
Neel Jansen
Neel Jansen was born in Belgium in 1982 and completed his formation as a classical/contemporary dancer at the Royal School of Antwerp. In 2001 he received a scolarship to dance in the young company "Jeunes Ballet d’Europe" in Aix-en-Provence, directed by Jean Charles Gil and on the same year another scolarship from Rosemarie Stuzzi-Thomi-Stiftung, Basel. Thanks to this, he could choose any dance school in the world to complete his dance studies and Neel chose the Rudra Bejart Ballet School in Lausanne, directed by Michel Gascard. Before he finished the 2 years formation, he was selected by Maurice Béjart to join the Bejart Ballet Lausanne in 2003. Neel danced during 8 years for M. Béjart and he worked with choreographers like Gil Roman, Joost Vrouenraets, Etienne Bechard, and was trained by Azari Plissetsky, Koen Onzia & Julio Arozarena. He danced all over the world, due to the many tournees that the company programmed, and learned in this trips a lot about the different cultures and styles of dance. In 2010 he decided it was time to give a step forward and to join a more modern company, such as Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. He danced for 8 years under the direction of Hans Henning Paar and later on Karl Schreiner. Thanks to the many contemporary choreographers that constantly came to create, Neel had the chance to learn from them, develope his own way of choreographing and find his own dance style. Some of those choreographers are Milo Fernando, Gustavo Ramirez, Christian Spuck, Edward Clug, Marco Goecke, Alexander Ekman, Jo Stromgren, Marguerite Donlon, Katja Schneider, Antony Rizzi, William Forsythe, Christopher Roman, Georg Reischl, Emanuele Soavi, Cayetano Soto, etc.
It is since 2010 that he started choreographing as freelance with Graciela Martínez pieces like “Il eté une fois a Shanghai” for the Expo-Shanghai 2010, “Die Schöpfung” and “The new world” for the Madrigal Chor in Brackenheim, or “Vivaldi Reloaded” with the Kammerorchestra of Zurich and Daniel Hope. Besides that he has created many pieces for the Pizzi Dance Art Company, and for the Grundausbildung Bühnentanz ZTTS in Zurich.
In 2017 he moved out of Munich and came to Switzerland to become a Freelance Dancer/ Teacher/ Choreogapher based in Kanton Aargau.
At side of his career as a choreographer, he teaches ballet and modern dance in Tanzwerk 101, ASVZ University of Zurich 2019 and for the Bachelor Contemporary Dance, Zurich University of Arts and he gives often workshops in Bern and Zurich.
Graciela Martínez Arribas
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Graciela was born in Madrid in 1982, where she studied at the Professional Conservatory of Dance from 1989 to 2002. In 1998 she won her first prize as a dancer at the National Competition of Torrelavega and in 1999 she won again the fisrt prize at the International Competitions of Zaragoza. In 2001 she received a scolarship to dance at the Ballet des Jeunes d’Europe in Aix-en-Provence under the direction of Jean Charles Gil. And in 2002, after getting her diplome, she joined the English National Ballet in London.
Graciela joined later on the Ballet of the Theater of Leipzig, directed by Uwe Scholz. And in 2004 she got her first Solo contract at the Ballet de l'Opera de Nice.
In 2007 she worked under the direction of Richard Wherlock in Ballet Basel. Later on she joined the Ensemble of Aterballetto / Fundazione Nazionalle della danza, directed by Cristina Bozzolini and Mauro Bigonzetti. And in 2011 she was engaged by the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. She has danced for choreographers such as Mauro Bigonzetti, Ohad Naharin, Uwe Scholz, Mauricio Walnrot, Karl Schreiner, Hans Henning Paar, Erna Omarsdottir, etc.
Thanks to this diversity of companies, choreographers and styles she developed her own identity as a choreographer and dance teacher and since 2017 she is living in Switzerland.
She holds a degree in Choreography and Performing Arts from Escuela Superior de Danza y Musica in Madrid and teaches in different places such as ASVZ ETH- Zurich, Tanzwerk101, Dancetown, etc.
In 2019 Graciela and Neel they got the support from Bühne Aarau and Aargauer Kuratorium and they stablished thei own company called Lit Dance Company.
dancers
Mara Peyer
Mara was born in Baden, Switzerland and mainly grew up in Locarno, Switzerland. She got her Matura diploma at the SCC Bellinzona were she had been part of the elite sports program.
In 2020 she won the "Migros Kulturprozent" dance competition with her solo "Veritas".
In 2021 she graduated in contemporary dance from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.
In 2020 she joined the Ballett des Stadttheater Bremerhaven under the direction of Sergei Vanaev.
Since then she has worked with choreographers such as Philipp Egli, Marcel Leemann & Lisa Lareida.
Manuel von Arx
Manuel von Arx works as a freelance dancer nationally and internationally in contemporary, urban and commercial projects. He grew up in the canton of Zurich, where he trained martial arts such as karate and jiu jitsu for many years. In 2015 Manuel discovered dancing, which, along with music, quickly became his new passion. So in 2016 he decided to start the Zurich Dance & Theatre School at Tanzwerk 101, where upon after one year he switched to the three-year Higher
Professional School for Contemporary and Urban Stage Dance. He graduated with a Bachelor (Hons) Urban and Contemporary Dance in January 2021. He has already danced for various
productions in the Zurich Opera House, musical West Side Story at the Lake Festival in Mörbisch am See, several TV and fashion - shows and various contemporary and urban theatre
productions. He has also worked with choreographers such as Muhammed Kaltuk (Company
MEK), Lillian Stillwell, Ihsan Rustem, Luca Signoretti and Vanessa Cook and Lisa Lareida.
Ilaria Rabagliati
Ilaria Rabagliati, born in Lucerne in 1998, graduated in summer 2021 with the Bachelor Contemporary Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Before that she did a one-year dance education in Copenhagen and Los Angeles. In her third year of study Ilaria danced as a intern at Tanz Luzerner Theater (2020/21 season) under the direction of Kathleen McNurney. In 2020 she was a prize-winner of the "Migros-Kulturprozent Wettbewerb für Nachwuchstänzerinnen und - tänzer" and in summer 2021 she got the sponsorship award of the dance department of ZHdK for her bachelor project "SOMA".
Since graduating, Ilaria has been a freelance dancer and has danced for various choreographers such as Marcel Leemann, Dario Dinuzzi, Tanzkompanie DOXS, Lisa Lareida, Dominika Knapik and Anna Papst. In 2022 Ilaria choreographed her first short dance piece "NICE TO MEET WHO", which got performed at Tanzfest Zentralschweiz and Incidanse Friburg. Ilaria is very interested in interdisciplinary work and how dance can be combined with different art forms.
She also teaches at the TanZdas Dance school in Lucerne
Alexander Hallas
Alex Hallas was born and raised in Yorkshire-North England trained at the Academy of Northern Ballet and English National Ballet School in London.
He has performed in various companies as a student and professional dancer in companies such as Northern Ballet, English National Ballet, Ballet Zürich and Ballet Cymru (Ballet Wales) including national and international tours to Bermuda and China. He also had choreography commissions for Ballet Cymru 2 in 2019 and Swiss Offspring Ballet in 2022.
Lia Lütolf
Lia Lütolf is from Kerns in the canton of Obwalden. She completed her dance training in classical
ballet and contemporary dance in Lucerne and Zurich, where she graduated in June 2023 from
the Bachelor Contemporary Dance at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). In the season
2022/23, Lia was engaged as an intern at Ballett Theater Plauen-Zwickau in Germany. She has
so far danced in choreographies by Bryan Arias, Nadav Zelner, Luca Signoretti, Dunja Jocic,
Mário Radačovský and Sergei Vanaev, amongst others
