Max Levy
3.11 / 5.11 - Ballet
What to expect:
This class will go back to the basics, trusting in the structure of the traditional ballet class, with no bells or whistles. But alongside it, contemporary and alternative perspectives will help us achieve a completeness beyond the habits, to better approach the mechanics of a classical class through conscious physical awareness.
Biography:
Born in Tokyo and raised in the USA, Max Masahiro Levy works between choreography, sound, and visual design. Trained at San Francisco Ballet, he worked with numerous ensembles in the US and Europe before becoming an independent artist in 2017. Since then, Max lives in Frankfurt am Main, producing introspective works for stage and installation, blending meditation, sound art, and dance for venues such as Stadttheater Gießen, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, saasfee*pavillon, tanzhausNRW, CNDB, among others. He has held residencies with STL Tallinn, Staatstheater Darmstadt, among others, and was a participant of the Choreographic Coding Lab Köln 2023, as well as receiving nominations from Dance Europe and tanz magazine for his continued work as a performer.
paletta.kesim & friends
10.11 / 12.11 - Contemporary Dance & Live Music
What to expect:
Bettina’s contemporary training offers a structured and dynamic technique class togehter with live-music, designed to prepare dancers for their daily rehearsals or teaching commitments. Rooted in the weismann technique, her approach integrates movement principles inspired by Horton, Limón, Taylor, and Wigman techniques. This foundation merges seamlessly with Bettina’s unique style of contemporary dance, which emphasizes floor work, elements of folk dance, and the concept of class as a ritual experience. The training starts by grounding the bodies, fostering an internal focus that transitions into a dynamic flow. The class begins with floor work, followed by center exercises that target stability, balance, coordination, and dynamic movement. Emphasis is placed on musicality, natural flow, alignment, and achieving length and expansion in the body.
The class progresses with across-the-floor exercises and culminates in a dynamic combination that includes jumps and full-bodied movement sequences. Bettina’s approach balances structured, technical exercises with opportunities for improvisation, encouraging participants to explore diverse movement qualities within a technical framework. Her class emphasizes precision and musicality while celebrating the joy of movement and honoring the training as a ritual uniting dance and live music.
Biography:
Bettina studied dance at the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden. She works as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer since 18 years. Her artistic voice is rooted in contemporary dance techniques, strongly influenced by the Weissman Technique, and guided by a deep connection to nature. For her, dance is not only a physical or technical practice but a pathway to rediscover the relationship between body, spirit, and environment.
Emre studied jazz music at Bilkent University in Ankara. He is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and dance accompanist with over 30 years of international experience. His music draws from Anatolian and Mediterranean musical traditions, blending them with experimental structures and electronic sounds. Together, they develop performances that move between precision and spontaneity, form and freedom.
Raquel Nevado Ramos
17.11 / 19.11 - Ballet
What to expect:
This class focuses on balance, alignment, and lengthening the body through movement. Using barre and center exercises, dancers work on control, strength, and stability, while exploring extended lines and fluid transitions. Classical technique is combined with contemporary influences to help dancers move with awareness and ease.
Biography:
Raquel comes from Spain, where she trained and later earned a BA in Contemporary Dance and Pedagogy in Linz, Austria. She has collaborated with Daniel Morales, Angel Rodriguez, Theater Pforzheim, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Hui Tran, Nadia Beugré, Ester Ambrosino, and Tomas Bünger, a.o.
Based in Wiesbaden, Germany, Raquel works as a freelance artist and is the one of the founders of Dance Nexus and co-creator of the collective AiR iTALiCS. In recent years, she has opened a new chapter as a choreographer, exploring her own movement language and artistic vision.
Daniel Myers
24.11 / 26.11 - Improvisation
What to expect:
My class will begin with a softening into the body; allowing ourselves time to connect with the different senses through a 45 minute body awakening before carrying our energy into various improvisational tasks, journeys and dialogues for the remainder of the class. I aim to focus on guiding ourselves in strengthening the mind-body connection whilst igniting those core connections to dance beneath and beyond our surfaces.
Biography:
Daniel is a freelance dance artist who was born and trained in England before spending the majority of his career working in companies throughout Germany. During the last ten years he has collaborated with a variety of choreographers through both choreographic and improvisational methods: Xie Xin, William Forsythe, Thomas Hauert, Imre & Marne Van Opstal, KOR’SIA, Outinnerspace and Ioannis Mandafounis are a few who have left imprints on his dance practice.
Alongside his work as a dancer, Daniel has led professional workshops in Germany and China, and is now basing himself in Cologne as he continues to grow his dance practice and workshop portfolio.