Residency program
Dance Nexus offers paid residencies exclusively to active members of the association. In addition to financial support, recipients are granted access to the Starballet studio in Wiesbaden, providing a professional setting for research, creation, and rehearsal.
The program has been established to address the structural funding gap within Wiesbaden and the wider region. By combining direct financial remuneration with complimentary studio access, Dance Nexus seeks to promote fair working conditions while fostering the artistic development of its members.
Through this initiative, Dance Nexus underscores its commitment to supporting sustainable careers in dance and strengthening the regional cultural landscape.
For active members interested in applying for a residency, please contact studio@dancenexusrm.com to request the application guidelines.
Residencies 2025
Raquel Nevado Ramos
Plié
AiR iTALiCS
In this residency Raquel worked together with dancers Carla Gonzalez Perez, Naia Bokos Unibaso, Guillermo de la Chica Lopez and Clara Valderan, and with composer and dramaturge Johannes Schropp. Plié addresses the emotional and cultural resonance of migration, exploring what happens when we lose our own culture and feel alienated in a new environment. Between Andalusian cultural heritage and the international meta-culture of contemporary dance, the artistic team negotiates their similar migrant experiences in the performance.
She received one of the "Freiräume" scholarships from Kulturamt Wiesbaden and premiered her piece in Maifestspiele 2025 Wiesbaden.
Photos by Tatsuki Takada
More info: https://airitalics.framer.website/
Pihla Jaala
RAW FLAW
Laura Ahumada García and Pihla Jaala
RAW FLAW is an ongoing duet research by Laura and Pihla, developed during possibility to research our work with support by Dance Nexus e.V. in June 2025 at Star Ballet Wiesbaden and continued over two weeks in August 2025 in Frankfurt (Studio MA CoDE/HFMDK). Rooted in playfulness, awareness, and openness, the work unfolds through spontaneous improvisation — a physical dialogue shaped by gravity, space, and the shifting dynamics between our two bodies. Drawing from somatic practices, breaking, capoeira, and contemporary dance, we explore a shared movement language that merges strength with elasticity and technique with intuition, informed by our backgrounds in Contemporary Dance Education and our interest in blending pedagogical tools with artistic creation. Throughout the residency, we investigated how movement can create spaces of reconnection and interdependence, where weight, balance, and contact become metaphors for trust, struggle, and transformation. Our research examines the tension between control and release, perfection and imperfection, treating rawness as a form of care and vulnerability as strength.
The process culminated in a work-in-progress showing at Wiesbaden Tanzt in August 2025 as part of a program offered by Dance Nexus e.V. and a DNA workshop format of Dance Nexus in October 2025, where we shared our movement practice and invited local audiences into the embodied methodologies behind RAW–FLAW.
Photos by: Tatsuki Takada (from Wiesbaden Tanzt 2025 and Dance Nexus Festival 2024)
More info at:
laura_ahumadagarcia https://www.instagram.com/laura_ahumadagarcia/
pihlajaala https://www.instagram.com/pihlajaala/
Matthew Tusa
Lebenslicht
For the Dance Nexus Residency Matthew worked on his new piece "Lebenslicht", a choreography exploring the process of death and it's associated journey. It is based on the experiences people have in palliative care, their stories and lives turned into movement. To create the piece Matthew collaborated with the Music Therapist Sung-Eun Lee and the dancers Carlos Diaz, Paige Perry, delta r'AI, and Verena Wilhelm. They used the residency to create the choreography and work on ideas, as well as to help finance the whole project. The premiere is on the 13th and 14th of December 2025, as well as further performances in March 2026.
For further information: www.matthewtusa.com
Santiago Mariño
Echoes of Darien
We pursued a critical gaze on the migratory dreams of our geographies of origin—Colombia—by addressing the humanitarian crisis in the Darién Gap, where thousands of migrants from the global south are prey to natural and human hazards as they cross the gap by land. We deal with the colonial legacies of forced migration while honoring the resilience of the jungle's diaspora. This collaborative process with Juan Camilo Rojas Arevalo has taken us on a journey of self-reflection and creativity, bringing this performance to several platforms such as Wiesbaden Tanz and Hamburg's Fluctoplasma festival.
Edge Dance Project
Cadence
EDGE Dance Project e.V. is an independent contemporary and neoclassical dance company based in Mainz. The company consists of five dancers united by a shared passion for movement, expression, and artistic research. Our work is rooted in the values of authenticity, self-expression, and inclusiveness, which guide our creative process and inform our ongoing commitment to developing dance while engaging with the surrounding community.
The primary aim of this residency was to develop and rehearse a new work within a focused, professional environment. The residency provided the time and space necessary for in-depth artistic exploration, experimentation, and refinement of the piece. Equally important, it allowed us to offer fairer compensation to the participating artists in recognition of their time, creative contribution, and physical commitment. By valuing their work appropriately, the residency supports not only the quality of the production but also the long-term sustainability of their artistic careers.
During the residency, we created four new works, including one in collaboration with the Donati Swing Trio and another featuring choreography by Juan Camilo Rojas Arévalo. We are deeply grateful to Dance Nexus for this opportunity and for their support of our artistic development.
Ronja Eick
Hanging in the skin
The residency hanging in the skin with Ronja Eick, Charlotte Hartz, and Jana Burianová explored skin as a sensory and political organ, as an emotional carrier, and as choreographic material. Beginning with research on the receptors of the skin, the work quickly expanded into more poetic, emotional, and feminist dimensions. It is improvisation-based, inviting the dancers to stay attuned to their senses while moving. The practice creates a space for sensory listening, trust and responsive action, training the body to make intuitive decisions, react to touch, and refine reflexes. It allows movement to be wild and rough, yet soft, attentive, and caring.
The work was shared both as a workshop in the DNA Workshop and as a work-in-progress showing for DNA Stage in Wiesbaden.
We thank Dance Nexus e.V. for providing the opportunity for this residency and for supporting our artistic research.
