The Dancers 2015

Assi Pakkanen was born in Finland and started dancing at the age of 5.  She completed her dance education at Balettakademien in Stockholm.

She has been freelancing in several projects as a dancer and performer in Sweden, Finland and Germany and worked with choreographers such as Val Suarez, Charlotta Överholm, Kajsa Sandström, ILDance and Salvatore Siciliano. Assi is also creating her own collaborative projects, and teaching dance classes and workshops.  

She is currently based in Berlin and working as a dancer in the Crossover Project.

Floris Dahlgrün was born in Berlin, but grew up in Sweden. Already while being in  school he developed a strong interest in acting and was able to gain first experiences on stage and in film during that time.

Since the age of 16 he immersed himself in dance of all different styles, finally honing in on contemporary dance. In 2010 he choreographed his first solo, „Five Sounds and a Dance“, for which he also composed the music, and which was performed in Stockholm, Sweden. During the same year he moved to Berlin to participate in a 3-year professional dance program, which he successfully completed in 2013. While being in the dance program he developed choreographic works, which were presented as part of the school performances, as well as Dance-Video-Projects, which were performed in Berlin.

While being in the dance program Floris was part of the performance group “SIGN” and performed in the Festival Chalon dans la Rue in France and Spoffin in The Netherlands.

In 2014, Floris danced with choreographer Konstantin Tsakalidis in Konstanz and Leipzig, as well as appearing in several Opera productions of the Deutsche Oper. He performed in „Manon Lescaut“, which had guest performances at the Royal Opera House of Omen.

Most recently, Floris was a guest performer at the Opera Production “Daphne” in Basel, Switzerland.

Juliette Rahon was born in France in 1991. At the age 9, she is invited by the director of Lyon’s National Conservatory to join the pre- professional education in contemporary dance and ballet. At the age of 18 she joins « Madrid’s Royal Conservatory ». Two years later, she enrolls the

professional education at « Iwanson International Dance School » in Munich, where she is awarded from two scholarship (Tanzwerkstatt Europa, Palamos summer dance). There she works with international choreographers such as Caroline Finn, Hannes Langolf, Patrick Delcroix, and conclude her Education with the Bühnenreife-Diploma.

Since 2013 she's regularly invited to present her own pieces « Jeux » at Palamos (Spain), and « Feminity » in Munich. 2014 is highlighted with her solo piece « Metamorphose », with which she is offered the chance to be guest choreographer in residency at the « Offene Studios » in Tanztendenz München. In addition, she got the 2. prize of the Competition « DanzaFirenze » in Florence with her piece « Between Reality and Insanity ». In summer 2014 Juliette is invited to train at the Tanztheater Wuppertal.

Since October 2014 she’s a member of the Crossoverprojekt, with which she ´s interpreted the choroegraphies of Isabel Gotzkowsky, Heidi Weiss, Theresa von Hunolstein and Dagmar Spain, in several German scenes.

In 2015 regularly invited at the Leipzig Opera, to dance in the opera productions « Rheingold » and « Siegfried » of Rosamund Gilmore. Furthermore she is soloist in the piece « Wald », by the Leipzigerin producer and choreographer Heike Hennig. In June she is invited to be part of the KA 300 dance ensemble of the BattleRoyal’s Agency, ( as part of the Karslruhe 300. City’s anniversary) where she has the opportunity to dance the pieces of Thomas Knack and Nadja Jensen in front of forty thousand people. In July, Juliette has the chance to present her duet piece « Home Needs People » at the Einstein Theater in Munich.

Mona Isabell Suck was born and raised in Hamburg. She started taking ballet classes at the age of 15 and discovered her passion for contemporary dance two years later. Upon finishing her formal school education she decided to participate in a professional dance program at the Contemporary Dance School Hamburg, which she successfully completed in July 2014.

Already during the program and since graduation, Mona gained some stage experience with international choreographers and video artists, such as Johanna Bruckner (Austria), Tomislav Jelicic (Kroatia), Fiona Gordon (England), Kristofer Weinstein-Storey (USA), Ursina Tossi (Germany) and Filip Van Huffel (Belgium).

Mona continues to live and work in Hamburg, where she also teaches dance.

Susanna Ylikoski is a professional contemporary dancer from Finland, educated and based in Berlin, Germany. She recently graduated from the 3-year dance education program at Danceworks, a professional vocational college in Berlin. Thus, she is taking her first steps in creating her own career and methodology in dance.

Susanna is a former Aesthetic Group Gymnast, experienced in House dance, Breakdance, Astanga Yoga and Argentinen Tango. She gained stage experience through various different kinds of projects.

For this year she is looking very much forward to participating in the Crossover Projekt.

Tamara Schindler was born in 1991 in Stuttgart, Germany and graduated from Iwanson School of Contemporary Dance in 2014. During the festival Licensed to Dance she danced in choreographies by Patrick Delcroix, Caroline Finn, Jochen Heckmann, Minka Marie Heiss and Jessica Iwanson. Tamara was an exchange student at Opus Ballet in Florence, Italy and was awarded a scholarship for Jochen Heckmann’s master class at Schwäbischer Kunstsommer 2014. 

After her graduation Tamara performed with the German choreographer Katja Erdmann-Rajski in her dance theatre production passion.matthew’s party. Since 2015 she’s a member of Isabel Gotzkowsky’s Crossover Projekt in Berlin and worked at the KA 300 opening show in Karlsruhe with Thomas Knack and Nadja Jensen. Recently Tamara travelled to Israel for an internship at Jerusalem Dance Theatre under the direction of Lior Lev where she got the chance to rehearse with Eyal Dadon (Kibbutz Dance Company), Neta Pulvermacher and to take company classes with Vertigo Dance Company. Back in Munich she performed in H.O.M.E, a dance evening with concept and choreography by Yasmin Schönmann.

Sara Maria Usignoli (born in Italy in 1990) completed her contemporary dance studies in the National Academy of Rome in 2010, where she had the opportunity to study and work with choreographers such as Wayne Mcgregor, Ismael Ivo, Joseph Fontano and Mauro Astolfi.

She moved to the Netherlands to pursue her Bachelor in Artez, where she hoped to improve her improvisation skills. But after one year she started working in Amsterdam, performing in several dance and video projects until she arrived in Berlin. She also briefly worked in Spain under the direction of Carmen de Sandi.

In Germany she participated in some performances with emerging choreographers, in the film "der Tänzer", and worked in the Bühnen in Halle before she started with the Crossover Project.

Zenia Helene Madsen is a dancer and choreographer from Denmark. After studying in Copenhagen

and Stockholm she graduated from Danceworks School of Modern Dance in Berlin 2014.

During her time in Sweden she took her skills as an urban dancer to a higher level, next to her classical training. After her graduation she went to Denmark with her project 'Body awareness and movement' teaching at primary and high schools. Recently Zenia went to Greece performing 'AZ a moment of quiet' by Yaara Dolev and worked with choreographer Renana Raz.

She is now working with the Crossover Projekt and is a part of ABZ Collective.

Furthermore Zenia performed with the following artists:

2014 'Le temps blanc' contemporary dance performance, Malta, choreographer Yaara Dolev, Amit Goldenberg.

2013/14 'Find Dig Selv' music video, Copenhagen.

2010 'All for Love' Michael Jackson tribute, Gladsaxe Teater Copenhagen, choreographer Jenny Major, Martin Svaneborg.

2009 'Everything That Happens' improvisation and sculpture project, Rådhuspladsen Copenhagen, choreographer Nana Francisca, Julie Tremblay.