About us

About Kuyumarts

Kuyum is a Kabie word from Togo meaning ONE or togetherness, the organization is aimed to promote intercultural collaborations and cooperation between PoC and Non-PoC,s artists in the field of dance as well as other art forms, and create training programs to help discover new ways, of investigating and contextualizing “Neo-Africa dance “ through critical and reflective approach towards the development of African dance. KuyumArts is founded to act as a cultural bridge, connecting dissimilar cultures.

Mission:

The organization’s mission is to help outline and create new narratives concerning African dance as an effective art form capable of contributing to the development of dance in the freelance scene in Berlin. The organization will make these possible by empowering the PoC and Non PoC dancers and choreographers to acquire and advance their understanding of the “Neo African Dance form” through advanced training programs, seminars, workshops and an annual dance festival in Berlin Germany.

Company’s Objective

  1. To organize and facilitate projects that provide inspiration for interdisciplinary artistic research.
  2. To create and make available new tools and methods for choreographic construction, analysis and production.
  3. To give critical audiences access to research projects through seminars, publications, documentaries and the work of creative learning.
  4. To engage with the youth in training opportunities and residency that will expose them to various Neo-African dance forms and cultural expressions, through performances, workshops, research and exchange and thus create possibilities for dialogue.
  5. Develop new and innovative ways of creating and presenting Neo-African dance forms, through a unique and exciting blend of the old, present and incorporating the spirit of both traditional and Neo-African dance philosophies to project the future of African Dance

Our team

Felix Dompreh, initiator of the initiative Kuyum – Afro Tanz Plattform Berlin, works since 2016 as a choreographer, dancer, educator in Berlin.

Born in Accra-Ghana, He belongs to a line of talented dancers and musicians. He is trained in traditional and contemporary African dance, including Afro-Fusion, Hip-Hip and Neo African dance. He was a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship recipient and is pursuing an M.A. in Solo dance and Authorship at the Inter-University Center for Dance at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has received numerous grants for dance residency programs such as Danceweb / Impulstanz Vienna and CIP / SIDANCE in Seoul, Sud Korea. Felix has danced with the Noyam Dance Company and the National Dance Company of Ghana. He is also the founder and director of Kuyum Arts Investigations Limited in Ghana. He received a certificate and diploma in traditional and contemporary African dance at the Noyam African Dance Institute Ghana under the direction of Pro.F-Nii Yartey. In 2011 he extended his dance studies at the Ecole Des Sable – Senegal under the direction of Prof. Germaine Acogny.

Felix works among others as a teacher for various Afro Classes in Berlin, as a choreographer (Zagreb) dancer for Theater o.N. and Tanztangente Festival (Berlin).

Alessandra Lola Agostini is trained in dance, theater and educational psychology at the University of Genoa and at Centro Mojud and Auroville Theater School. Since 2011 she lives and works as a freelance dancer and dance educator in various projects mainly in Germany. Besides her main job as a dance teacher, she is currently working as a production assistant to the artistic director – Dompreh – for Kuyum Dance Platform 2021.

Tina Elbel

Tina Elbel is an artistic production manager, dramaturge, and curator in the performing arts.
She studied education and completed a postgraduate course in drama and theater education and at the HdK Berlin.
During her postgraduate training, she did various assistant directors and dramaturges as part of the drama training at the HdK. In seasons 2001/2002 to 2003/2004 she was assistant dramaturge and production dramaturge at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin.

Afterward she worked as a dramaturge in the independent scene, interrupted by various positions at the Maxim Gorki
Theatre (artistic director: Armin Petras). For eleven years now she has been a freelance producer, dramaturge and press officer. In these fields she has worked for Opera Lab Berlin, Matthias Kaul, Tobias Rausch, Howard Katz Rausch, Howard Katz, Chris Kondek, Riki von Falken, shifts, flunker produktionen, the PATHOS Theatre Munich and many others. For four years now, she has been working regularly as co-curator and artistic production manager for the Theater im Delphi and currently as production manager for Kuyum Arts on project basis.

Advisory Board

 

Nora Amin: Performer, choreographer, writer and theater director. Has recently been working on the reappraisal of trauma and the decolonization of Baladi Raqs Sharqi dance from a feminist perspective. Author of Dance of the Persecuted (MSB Matthes & Seitz, Berlin) and founder of the nationwide Egyptian project of the Theater of the Oppressed and its Arab network.

Ricardo de Paula: Dancer, performer and choreographer, born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has lived and worked in Berlin since 2003. In 1987 he began his dance career with classes in Jazz and Classical Ballet at Harmonia Studio de Danças, Belo Horizonte. As a professional dancer he has danced since 1989 in companies such as Grupo Corpo with Rodrigo Pederneiras (Brazil), Zikzira Physical Theater (Brazil) and at the Staatstheater Kassel.

Since living in Berlin, he has added engagements with choreographers Sasha Waltz, Christoph Winkler, Constanza Macras, Sommer Ulrickson, Ahn Eun Me and Felix Ruckert. Since 2005 he has been developing solo pieces (e.g. Shoot First, Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2013), and since 2006 his own productions with the ensemble he founded, Grupo Oito. Among the most important ensemble works are Dance for sale (2010, Ballhaus Naunynstraße, extension in Nairobi, 2015); Sight (Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2012), Part of You (Ballhaus Naunystraße, 2015) and Unrestricted Contact (Ballhaus Naunynstraße, 2017). In the meantime, the productions have toured several times, including Turkey, France, and Nairobi. The characteristic moment of his works includes the Get Physical Process he developed.

Christa Buschendorf: Professor of American literature and culture, taught at Goethe University Frankfurt until her retirement in 2015; has lived in Berlin since 2013. In her research focus on African-American literature and culture, she published Black Prophetic Fire (2014) with Cornel West. Her most recent publications include her edited volume Power Relations in Black Lives: Reading African American Literature and Culture with Bourdieu and Elias (2018).

Christa Flaig-Isaacs: Dancer, educator, project manager. The focus of her dance work is research on movement qualities in African dance and the possible meaning, adaptation and transformation for non-African dancers. For 35 years she has organized training courses and co-organized festivals for dance and cultural exchange in Europe and Africa. Curator of the event series “SommerTanz”, “WinterTanz” and “OsterTanz” as well as commercial director of the Tanzfabrik, from 2007-18 board member of the Tanzfabrik Berlin.