Raquel Lima is a poet, art educator, performer, essayist, curator and transdisciplinary artist. She holds a degree in Artistic Studies and is a researcher in Decolonial Studies, with a particular interest in orature, Slavery, Afrodiasporic movements and their contemporary practices of escapism, abstraction and healing. She has taken part in the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Biennial. She was a keynote speaker at Women’s Worlds Congress at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique and at the Race in Iberia Symposium at the Ohio State University. She curated the conference Reformulating Authority and Authorship in the Arts at Culturgest, and has published the poetry books Ingenuidade Inocência Ignorância and ÚLULU. She co-founded the Black Union of the Arts in Portugal, and won the 2026 Emma Goldman Award.

@raquel_palmira
CES.UC

Angela Guerreiro is a mother, independent artist, producer and researcher. She holds a degree from the Lisbon School of Dance, a Master’s degree in Dance and Movement Therapy from Heidelberg, and trained in Somatic Movement Therapy (DE-SMTT) in New York. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, with a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Her projects include DanceKiosk-Hamburg (2005–2016); SURVIVING DANCE – Art – Economy – Politics (2011), a dialogue between artists and politicians on the “precarious” working conditions of performing artists in Hamburg, which led Tanz Jahrbuch 2011 to describe her as “one of the last independent activists in contemporary dance”; The Live Legacy Project: Correspondences between German Contemporary Dance and the Judson Dance Theater Movement (2014), focusing on American avant-garde practices of the 1960s, and the film The Live Legacy Project – Documentation (2016); Me and My White Skeleton (2021), a performative exhibition exploring the presence of Black bodies in Europe; and Projeto 1952 | Arquivo em Movimento: entre o Bairro e o Museu (2024–2028), an initiative of PARTIS & Art for Change, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and “la Caixa” Foundation.

In Portugal, she has worked as a researcher and jury member in a range of festival, conference, exhibition and dance platform contexts. She is a co-founder of ANACA – Associação Natureza Arte Corpo e Alma, where she serves as President of the Board.

www.angelaguerreiro.de
www.dancekiosk-hamburg.de

Currently Head of Dance Projects at the Institut français, Catherine Faudry leads initiatives supporting the international circulation of contemporary dance and artistic exchange within the French cultural network. She previously served as Cultural and Audiovisual Attachée at the French Embassy in Serbia, where she developed several regional projects across the Balkans. As such, she was leading Teatroskop programme, aiming at fostering the performing art field in the region. Over the years, she has held several positions at the Institut français, contributing to the development of strategies in the performing arts and advising French companies and operators internationally. Her career also includes 17 years in Brazil, where she was deeply involved in audiovisual, artistic and cultural cooperation.

Born in Porto, Francisca Carneiro Fernandes holds a degree in Law from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a degree in Business Management from AESE – School of Management and Business. After completing an internship at the Legal Services Department of the Bank of Portugal, she worked as a corporate lawyer at the law firm “Carlos Osório de Castro, Eduardo Verde Pinho, J. J. Vieira Peres” in Porto. In 2002, she became Deputy Director of Teatro Nacional São João, becoming a member of its Board of Directors in 2007 and Chair of the Board of Directors in 2009, a position she held until February 2018. Between February 2018 and July 2022, she was General Director of the Culture Department of Ágora, which manages Teatro Municipal do Porto, where she also served as Executive Director, as well as CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva, Galeria Municipal, Cinema Batalha and many other projects. She subsequently took on the position of Director of New Projects, with the future Matadouro and CACE Cultural Centres among the projects under her responsibility. She was a member of the General Council of the University of Porto. She was President of the Board of Performart – Associação para as Artes Performativas em Portugal until November 2023, when she became Vice-President, a position she held until the end of November 2024. Between 1 December 2023 and 29 November 2024, she served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Centro Cultural de Belém. Between January 2025 and January 2026, she was Executive Director of the municipal company GO Porto Gestão e Obras do Porto, S.A., where she was responsible, among other areas, for the management of Mercado do Bolhão. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the European Theatre Union since 2018 and, representing Performart, a member of the Executive Committee of PEARLE – Live Performance Europe from May 2023 to May 2025, when she was elected President of this European federation of music and live performance organisations. She is currently a senior officer at the municipal company Ágora, and an independent City Councillor without a portfolio at Porto City Council.

Artistic Director of La Caldera – Centre de Creació de Dansa (Barcelona) since January 2024. With degrees in Philosophy and Psychology, he is a creator, performer and curator working in dance and live arts, with a focus on movement dramaturgy and artistic accompaniment. He was coordinator of Centro Párraga in Murcia from 2007 to 2010, and from 2012 to December 2023 he founded and directed LAV-C, the Laboratory of Live Arts and Citizenship, in Tenerife. In this context, he was responsible for the three biennial editions of Dance Interfaces, an international platform for dance created in the Canary Islands, and for the regular programme Danza en breve at Teatro Leal in La Laguna.

He regularly works as a curator and artistic advisor with public administrations, organisations and festivals in Spain and internationally. He also coordinates ongoing mediation and participation projects in dance, live arts and territory. Since 2011, he has presented his work as a creator and dance dramaturg, collaborating with artists including Sonia Gómez, Sara Serrano, Amalia Fernández, Juan Domínguez, Paula Quintana, Aleksandar Georgiev, Alexander Iseli, Poliana Lima and Mari Paula, among others. His work has been presented in Spain, Germany, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Italy, Malta, Norway and Sweden.

He is a member of the Asociación de Artistas del Movimiento de Canarias PiedeBase and was President of FECED (Spanish Federation of Associations of Professional Dance Companies and Organisations) from 2018 to 2022, serving in this capacity as a member of the Spanish State Council for the Performing Arts and Music.

For four decades, she has worked as a cultural manager specialising in the performing arts, with experience in artistic management and programming across all fields — music, theatre, dance, circus and live arts — at different levels of responsibility, in both the private sector and public administration, and in national and international contexts. She has worked as Production Director or Deputy Director for organisations and institutions including the Centro Nacional de Nuevas Tendencias Escénicas (1987–1990), Teatro de la Abadía in Madrid (1995–1996), Centro Andaluz de Teatro (1993–1994) and Teatro Central in Seville (1991–1992), as well as on major cultural projects such as Expo ’92 and Salamanca 2002.

She has an extensive career as Artistic Director of international festivals, including Festival V.E.O. in Valencia (2003–2006), Festival Escena Contemporánea (2009–2010), Festival IDEM (La Casa Encendida) (2013–2018) in Madrid, and as Deputy Artistic Director of La Biennale di Venezia’s Theatre Department (2013–2016). From 2009 to 2012, she was Head of Coordination at INAEM. She has worked as an advisor to various cultural institutions at municipal level (Madrid, Valencia and Lleida City Councils), regional level (Centro Coreográfico Galego, Government of Catalonia) and national level (INAEM, Ministry of Culture, Instituto Cervantes, Acción Cultural Española). She has also served on the juries of numerous awards related to dance and new languages, and participated in round tables, conferences and courses on cultural management and community or inclusive performing arts, both in international forums and across Spain. In this field, she founded the Jornadas sobre Inclusión Social en las Artes Escénicas in 2008, which will celebrate its 18th edition in 2027.

From 2017 to 2022, she was Executive Producer of La Ribot Ensemble in Geneva, as well as a member of the Dance Council within the State Council for the Performing Arts from 2019 to 2022 (INAEM–Ministry of Culture). In 2023, she worked for the Performing Arts Department of AC/E (Acción Cultural Española), conducting a study on international mobility and evaluating the PICE programme (Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture) on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

Since January 2024, she has been Director General of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (Ministry of Culture).

danza.es
@inaem_cultura

Cristina Planas Leitão is a performing arts curator, dramaturge and choreographer. She works as a consultant and curator for foundations, cultural organisations and companies. Her integrated curatorial practice focuses on developing sustainable creative formats, new narratives and relationships of care within the performing arts, with a growing interest in experimental practices that are politically and socially engaged. She is particularly interested in the intersections between curatorial, organisational, research and educational practices. Over the years, Cristina has blurred the boundaries between disciplines, nationalities and hierarchies, viewing the role of the curator as one of facilitation.

Since April 2025, she has been Artistic Director of Materiais Diversos (PT). In 2025, she co-founded SUPERNOVÆ with Natalia Álvarez Simó (ES), a consulting and curatorial platform. Since 2024, she has been part of the group of curators contributing to the new Something Great Arts Centre (DE), which is expected to reopen to the public between 2026 and 2030. Since 2024, she has coordinated the Artistic Research Module at ArtEZ (NL), within the Bachelor’s programme in Arts/Dance Artist. Her work as a curator and, subsequently, as Artistic Director of Teatro Municipal do Porto, DDD – Dias da Dança Festival and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva (2018–2024) has left a transformative legacy, including the launch of a key residency centre in 2021, the expansion of the institution’s international reach and the promotion of global collaboration.

Her work extends beyond curating. She provides dramaturgical support for Marco da Silva Ferreira’s new work, Fcking Future; has served as a jury member for the Portuguese Performing Arts Platform (in 2023 and 2025); and is a nominator for the SEDA – Salaviza European Dance Award, awarded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. As a choreographer, Cristina sees her work as an act of resistance and care, exploring themes related to social and political movements and their interaction with the performing body in the context of theatre.

Américo Rodrigues holds a Master’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of Aveiro and a degree in Portuguese Language and Culture from the University of Beira Interior. He was born in Guarda, where he worked as a cultural facilitator and programmer at the Casa de Cultura da Juventude da Guarda/FAOJ (1979–1989) and at Guarda City Council (1989–2005). He was Director of the Guarda Municipal Theatre (2005–2013) and Coordinator of the Eduardo Lourenço Municipal Library (2015–2018). He was one of the founders of the Aquilo Teatro collective, Associação Luzlinar and Calafrio, Associação Cultural / Teatro do CalaFrio. He coordinated the poetry journals Aquilo (1982–1997) and was co-editor of the magazine Boca de Incêndio (2004–2006), among other publications. As an actor and director, he has worked on numerous theatre productions presented in several countries. He is also a sound poetry artist, with several recorded works released. He has directed festivals including Ó da Guarda, festival de novas músicas, Correntes de Ar, Acto Seguinte: Festival Internacional de Teatro da Guarda, Dizsonante, Jazz nas Alturas and Ovni: Objetos e Formas Animadas, among others. He is the author of several works of theatre, poetry, essays, chronicles and literature for children. Since 2019, he has been Director-General of Arts, where he has coordinated working groups responsible for revising the arts funding model, regulating the Portuguese Network of Theatres and Cinemas (RTCP), and implementing the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network (RPAC), among other initiatives. In 2011, he was awarded the Medal of Cultural Merit by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.

Anne-Cécile Sibué is Deputy Director of Onda, the French Office for the Dissemination of Contemporary Performing Arts, which she joined in Paris in 2023. Onda’s mission is to promote and support the dissemination of contemporary performing arts works of all disciplines, whether these works are created in France or abroad.

Onda fosters cooperation and the sharing of practices and experiences among professionals in response to the sector’s current transformations. It connects artists, venues and cultural professionals through artistic advice, professional meetings and financial support for French venues and festivals for presenting both French and international artists.

Anne-Cécile has worked across the independent performing arts as a producer, artistic adviser, curator and artistic director. From 2004 to 2016, she founded and led Bureau Cassiopée in Paris, supporting interdisciplinary artists in production, touring and management. From 2012 to 2016, she was International Adviser at Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil.

She served on the IETM board from 2013 to 2019 and as its President from 2017 to 2019. From 2016 to 2022, she was Artistic and General Director of Black Box teater, a multidisciplinary programming venue dedicated to the independent performing arts scene, where she oversaw both the year-round programme and Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival.

Leticia Martín Ruiz, born in Granada, has been Director of the Grec Festival of Barcelona since 2025. A cultural manager and performing arts professional, she has built her career across some of Spain’s leading cultural institutions, including the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatros del Canal, and Fundación SGAE, as well as through numerous collaborations with public and private cultural organizations. Her work has focused on artistic programming, audience development, cultural policy, and international cooperation. As Director of Grec, she promotes contemporary creation, intercultural dialogue, and meaningful connections between local and global artistic communities, reinforcing the festival’s role as a major platform for artistic exchange.

@daphlet 
@grecfestivalbcn

Tiago Guedes developed a career as a dancer and choreographer before becoming, in 2014, Artistic Director of Teatro Municipal do Porto and, subsequently, Director of the Performing Arts Department of Porto City Council. In 2016, he created the DDD – Dias da Dança Festival and, in 2021, the CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva Centre for Artistic Residencies and Creation. Since July 2022, Tiago Guedes has been Director of the Maison de la Danse and Artistic Director of the Biennale de la Danse. His project for Lyon is based on a strong connection with the local territory and on strengthening the presence of artists. He aims to establish the Maison de la Danse as a stage for all forms of dance, the Biennale de la Danse as a festival dedicated to contemporary creation, and the future Ateliers de la Danse as a space devoted to artistic creation and practices.

Throughout a professional path dedicated to dance and performance within leading arts institutions, Anne Kerzerho has developed a wide range of approaches to supporting artists, encompassing production, programming, and the development of research programs in the dance field. For fifteen years, she contributed to the professional development of new generations of choreographic artists, first as pedagogical director at the École Nationale Supérieure de Dance Contemporaine of the CNDC in Angers and later within the exerce Master’s programme at the CCN of Montpellier. Since September 2025, she is the director of Parallèle – pratiques artistiques émergentes internationales. With a background in social sciences and dance studies, she places the permeability between the arts and fields of knowledge, as well as between the arts and society, at the core of her practice.

Mawena Yehouessi (b. 1990) is a curator, researcher, and artist, whose praxis and ethics embrace collage as a methodology for collective emancipation. After studies in Literature, Philosophy, Project Management, and Contemporary Dance, she founded the collective Black(s) to the Future in 2015, initiating a body of work at the intersection of art, research, and activism. Positioning herself as a “collisionist,” she explores the frictions and assemblages between disciplines, formats, and narratives. In 2024, she completed the first PhD in Artistic Research at Villa Arson and Université Côte d’Azur, with a dissertation titled Afrofuture Poiethics: Weaving Hustles at the Intersection of Collage and Curation. Since 2025, she has been teaching at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. She has curated institutional exhibitions and public programs at Bétonsalon, La Box, Villa Arson, Fondation Ricard, and Berghain/LAS, while engaging in diverse pedagogical activities across Europe and beyond, including at HEAD–Genève and ENSA Paris-Malaquais. Her first two collective films, Sol in the Dark and Joy Boy, premiered at the 72nd (2022) and 76th Berlinale (2026), respectively. Her visual work has been exhibited at Beursschouwburg, Triennale de Dunkerque, Tanzhaus Zürich, deSingel, and IAC—Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes. She has also translated several texts by Fred Moten into French, and her own writings have appeared in e-flux Architecture, ADesk*, Klima, The Funambulist, and various exhibition catalogs.