MEET THE JURY

 Gisela Müller studied contemporary dance in Paris, Amsterdam (SNDO) and New York. She was a member of various dance companies and founded The Move Company in 1992, for which she choreographed numerous pieces. Scholarships have taken her to Germany and abroad. She has taught at various training institutes and studios at home and abroad since 1988. From 2004 to 2024, she was on the board of Tanzfabrik Berlin, and since 2004 she has been the artistic and educational director of the Tanzfabrik School and the Dance Intensive Program. From 2006 - March 2010 she was a visiting professor at the Inter-University Centre for Dance/Berlin in charge of the conception and direction of the BA pilot course Contemporary Dance Context Choreography. Since 2012 she has been a member of the Eastern European Network for Contemporary Performing Art / Nomad Dance Academy. In 2018, she went back on stage with the project Me again-but not alone, in collaboration with the electronic musicians Gebrüder Teichmann, with whom she became Artists in Residence within the framework of the EU project Life Long Burning in 2021/2022.

Jerca Rožnik Novak

(foto: Franzi Kreis)

Jerca Rožnik Novak is a Slovenian dancer, performer, and dance educator working between Ljubljana and Vienna. She trained in performance and dance pedagogy at the Institute of Dance Arts, Anton Bruckner Private University, and holds a degree in social work from the University of Ljubljana. As a freelance artist, she has worked with numerous choreographers and companies, including Willi Dorner, Matjaž Farič, Johannes Wieland, Vita Osojnik, Andreja Podrzavnik, Los Informalls, Magdalena Reiter, and others. Since 2014, she has been a regular collaborator with SILK Fluegge and the Editta Braun company, continuing to perform in their new creations. In 2026, she received the Ksenija Hribar Award in the category recognising outstanding dance or performative work of the past three years.

Jerca also develops her own artistic and interdisciplinary projects. She is the co-founder of echospiel, a duo combining contemporary dance and live percussion, and a member of the pop-up collective PINBODY, which is currently developing a new production.

She regularly teaches dance classes and workshops in various contexts. She has taught at SVŠGUGL in Ljubljana and currently teaches at the Institute of Dance Arts, Anton Bruckner Private University, in Linz.

Björn Säfsten

 Björn Säfsten is a dancer and choreographer, based in Stockholm. He works in Sweden as well as internationally and has, over the last 20 years, mainly created works through his own company but also for various Swedish dance institutions such as Skånes Dansteater, Cullberg, and Regionteater Väst.
Säfsten takes an interest in the intersection between movement and gesture. Between the meaning-bearing and meaning-creating aspects of a movement and what makes up a movement physically. Säfsten is interested in developing methods for analysis as well as production that address both approaches, allowing them to cross-pollinate in order to shift the logic, or approach, that dictates the evolution of choreography. 
Säfsten's work has been presented at several venues in Sweden and internationally. Since 2015 Björn Säfsten activates various formats to present the work of other artists within his structure Säfsten Produktion. Säfsten Produktion intends to be a platform for choreographic creation and experimentation. An intertwinement of theory and practice, that manifests itself through artists joining forces in speculation and critical formation within the fields of choreography. It aims to be a platform for experimentation, risk-taking and continuous research. After creating several different formats and platforms for presenting other artists, Säfsten Production is now continuously working with the bi-annual festival Within Practice.