Rebecca Bannor-Addae, Writer
Rebecca Bannor-Addae in a suburb in Denmark to a Danish mother and a Ghanaian father. When she reached an age permitting individual decisions as to pudding before supper or supper before pudding she moved to London. Since then she has lived in New Orleans and New York and spent significant time in West Africa and the Caribbean taking up various odd jobs.
Rebecca’s work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Sudan Tribune, Trace Magazine and various Danish papers. Currently she works as a Public Information Officer (a quasi-correspondent) for the UN mission in Liberia. She holds a degree in African Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
In 2008, Rebecca wrote the storyline for Roland Gebhardt’s multi-media performance piece, “The Only Tribe”, which made its world premiere at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York City in December, 2008.
Ljuba Castot, Choreographer/Dancer
Ljuba Castot is a Danish dancer and choreographer currently working in New York after her completion of the Professional Training Program at Merce Cunningham Dance Company Studio.
Since her childhood growing up in Copenhagen, Ljuba was already building a resume of extreme variety including tv, feature film, concerts, videos and dance theatre. Her formal dance training began very early, and as soon as Ljuba discovered the world outside her balletclasses, she found that her spirit and body was very open to many forms of expression. Immediately after graduating high school, she joined a full time dance program at Stepz Dansestudie, Copenhagen.
Ljuba had already spent her 2nd year of High School touring as lead singer with RnB group Masala, which she had founded during her years of classical choral training at Sankt Annae Gymnasium Folkeskole, and so she was no stranger to working with completely opposite performance qualities.
Due to the variety of her vocabulary she was, as a dancer, able to work with both contemporary heavy hitters as well as urban and commercial choreographers. This artistic duality was always her trademark. In 2004 she was awarded grants from Wilhelm-Hansen Foundation, Augustinus and Knud Hoejgaards Fund.
This trend of a double identity continued in New York as she was a scholarship student fulltime at Merce Cunningham while signed to a commercial agent building a reputation in both worlds.
Click here to see Ljuba's website
Roland Gebhardt, Creative Director
Roland Gebhardt is a sculptor whose work has been shown around the world and is in many prominent collections. Roland was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, and lives and works in New York City. He studied at the Art Academy of Hamburg where he earned a Master of Fine Arts. He also studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.
Respected for his versatility and originality, Roland has designed and directed projects as a consultant for New York's top design studios. He is currently principal and proprietor at Roland Gebhardt Design. His particular strengths are in the areas of space planning, retail environments, exhibits, signage, product development and packaging. Drawing on his talents as an artist, he has also developed a line of sculptural furniture.
Roland is a participant in many community related activities, including the Hudson River Waterfront, Community Board 1, and was a member of the steering committees for the Civic Alliance and Rebuild Downtown Our Town (R.Dot) for which he was alsoco-chair. He was a founder and board member of the Tribeca Organization, a Fellow of The Institute for Urban Design, and faculty member of Pratt Institute, School of Architecture, Department of Urban Planning. He is currently on the advisory board of Dance NYC and the advisory committee of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. He is an advisor to the LakeArts Foundation.
Roland is compelled to evoke moments of clarity and understanding by creating sensory triggers, be they visual, tactile, or acoustic. A recurring theme in his work is that of identity. Layers (I am X) represents Roland's second multi-media performance piece following the theatrical debut of The Only Tribe, an abstract exploration of group identity, in December 2008. This latest exploration of individual identity is an artistic challenge as Roland ventures into the uncharted territory of the ephemeral, rather than the permanent, physical iconography of his previous work.
Click here to see Roland's website
Helle Lyshøj, Video Artist
Born in Denmark, Helle Lyshøj lives and works in Copenhagen and Amsterdam.
She graduated in 1996 with a BA of design from Kolding School of Design, Denmark, and in 1999 from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam with a BA of Fine Arts.
Throughout the last fourteen years Helle Lyshøj has been working in the field of video design and video scenography for dance, theater, opera and staged performances. Her collaborators in Denmark include Liminal DK, Åben Dans productions and Das Beckwerk. She created the video for pieces such as Mastercopy, Show Real and Børsens Roadshow. In the Netherlands she works with the Netherlands Opera and the Netherlands Media Art Institute.
In the performing arts her videos are co-performers, adding an extra layer to the staged reality. As well as live video on stage, she has mastered various techniques, such as animation, morphing and green-screen effects. Her video work is characterized by the interaction between video and live performance.
Last year she made the video for 1: SONGS, a solo with missing choir by nb/Nicole Beutler that received the VSCD Mime Prize 2010 in the Netherlands. In 1997 she received a working scholarship from the Danish Arts Foundation.
Click here to see Helle's website
Niels Rønsholdt, Sound Artist/Composer
The composer and sound artist Niels Rønsholdt (b. 1978) has studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus (DK) with Karl Aage Rasmussen and Bent Sørensen and in Berlin with Helmut Oehring. His works include experimental operas, installations and chamber music.
Rønsholdt has received commissions from a. o. Akademie der Künste (D), Sound Around Biennale, Edition Wilhelm Hansen, TRANSIT Festival (B) and The Danish National Opera. He was featured composer on the festivals Music Harvest 07 (DK), Happy Days 05 (N), Transit 08 (B) and Spor 09 (DK) and his music has been performed by a. o. Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (D), Ensemble Intégrales (D), NING (N), BIT20 (N), Figura (DK), Reflexion K (D), Champ d’Action (B) and Ensemble Offspring (Au).
Niels Rønsholdt has received scholarships from a.o. Danish Arts Foundation and Akademie der Künste. In 2009 he was given a three-year working grant from the Danish State.
Click here to see Niels's website
David Tirosh, Lighting Design/Programming
Originally from Israel, David is a multi-media artist, performer and artistic coordinator. David is the Co-Founder of WAX, a supportive environment that inspires discourse among artists in all media and encourages the creation of new work through presentation, networking, audience building, artist's assistance and public dialogue. After the highly publicized closing of the WAX facility in November 2004, David continued working as Company Manager of 3-Legged Dog and freelance designer, performer, artistic advisor and media support. He became the Technical Director of Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo and the Managing Director of the HomeBase project. Along with Director Victor Weinstock he co-founded The Protocol in order to explore multicultural interactive installations. David's work unfolds in various layers of the production process, from concept, to technological implications, to performance and full coordination and realizations of art projects in private and public venues. He is committed to the exploration of new devices to aid in the vitality of the performing arts as well as incorporating green principals. He is grateful to all the collaborators he had the pleasure meeting and working with.
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