Suitcase Fund Partners

Mojca Jug finished her primary and secondary education in Ptuj and from 1995 – 2000 studied Special Education at Faculty of Education in Ljubljana. In 1998 she began to work for Bunker as coordinator and administrator of the first edition of international festival of theatre and dance Mladi Levi. Since joining Bunker her major preoccupations have been, coordinating and artistic programming of Bunker’s venue, Stara elektrarna (an old power station), co-programming and producing the festival Mladi levi and mentoring younger staff and volunteers.

Jug has also produced Betontanc, Sanja Nešković Peršin, Jette Ostan Vejrup and Lyrical moments in the city and was the Executive Director of Production House Fičo balet (2003 – 2005). She is currently producing a cycle of contemporary piano concerts by Milko Lazar as well coordinating a jazz program in café Repete, Ljubljana. Her programming work extends beyond Bunker and is invited as a curator and programmer to numerous festivals and platforms. 

Marta Keil is a performing arts curator currently with the Centre for Culture in Lublin, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Institute of Contemporary Arts in Yerevan and Goethe Institute in Warszawa. She created and curates the East European Performing Arts Platform, has been the program curator of Theatre Confrontations – international theatre festival in Lublin – since 2012 and is the co-founder of the MicaMoca.Project Berlin: temporary performing art center in Berlin (2011). From 2008-2012, Kell worked as performing arts curator in the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and cooperated with the Theater Institute, where she has been curating the Dramaturgical Forum since 2008.  Kell also curated Reminiscences – the international theatre festival in Krakow from 2006-2008. She has published in Dialog, Dwutygodnik, Teatr, Didaskalia and Notatnik Teatralny. Kell is currently a PhD student at the Polish Academy of Science's Art Institute (thesis: curatorship in contemporary performing arts).

Elianna Lilova is a culturologist, arts manager and communication specialist. In the recent years she has been working mainly for the development and diversification of social and cultural life in Bulgaria, organizing and participating in numerous cultural projects in the country and abroad. After several dynamic years devoted to advertising and public relations, recently Lilova is seriously involved in the field of cultural engineering and building sustainable cultural policies. Lilova has been part of EDNO events since 2007. She also works as a freelancer for some of the most important cultural events in the country such as music festivals, concerts, exhibitions and more.

Gabriela Tudor Foundation (previously known as Project DCM Foundation) is a leading pioneer organization based in Bucharest (Romania) that was jointly created by Gabriela Tudor and Cosmin Manolescu with the aim to promote and support the development of contemporary dance in Romania. Since its inception in 1997, over 120 dance projects have been organized in Romania and abroad. To mention just a few, the foundation was co-founder and co-organiser of the Balkan Dance Platform (2001 – 2011), the first initiative in the region aiming to create links between artists and organizations working in the Balkan countries. It was involved in several international exchanges, training and research projects among which are Movements on the Edge (2001, 2002), Terrains Fertiles (2004), Danse.Entre Deux (Romania – Luxemburg 2007), Migrant Body (EU funded project, Romania, Estonia, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy 2006-2007) and Dance.Dialogue (2008). The foundation also administrates the artistic activity of Cosmin Manolescu & Serial Paradise Company and of United Experts, a registered label for cultural development created by Gabriela Tudor in 2008. In 2009, following the passing away of Gabriela Tudor, the Project DCM Foundation changed its name to Gabriela Tudor Foundation and also became co-founder of the ArtistNe(s)t Association, Network of Artists-in-Residence Centres in Romania, offering residence opportunities for both Romanian and international artists in the fields of dance, music, visual and literature. Since 2009, FGT offers annually the Gabriela Tudor fellowship in cultural management for an emerging cultural managers in London, USA and Romania. Since 2011, the Foundation is currently leading the E-Motional mobility and exchange project, connecting the Romanian dance community to unexplored territories. Between 2012-2013 the Foundation led the E-Motional Bodies & Cities program with partners in Cyprus, Ireland, Latvia, Turkey and UK. Starting in 2013, the Foundation is leading the “E-Motional: rethinking dance” in collaboration with organizations and festivals in Portugal, Latvia and Luxembourg.

The Foundation has been a key partner of the Suitcase Fund since 1999. We have invited several US artists and programers to Romania such as Donna Uchizono, John Japserse, Allyson Green, Amanda Loulaki, Levi Gonzalez, Yanira Castro, Ivy Baldwin, Tahni Holt, Maggie Bennett, Barbara Bryan, David White and Carla Peterson, to discover the Romanian dance context, lead workshops and present performances. More recently, in partnerhsip with Movement Research, New York Live Arts, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and National Dance Center in Bucharest, the Foundation initiated and co-organized the Moving Dialogue – a Bucharest/New York exchange (2010-2012) in which over 12 choreographers and dance writers from USA and RO participated in residencies in New York, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. In September 2013, Gabriela Tudor Foundation launched Eastern Connection, a three years exchange program with Japan that includes residencies, workshops, co-production and presentation of performances in Bucharest and Tokyo. Since 2012, the Foundation is currently running ZonaD, an independent space for contemporary dance and art created by Cosmin Manolescu and Stefania Ferchedau, who is currently organising workshops, residencies, movie presentations and artist talks led/with Romanian and foreign artists.

Anastasia Proshutinskaya (Curator and producer, ZIL Culture Centre) began working with Dance Department of ZILCC in August 2012. At this position, she has launched several on-going programs (work-in-progress platform, curated solo productions, etc.) mainly focusing on emerging choreographers and their artistic development. She had been in charge of over 20 premiered productions on the black box stage of ZILCC. From 2012-2012, Proshutinskaya held the position of Programming Director for the International Dance Festival in Yaroslavl, renowned as one of the first established contemporary dance festivals in Russia. One of her recent independent projects was a dance production «slovo», choreographed by Elena Demyanenko (NY, USA). Proshutinskaya accuired an MA in Performance Studies from The Southern Illinois University and held internships at such prominent art spaces as New York Live Arts and The Kitchen (New York, NY USA).

Mira Todorova (PhD) is a free-lance theatre and dance theoretician from Sofia, Bulgaria. She works as a lecturer at New Bulgarian University, researcher, editor and dramaturgical consultant for various artistic and theoretical projects. She is a co-founder and project manager of New Dramaturgies Platform, author and editor of the website for theory and criticism www.dramaturgynew.net. Since 2011 she has been a programmer of the international contemporary dance festival One Dance Week. She is the author of Dramaturgical Adaptations in the Art of Postmodernism, published in 2005.