Startup Forum

Director: Betsy Gregory Mentors: Pirjetta Mulari (Annantalo, Helsinki), Lisa Reinheimer (Dansateliers, Rotterdam) and Francesca Manica (Romaeuropa, Rome) Participants: Dimitris Chimonas (Cyprus), Evelyn Raudsepp (Estonia). Ilias Chatzigeorgiou (Greece), Masako Matshushita (Italy), Nina Fajdiga (Slovenia), Tony Tran (Norway), Simona Deaconescu (Romania), Samuel Retortillo (Spain) and Renata Piotrowska-Auffret (Poland).

At Spring Forward in Dublin (27 – 29 April 2023), we held the second edition of Startup Forum where a group of emerging dance presenters were guided through the festival by Betsy Gregory and four Aerowaves Partners; Catja Loepfe (Tanzhaus Zürich, Switzerland), Markéta Perroud (Tanec Praha, Czech Republic), Pirjetta Mulari (Annantalo, Finland) and Béatrice Horn (Biennale de la danse Lyon, France). The participants were: Agnese Bordjukova (Latvia), Egle Nevedomske (Lithuania), Jarkko Partenen (Finland), Jelena Mićić (Croatia), Luke Murphy (Ireland), Sheree Lenting (Netherlands), Simone Mousset (UK / Luxembourg), Soňa Jakubove (Slovakia) and Tina Hollard (France) – and following the festival they were invited to propose a curatorial project involving the Aerowaves artists. Awards Soňa Jakubove, Sheree Lenting and Jarkko Patenen received the  €10K Awards each to realise the proposal they presented.

At Spring Forward in Elefsina (28 April – 1 May 2022) for the first time, we invited a group of emerging dance presenters to be guided through the festival by four Aerowaves Partners (Catja Loepfe, Roberto Casarotto, Markéta Perroud and Edvin Liverić) led by Betsy Gregory. After the festival, the participants – Nicolas Vamvouklis (GR), Eva Posedel (SI), Pétur Ármannsson (IS), Chiara Bersani (IT), Tendai Malvine Makurumbandi (NO), Fatima Ndoye (FR), Guillaume Guilherme (CH), Maria Manoukian (GR), Jenna Jalonen (HU), Thjerza Balaj (DK) and Aleksandra Lytvyn (UKR) – were invited them to propose a curatorial project to present Aerowaves artists. Chiara Bersani (IT), Fatima Ndoye (FR) and Guillaume Guilherme (CH) were awarded 10.000€ each to realise the proposal they presented.