The different professional fields are reflected in the biographies of the team. However, there are explicitly expressed motivations for the common artistic work in the Dance Company Cie.Of(f) Verticality which can be read in the individual statements.

Rose Breuss

"As a choreographer, I am fascinated by strategies of writing and reading dances as a modus operandi in my work with dancers. Notations are like hyperlinks, they refer, jump over, lay traces in the creation processes of the dancers. Into a space and a time of dancing and dance."

Rose Breuss studied dance and dance notation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Theaterschool Amsterdam, Temple University Philadelphia (USA), and the University of Surrey’s Labanotation Institute.

Since 1996, she has taught at the Institute of Dance Arts (IDA) at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. She completed her habilitation in 2005 and has held a professorship in Movement Research since 2013. From 2006 to 2022, she served as Head of the Institute of Dance Arts. She currently teaches within the university’s PhD programs in dance.

As a dance researcher, Breuss completed the FWF PEEK-funded project Smooth Spaces in 2025 in collaboration with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, as well as the research initiative movementmachines.org.

She has also been invited as a guest lecturer at numerous institutions, including the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera, the University of Salzburg’s Department of Music and Dance Studies, and the Conservatorio Superior de Danza in Alicante and Valencia.

With the dance company Of(f) Verticality, which she founded, Breuss has been invited to perform at numerous national and international venues and festivals since 2009, including Tanzquartier Wien, Odeon Wien, the Bregenz Festival, Wien Modern, Brucknerhaus Linz, Sophiensæle Berlin, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Westflügel Leipzig, Transart Bolzano, Skopje Dance Festival, and the Alicante Dance Festival. Since 2009, the company has received support from the State of Upper Austria, the City of Linz, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture, and the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria.

Breuss has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Max Brand Prize, the Austrian Federal Choreography Prize, and awards from the Theodor Körner Foundation.

Damián Cortés Alberti was born in Argentina and received his dance education at the National University Institute of the Arts (IUNA) and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. At the same time, he studied Argentine tango at the Escuela Argentina de Tango in Buenos Aires.

He performed with numerous dance companies in Argentina, including El Escote, Ballet de Bolsillo under the direction of Oscar Araiz, and the Ballet Neoclásico de Buenos Aires. In 2005, he joined the Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín in Buenos Aires.

From 2008 to 2010, he was a member of the Spanish company Art Trànsit Dansa Barcelona, directed by María Rovira. In the 2011/2012 season, he joined the Tanztheater ensemble at the State Theatre Darmstadt in Germany, before moving to the Landestheater Linz, where he performed from the 2013/2014 season through 2016/2017.

In 2019, Cortés Alberti completed a Master’s degree in Dance Pedagogy at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. He subsequently continued his academic work in the PhD program at the University of Art and Design Linz, focusing on dance notation and transmediality.

He has taught in the Master’s program at the Anton Bruckner Private University, worked as a dance researcher in the FWF-funded project Smooth Spaces, and continues to create research-based artistic performances as a member of the dance company Of(f) Verticality. He also serves as a board member of the international dance center RedSapata.

Damian Cortes Alberti

"My interest in the work of our company is anchored in the inclusion of scores for the choreographic processes. The materiality of these documents, in relation to my creative work as a dancer, bridges different temporalities, spaces and body concepts, shifting my movement habits. "

Marcela Mariana López Morales

"My approach to dance actively dialogues between the role of dancer, choreographer and researcher. I find a great fascination for the modes of appropriation, transformation, documentation and re-signification of knowledge in dance. Focusing on the praxeology of dance, i.e. practice as a core part of the transition of knowledge. And taking history(ies) and historical material as tools or potentials for contemporary artistic creation."

Marcela Mariana López Morales was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a professional dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue who articulates these three fields of dance in a constant dialogue between praxis and theoretic research.

Her formal professional training is VET in Dance, Professional Dance Conservatory Reina Sofía (Spain); Bachelor's Degree in Dance Performance at the National University of Arts (Argentina); Bachelor's Degree in Arts & Dance Pedagogy (BA) at Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität (Austria); and Master of Arts (MA) at Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität (Austria). Since 2019, she has focused on archival and notational dance research and its modes of translation into dance production under the project “Off Verticality Dance Company”. Currently, she is carrying out her Doctoral studies at Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria).

Born in Taiwan, Kai Chun Chuang is a freelance artist currently based in Berlin. In 2014, he won First Prize at the National Creative Dance Competition in Taiwan. He completed his Bachelor's degree at the National Taiwan University of Arts in 2015 and earned a Master's degree from the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz in 2019.

As a choreographer, performer, and dancer, Chuang has collaborated with numerous renowned institutions and companies, including the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Komische Oper Berlin, Musikfabrik Köln, Fabien Prioville Dance Company, Westflügel Leipzig, Landestheater Linz, and Inter AKT Initiative Stuttgart. His solo work [(SW)allow] was selected as a finalist for the international Solo Tanz Theater Stuttgart competition in 2018.

In 2019, he performed in Decadance by Ohad Naharin and Ballroom by Shahar Binyamini at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten. He also works as an assistant to Israeli choreographer Shahar Binyamini and has collaborated on projects with institutions including the Opéra national du Rhin and Korea Art Project Bora.

In addition, Chuang collaborates with Austrian choreographer Rose Breuss within the framework of Choreographia[Inter]Austriaca, contributing to interdisciplinary and internationally oriented artistic projects.

Kai Chun Chuang

"Dance Company Cie Off. Verticality is an exclusive working environment. Not only must new artworks be created, but it is also necessary to understand how to find creative elements in the current era using dance history, humanities, dance notations, and so on. Everyone in this international group comes from a different background, which is the personal trait in the creative process that I am most interested in."

Maria Shurkhal

"Working with Dance Company Cie Off. Verticality allows me to approach dance in diverse and non-conventional ways. It is a place where brief fragments turn into great imaginations and where physicality meets research and a multiplicity of perspectives."

Maria Shurkhal is a Vienna-based Ukrainian artist, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of choreography, movement research, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Educated at the Anton Bruckner Private University (MA in Movement Research and Pedagogy, BA in Contemporary Dance and Performance), her practice engages embodied methodologies, historical movement vocabularies, and the interplay between dance, digital media, and socio-political realities.

For three years, Maria was a researcher in the FWF-funded project Atlas of Smooth Spaces at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Art and Design Linz (Kunstuniversität Linz), where her research further explores artistic, choreographic, and transdisciplinary approaches to embodied knowledge and movement practices.

Maria is a member of Cie Of(f) Verticality, co-founder of PUC Collective, her work has been presented at Imagetanz, WUK, Black Box Festival, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Gogolfest, and other international platforms.

She is the recipient of the BKA Startstipendium (2022), BMKÖS Residenzstipendium (2023), and Arbeitsstipendium der Stadt Wien (2024). A participant of the following mentorship programs: In the Field (Wiener Festwochen), Bears in the Park, Talent Lab (Vienna Shorts), In Situ.

In 2023–24, she co-directed the documentary Bridges of Belonging, supported by Nowness, Takflix, and the City of Vienna Film Grant.