Dance Company Cie. Of(f) Verticality
by Rose Breuss
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 completed dance and dance notation studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Theaterschool Amsterdam, Temple University Philadelphia USA, University of Surrey, Labanotation Institute. From 2006 to 2022 she was Institute Director of IDA - Institute of Dance Arts at the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. In 2015 she was appointed university professor for Movement Research. Currently, in addition to her work as a professor in the master's and PHD programmes of the Institute of Dance Arts, she is conducting research in the artistic research project PEEK of the Austrian Research Fund on Atlas of Smooth Spaces in a cooperation with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
As choreographer and motor of the Cie. of(f)Verticality she has been invited to numerous (inter)national guest performances since 2009 (inter)national guest performances: Tanzquartier Wien, Odeon Wien, Festwochen Gmunden, Bregenzer Festspiele, Wien Modern, Brucknerhaus Linz, Sophiensäle Berlin, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, DANCE Munich, International Dance Summit Berlin, Grand Theatre Luxembourg, Transart Bozen and others.
She has received the Max Brand Prize, the Theodor Körner Prize for the Promotion of Science and Art and the Choreography Prize of the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts. Her pieces have been supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Vienna, the City of Linz and Feldkirch, the Province of Upper Austria, the Austrian Future Fund, the Austrian Cultural Forums in Brussels, Madrid, Kiel, Berlin and Washington, among others.
She has worked as a jury member for the Federal Cultural Foundation in Germany, in numerous hearings for professorships or accreditations in Berlin, Essen, Frankfurt and Cologne. Within the framework of guest workshops and Erasmus teaching, she has worked in Alicante, Valencia, Frankfurt and Essen, among other places.
Damián Cortés Alberti was born in Argentina and trained at the Arte XXI dance school, the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. At the same time, he studied Argentine tango at the Escuela Argentina de Tango Buenos Aires. He danced in numerous companies in Argentina, including the company El Escote, the Ballet de Bolsillo under the direction of Oscar Araiz and the Ballet Neoclásico de Buenos Aires. In 2005 he became a member of the Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín Buenos Aires, where he performed in choreographies by Mauricio Wainrot, Marc Ribaud and Richard Wherlock, among others. From 2008 to 2010 he was a member of the Spanish company Art Trànsit Dansa Barcelona under the direction of María Rovira. As a teacher he taught contemporary dance in Argentina, Spain, South Korea, Germany and Croatia. From the 2011/2012 season, Damián Cortés Alberti danced in the ensemble of the Tanztheater at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, before moving to the Landestheater Linz from the start of the 2013/2014 to 2016/2017 season. In 2019, he completed the master's degree in dance pedagogy at the Anton Bruckner Private University and is now continuing his studies with a focus on dance notation and transmediality in the PHD programme at the Linz University of the Arts. He currently teaches in the master's programme at Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz, is a dance researcher in the artistic research project Smooth Spaces, supported by the Austrian Science Fund and works as a dancer and choreographer in different dance companies, inter alia in Cie. Off Verticality.
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).
Kai Chun Chuang born in Taiwan is a freelance artist based in Berlin. In 2014 Kai received a first-place award at Taiwan's National Creative Dance Competition. In 2015 he completed his bachelor's degree from the Taiwan National University Of Art. He got his master's degree at Anton Bruckner University in 2019.
Kai has worked intensively on various projects as a choreographer/performer/dancer such as in Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Komische Oper Berlin, Musikfabrik Köln, Fabien prioville dance company, Westflügel Leipzig, Landestheater Linz, and Inter AKT Initiative Stuttgart, The piece[ (SW)allow](choreographer/performer by himself) was selected finalist in the 2018 Solo Tanz Theater competition in Stuttgart.
2019 Kai was performed Decadance by Ohad Naharin and Ballroom by Shahar Binyamin in Festspielhaus St.Poelten. He was assistant, to Israeli choreographer Shahar Binyamini's work with Opéra national du Rhi, Korea Art Project Bora. In addition, he is working with Austrian choreographer Rose Breuss in Choreographia[Inter]Austriaca.
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 is a Ukrainian artist living and working in Vienna. Currently engaged in the field of Performing Arts as a creator, researcher, and educator. She started her professional education at the Serge Lifar Kyiv Municipal Ukrainian Academy of Dance, Kyiv, and continued at the Anton Bruckner University, Linz. As a freelancer, she has been collaborating with institutions such as BRUT, Kulturhaus Brotfabrik, and Rose Breuss/Cie Off. Verticality, PUC collective, the National Austrian team of Rhythmic Gymnastics, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW among others.
She was a part of a year-long residency at the Huggy Bears Mentoring Program as well as In the Field Scholarship Program of Wiener Festwochen 2021. Next to that, she is currently a Dance researcher in the FWF project Smooth Spaces at the University of Music and Performing arts Vienna. In 2022 Maria received BKA Start Stipendium fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst, 2022