Lisa Besser
studied French Cultural Studies and Intercultural Communication in Saarbrücken and subsequently obtained her diploma in International Cultural Management at the ISW Business School Freiburg. In addition, she worked as a festival assistant for the LAOKOON Dance and Theatre Festival at Kampnagel in Hamburg and as a production assistant for the Freiburg Theatre Festival and the International Dance Days at the Oldenburg State Theatre. In 2007 she began working first as an assistant, later as a member of the dance directorate of nordwest/Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg & Tanztheater Bremen. In addition, during her time at the Oldenburg State Theatre, she took over the organisational management of the PAZZfestival in 2008 and the International Dance Days in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Since 2014/2015, she has been the Artistic Production Manager of tanzmainz and the tanzmainz festivals at the Staatstheater Mainz.

Matthias Quabbe
studied at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at the University of Giessen, at Tokyo Gaikokugo University and at Senshú University Kanagawa. Before becoming part of the dramaturgy team at Kampnagel from 2005 to 2007, he worked as a production assistant and director in Düsseldorf. From 2007 to 2019 he was dramaturg and production manager at K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg, where he was responsible for the residency programmes, among other things. He was a member of the jury for Spitzenförderung Tanz NRW from 2011 to 2017 and of the jury for the Körber Studio Junge Regie in 2014. He is currently part of the jury for the Dance Platform Germany 2022. As a freelance dramaturg, he works with Ursina Tossi, Reut Shemesh, Carolin Jüngst/Lisa Rykena and Sabine Glenz, among others. He teaches dramaturgy at the ArtEZ University of the Arts.

Cornelia Walter
has been artistic project manager of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus since 2016/17 and personal assistant to the artistic director Wilfried Schulz. As a consultant for performing arts and literature, she worked at the Cultural Office of the state capital Dresden from 2012 to 2016. In 2011, she was project coordinator of the festival Politik im Freien Theater in Dresden, a cooperation of bpb, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Hellerau. She was editor-in-chief of the Dresden Culture Magazine, directed the International Dresden Summer Academy for Visual Arts as well as the public relations of the cultural forum riesa efau. Cornelia Walter was already a jury member of the first two TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund funding rounds.

Yoreme Waltz
studied art history, literature and musicology in Karlsruhe and Berlin. Since 2016, she has worked as programme director for music and dance at the nationwide Salon Festival and as festival director in Karlsruhe. She also works as a freelance dramaturge and curator for dance and multimedia projects (ZKM Karlsruhe and others). From 1995 to 2015 she was employed as production manager and dramaturge at Sasha Waltz & Guests and was involved in establishing several cultural venues in Berlin (Sophiensaele, Radialsystem). From 1999 to 2004 she worked as Artistic Production Manager Dance at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin. Yoreme Waltz has published various publications on music and contemporary dance and realised her own film/video projects and exhibitions. She is also the founder of the network Initiative Zeitgenössischer Tanz in Karlsruhe.

Katharina von Wilcke 
is a cultural manager, curator and consultant. In 1995 she founded DepArtment, the first production office for independent performing arts in Germany. In addition to her work as a manager of a wide variety of dance and theatre groups, she was project manager for, among others, Theater der Welt 1996, Expo 2000 Hanover, Tanzplattform Deutschland 2000, Festival Politik im Freien Theater 2002, Heimspiel 2011. On behalf of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, she directed the Dance Congresses with Sabine Gehm from 2006 to 2016. Together with Katja Sonnemann, Peter Boragno and Harriet Lesch, she has run the agency Wilson*Borles – arts management since 2014. She is a consultant for artistic and cultural affairs and gives workshops on the conception and application of individual projects and events. Cornelia Walter was already a jury member of the first two TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund funding rounds.

Felizitas Ammann
studied German language and literature, theatre studies and aesthetics in Basel, Bern and Berlin. After an engagement at Basel University, she then managed the Dance Campaign, a project promoting the independent dance scene in Basel, from 2003 to 2005. In 2006, she wrote the closing report for the Dance Project on behalf of the Federal Office of Culture and the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia. From 2007 to 2010, she was communications officer and project manager at the Reso – Dance Network Switzerland association. In addition to these activities, she also worked for many years as a freelance cultural journalist (including for NZZ, Tages-Anzeiger and SRF2) and as an assistant and dramaturge for theatre productions (including at Theater Basel and Schauspielhaus Zürich). Since 2010, she has been running the dance department at Pro Helvetia.

Esther Boldt
works as an author, dance and theatre critic for newspapers and magazines such as the taz, nachtkritik.de, Theater heute, ZEIT online, etcetera and tanz Zeitschrift. She has written essays on contemporary aesthetics for various books such as Mittelstädt/Pinto (Ed.): Die Freien Darstellenden Künste in Deutschland. Diskurse – Entwicklungen – Perspektiven (Bielefeld 2013), Herbordt/Mohren (Ed.): Vorgestellte Institutionen/ Performing Institutions (Berlin 2015) and the anniversary magazine for the Dramaturgic Society in 2016. She has taught at the Goethe University Frankfurt and has been a member of various juries, including Radio Drama of the Year 2009, Dance Platform Germany 2014 and the Else Lasker-Schüler Prize 2016.

Marguerite Donlon
started her career at the English National Ballet before becoming a solo dancer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1990. From 2001 to 2013, she directed and developed the ballet company at Saarland State Theatre.  She has choreographed various companies including Nederlands Dans Theater II, Stuttgart Ballet or the Hubbard Street Dance Company in Chicago and been a freelance choreographer since 2013. In 2016, the Bolshoi Ballet and Svetlana Zakharova danced one of her pieces. Since 2014, she has also worked as a certified life coach and leadership mentor.
 
Claudia Feest
is a qualified biologist, breath and movement pedagogue and therapist, dancer, choreographer and the co-founder of Tanzfabrik Berlin and its long-term artistic director.
She is the co-founder and a member of the management board of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (German Umbrella Association for Dance), a member of the management board of the German national Tanz in Schulen (Dance in Schools) association, as well as a former co-ordinator for the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT) – Pilot Project Tanzplan Berlin at the Senate for Science, Research and Culture in Berlin. She teaches and researches breath and movement studies and body perception at home and abroad as well as in independent practice in Berlin. She also teaches, coaches and mentors at the HZT Berlin and is a member of various dance and performing arts juries in Berlin, NRW and nationally. 
She is also a mentor in LAFT Berlin’s PAP programme and chair of the Dance Commission NRW.

Cornelia Walter
has been artistic project director at the Schauspielhaus in Düsseldorf since the 2016/17 season as well as personal adviser to the director Wilfried Schulz. From 2012 to 2016, she worked as an adviser for performing arts and literature at the Culture Department in the State Capital of Dresden. In 2011, she was the project co-ordinator of the Politics in Independent Theatre festival in Dresden, a co-operation between bpb, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Hellerau. She was editor-in-chief of the Dresdner culture magazine, ran the International Dresden Summer Academy for Fine Arts and managed PR work for the cultural forum riesa efau.
 

Katharina von Wilcke
is a culture manager, curator and consultant. In 1995, she founded DepArtment, the first production office for independent performing arts in Germany. In addition to her work running various dance and theatre groups, she has also been a project manager at Theater der Welt (Theatre of the World) in 1996, Expo 2000 in Hannover, Tanzplattform Deutschland (Dance Platform Germany) in 2000, the Politics in Independent Theatre festival in 2002 and Heimspiel (Home Game) in 2011. In 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016, she ran the Dance Congress with Sabine Gehm on behalf of the Federal Cultural Foundation. Since 2014, she has been running the agency Wilson*Borles – arts management with Katja Sonnemann, Peter Boragno and Harriet Lesch. She is a consultant for artistic and cultural affairs and gives workshops on designing one-off projects and events, and on submitting applications, including for the Performing Arts Programme in Berlin.