Jury
Roberto Casarotto
co-director of Aerowaves
Norikoshi Takao
director of JAPAN DANCE PLUG Co. Ltd.
Gintarė Masteikaitė
cultural leader and performing arts producer
Atanas Maev
cultural manager
Angela Conquet
dance curator
Roberto Casarotto is the Co-director of Aerowaves, the European Platform for Dance, which promotes cross-border mobility for emerging dance artists and runs several capacity-building programs for emerging choreographers, writers, curators, and podcasters.
Until 2022, he collaborated with CSC and Operaestate Festival in Bassano del Grappa, curating events and developing international projects supported by the EU Creative Europe and Erasmus+ Programmes. He is also the initiator of Dance Well – Movement Research for Parkinson.
Before working for dance organizations, Roberto was a contemporary dancer. He is the author of Nigel Charnock, published in 2009 by L’Epos.
From 2015 to 2018, he served as the Artistic Director of Balletto di Roma.
Norikoshi Takao is the Director of JAPAN DANCE PLUG Co. Ltd. He writes dance reviews for newspapers and dance magazines, and his books on contemporary dance are used as textbooks at many universities. He is invited to give dance lectures at festivals overseas and serves as an official advisor to international dance festivals, including NEW DANCE for ASIA, “Odoru. Akita,” and the Hokuriku Region Dance Festival. He also directs the “Dance Critic [Training → Dispatch] Program,” which is associated with Aerowaves’ Spring Forward Festival.
Gintarė Masteikaitė is a cultural leader and performing arts producer. Since 2017, she has been the director of the Lithuanian Dance Information Centre and artistic director of the New Baltic Dance festival.
She founded the ConTempo international performing arts festival in 2019 and was the Curator of Performing Stage Arts for Kaunas – European Capital of Culture (2018–2021).
As head of the Association of Non-Governmental Performing Arts Organizations, she actively advocates for contemporary dance and cultural policy.
With 19 years of experience, she mentors young artists and leads workshops on career strategy, branding, and audience development.
Atanas Maev has 23 years’ experience as cultural manager. He co-founded Bulgaria’s first center for contemporary dance—Derida Dance Center—along with Derida Dance Company and Derida Stage.
Derida Dance Center is a key partner in numerous international projects, and its Residency Program was recognized by the European Commission as a best practice for artistic exchange in Europe.
From 2016 to 2018, he was a board member of Aerowaves – Dance Across Europe. Since 2022, he has been on the board of the European Dancehouse Network.
In 2024, he co-founded Moving Balkans and currently serves as its general manager.
Angela Conquet is French-Australian dance curator, author, editor, researcher, translator and arts leader living between Melbourne and Paris. Her career spans three continents, working across and within a multiplicity of disciplines, contexts, and territories.
Her specific expertise lies in connecting artists’ ideas with current social issues and diverse communities of thought. More recently, she was Artistic Director of Dancehouse Melbourne, Guest curator of Dance in Vancouver and is currently co-curator and coordinator of Lyon Dance Biennale’s FORUM program.
She is in her final stages of completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne/ University of Grenoble and her writings have been published in a variety of professional and scholarly publications.
She considers art and culture as a socio-political practice to activate imagination, creativity, and change.