The Invitation Program for Professionals in Performing Arts 2024

The Japan Foundation will invite professionals at the forefront of the performing arts world in Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, and Hungary, including the directors of influential performing arts festivals and theaters in the seven countries, to Japan. This program is aimed at deepening understanding of Japanese performing arts overseas and facilitating the formation of networks among people involved in performing arts in the respective countries.

On December 13 to 14, 2024, a talk event will be held as part of the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM).

Invitees

Country Name Affiliation Title
Canada Caroline Ohrt National Arts Centre Executive Producer, Dance
USA Daniel Jones Oz Arts Nashville Manager of Artistic Programming
Mexico Gabriela Morales Martínez Festival Internacional Cervantino Programming Director
Brazil Maitê Lacerda SESC (Social Service of Commerce) Dance Assistant at the Cultural Action Department
Germany Melanie Zimmermann Real Dance Festival Artistic director
Belgium Daniel Blanga Gubbay Kunstenfestivaldesarts Artistic co-director
Hungary Péter Ertl National Dance Theater Executive Director

Profile

Caroline Ohrt (Canada)

National Arts Centre / Executive Producer, Dance

Photo of Caroline Ohrt(c) Rémi Thériault

Executive Producer for dance at Canada's National Arts Centre since March of 2023, Caroline Ohrt has worked in the fields of dance and visual arts. She served as Artistic Co-Director of Montreal's Danse Danse, one of Canada's foremost contemporary dance presenters, where her networking skills led to the presentation of the world's most acclaimed dance companies and artists. She contributed to the growth of the organization by developing partnerships, both cultural and philanthropic, cultivated opportunities for artists and audiences, and supported the development of artists. As a person in constant dialogue with the forces that shape contemporary creation, she held positions at Compagnie Marie Chouinard (Montreal) and the Domaine Forget (Saint-Irénée). With a background in art history, she advised visual arts collectors and carried out mandates at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Caroline is actively involved in the community through her participation on boards and juries. She is currently Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Conseil des arts de Montréal and a Board Director of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

The National Arts Centre is Canada's bilingual, multidisciplinary home for the performing arts. It presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams -the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety- and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. 

NAC Dance presents a full season from September to May that balances Canadian and international works in the NAC's three main venues, as well as with community partners, and programs one to three years in advance. 

Daniel Jones (USA)

Oz Arts Nashville / Manager of Artistic Programming

Photo of Daniel Jones(c) Kara McLeland

Daniel Jones (he/him) is a Nashville-based creative producer, dramaturg, writer, and director passionate about facilitating shared live arts experiences that ignite social change. In 2022, the Nashville Scene named him "Best Advocate for Artists". He serves as the Associate Director of Programming & Partnerships at OZ Arts Nashville where he has supported hundreds of visiting artists from around the world, including companies from Brazil, Japan, Chile, Germany, South Africa, France, and more. He also works closely with Nashville artists as they develop new works in OZ's unique 10,000 square-foot creative warehouse, including the annual Brave New Works Lab. Additionally, as the Co-Founder & Producing Artistic Director of the nonprofit organization Kindling Arts, Daniel has worked with hundreds of Nashville-based artists to launch more than 120 unique artistic experiences since the organization was founded in 2018. Kindling's programming has been hailed by the Nashville Scene as "freewheeling, uncensored and full of heart, pushing the boundaries of what we imagine performance art to be". Daniel's creative producing credits include The Naughty Tree, an interdisciplinary, queer retelling of the Garden of Eden creation story; The Girlhood Project collaboration between intergenerational dancers and young femme musicians; two installments of Heroic Couplets: Poetry into Film Collaborations with Defy Film Festival; and HAUNTED, a multimedia, immersive experience inspired by the deadliest train crash in American history. Daniel serves as the President of the Board for Tennessee Presenters and is also a board member for Nashville Arts Coalition. He was chosen as one of three arts administrators in the Southeast for a fellowship with the International Society of the Performing Arts (2023-2025).

Gabriela Morales Martínez (Mexico)

Festival Internacional Cervantino / Programming Director

Photo of Gabriela Morales Martínez

Gabriela Morales Martínez graduated with a Master's degree in Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2012-2014). She also graduated from the College of Visual Arts (UNAM, 2000-2004). She has more than 20 years of experience in cultural management and has worked in the most important cultural institutions of Mexico, such as the National Opera House of INBA, the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City, the National Center for the Arts, the USMexico Cultural Foundation, the Center for the Arts in Baja California and the project Mexico, Gateway of the Americas, whose development allowed the creation of a performing arts market where Mexican artists could establish strong projection links to foreign countries. In the Festival Internacional Cervantino, she has held the position of Deputy Director of Programming for 7 years, and from 2017 to the present she has been the Director of Artistic Programming of the Festival.

Maitê Lacerda (Brazil)

SESC (Social Service of Commerce) / Dance Assistant at the Cultural Action Department

Photo of Maitê Lacerda(c) Marina Zan

Maitê Lacerda was born on September 9, 1990, in Votuporanga, São Paulo, Brazil. Maitê orchestrates her professional practices to foster collaborations with artists and cultural practitioners from diverse fields. Lacerda has interests and expertise as a performer, choreographer, researcher, and curator.

Currently, she works as a dance researcher at the in the Cultural Action Department (GEAC), facilitating the development of the dance field across the Sesc São Paulo units. Lacerda has served as a curator for the Sesc Dance Biennial in the 2021 and 2023 editions. Throughout 2024, she is part of the production and curatorial team for the Palco Giratório 2024 and 2025. Both festivals hold significant relevance in the contexts of dance and performing arts.

Melanie Zimmermann (Germany)

Real Dance Festival /Artistic director

Photo of Melanie Zimmermann(c) Kerstin Schomburg

Melanie Zimmermann worked for film and television before studying cultural studies and dance in Frankfurt an der Oder and in Paris. She worked for the Forsythe Company and studied dramaturgy with Hans-Thies Lehmann in Frankfurt am Main and Brussels. In 2010 she was a danceWEB scholarship holder. As a freelance dance and theater dramaturg, she worked for Wanda Golonka, Peeping Tom and Laurent Chétouane, among others, and was project manager of the collective MAMAZA. From 2010 to 2023, she worked as a dance dramaturg and curator at Kampnagel in Hamburg, where she was co-responsible for the local and international dance program and several major dance events such as the Dance Platform 2014 or the Dance Education Biennale 2020. She has also curated the Fokus Tanz Festival since 2014 and many other festivals in the program at Kampnagel. In recent years, she has supported artists with disabilities and representatives of black dance culture in her networking work. Trying to react to inequalities in the dance scene, she co-founded the "Bottom Up Dance School", an inclusive artistic school project which 2nd edition will start in September 2024. 2023/2024 she co-produced "Juste Debout Gold" and "Finals" in Hamburg, which was presented the first time outside of Paris, and which was broadcasted by ARTE. Since 2023 she is the artistic director of the international Real Dance Festival in Hanover.

Daniel Blanga Gubbay (Belgium)

Kunstenfestivaldesarts / Artistic co-director

Photo of Daniel Blanga Gubbay(c) Bea Borgers

Daniel Blanga Gubbay is a performing arts curator and writer. Since 2018, he is at the artistic direction of Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, a leading commissioning institution in the performing arts. He has worked as educator and independent curator of public programs, including The Telepathic School (Ural Biennale, Yekaterinburg 2021), Yogurt and Other Spaces of Labour (Ashkal Alwan, Beirut 2021, in collaboration with Zeynep Öz), Four Rooms (online, 2020), Can Nature Revolt? (Manifesta, Palermo 2018), and The School of Exceptions (Santarcangelo, 2016). He co-curated Live Works at Centrale Fies from 2014 to 2018 and is currently a member of the artistic committee of the Beirut Art Centre. He graduated with Giorgio Agamben at Università Iuav di Venezia and holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Palermo and Valencia. He was the head of the Arts and Choreography department at the Brussels Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 2015 to 2019, where he continues to teach. He regularly writes, recent articles appeared in South as a State of Mind, e-flux, Mada Masr, and Performance Journal.

Péter Ertl (Hungary)

National Dance Theater / Exective Director

Photo of Péter Ertl

Péter Ertl is a dancer and teacher, and since 2013 he has been managing director of the National Dance Theatre, which offers Hungarian professional dance ensembles the opportunity to perform. The institution's grandiose repertoire (400 performances per year) includes the entire spectrum of dance: Hungarian and international folklore, classical ballet and contemporary dance theatre performances.

Besides his love of dance, Péter Ertl's professional career is defined by his commitment to education and teaching and the transfer of knowledge both in Hungary and abroad.

He graduated from the folk dance department of the Hungarian Dance University with an award of excellence, then obtained qualification as an adult education and culture manager at the University of Pécs. After graduating, he was a member of the Honvéd Ensemble, Hungary's most prestigious folk dance group, from 1987 to 2005, where he took on a role not only as a performer but also as a choreographer in many shows. He is credited with starting the Cifra children's camp in Niagara Falls, Canada, where he was the professional manager for 20 years (1992-2011). The camp introduced countless Canadian children to the treasures of rich Hungarian folk art.

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Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6063
E-mail: pa@jpf.go.jp
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