We are honoured to welcome Kenzo Kusuda as a guest teacher at the Performance & Contact Improvisation Festival. A Japanese choreographer, dancer, and performance maker based in Amsterdam, Kenzo has spent more than 25 years developing a distinctive artistic language that brings together dance, music, visual art, and performance. His work has been presented internationally in theatres, museums, festivals, and opera houses, inviting audiences into poetic worlds where movement makes the invisible tangible.

During three morning intensive workshops, Kenzo will share his unique approach to movement, imagination, and presence. Working with simplicity, precision, and deep curiosity, he invites participants to discover new ways of creating, perceiving, and performing, while exploring the expressive potential of the body through performance and improvisation.

Raúl Saldarriaga is an artistic researcher, performer, choreographer, founder of Casagrafia, and co-organizer of the Performance & Contact Improvisation Festival. For more than 20 years, he has been creating, teaching, and facilitating artistic projects in Colombia and across Europe. His work focuses on contemporary dance, partnering, improvisation, and Contact Improvisation, exploring movement as a space for creativity, playfulness, communication, and human connection.

Throughout the festival, Raúl leads the afternoon classes, expanding on and deepening the themes introduced by Kenzo during the morning intensives. Through practices of touch, weight sharing, listening, play, composition, and performance, participants are invited to integrate their experiences into an ongoing creative process. His classes provide a continuous thread throughout the festival, fostering embodied learning, artistic development, and collective creation.

Antonio Trpeski sees cooking as an integral part of the festival experience rather than a separate service. He believes that food has the power to nourish not only the body, but also the group's energy, sense of connection, and overall atmosphere. With care and attention, Antonio prepares fresh, wholesome meals that support participants throughout their learning journey. Adapting to different needs and preferences, he approaches every meal as an opportunity to foster well-being, community, and shared moments around the table.

Roos Smith is a maker, entrepreneur, and pedagogue with a background in theatre, arts education, and pedagogy. After studying Textile & Free Design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, she worked for many years as a costume designer for various theatre companies. Alongside her work in the arts, she developed as a pedagogical coach and co-founded Kinderopvang Klein Amsterdam.

Driven by her fascination with movement, performance, and Contact Improvisation, Roos explores the relationship between body, space, and connection.

Within Casagrafia, she is involved in management and organizational coordination. Through her personal artistic research, she also contributes to the collective’s artistic development.