BE VAN VARK
BE VAN VARK
(*1965, Berlin) is a choreographer and university lecturer. The breadth of her choreographic work is marked by the passion for bringing different people and styles together and to move not just one, but hundreds of people at a time and to develop projects for the stage and the public space.
In 1994 she founded the Kompanie van Vark (until 2002). Since 2002 she has been working with the concept she developed: TANZTHEATER-GLOBAL, which brings amateurs together with professional performers. Since 2011 she is chairperson of the association TÄNZER OHNE GRENZEN e.V. (Dancers without borders). Since 2016 she has been working with the foundation Genshagen in the framework of the format NOMADIC LABORATORY in order to initiate international transcultural dance projects. From 2011–2018 she has choreographed education projects of the Brandenburg State Orchestra with up to 300 performers. The piece KLEINES GEDICHT FÜR GROSSE STOTTERER (Small poem for big stutterers) was an award-winning project at the competition CHILDREN TO OLYMPUS! of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. Since September 2017 she has cooperated with the Halle civic trust to realize the intergenerational dance project EINE STADT TANZT (A city dances). As a lecturer she teaches, e.g., at the Berlin University of the Arts, the Zurich University of the Arts, and, in the winter semester 2020/2021, at the Leipzig Institute for Theatre Studies as Bertolt Brecht Guest Professor.
Federal President Steinmeier honoured her in 2018 with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, with ribbon. The eulogy captures the core of her work (and systemic relevance of culture in general): “Be van Vark shows that culture is not an elitist luxury pursuit, but rather belongs to the existence of each and everyone.”
STEPHANIE STEINKOPF
(*1978, Frankfurt/Oder) studied from 2001–2008 and received her Master’s degree in comparative music studies, modern history and Latin American studies at the Free University Berlin. 2009–2012 she studied photography at the Ostkreuz School of Photography, Berlin, 2013–2015 masterclass with Ute Mahler and Robert Lyons. Member of OSTKREUZ since 2014. She has won numerous awards: 2012 first place at the Vattenfall Photo Prize, and 2013 the young talent prize at GUTE AUSSICHTEN — JUNGE DEUTSCHE FOTOGRAFIE, 2013 the European Photo Exhibition Award (epea), and 2015 the Lotto-Brandenburg Photography Art Prize. 2014/2015/2017 artist’s residence at the Goethe Institute in Helsinki and the Helsinki International Artist Program. Her works have been shown throughout Europe in group exhibitions, including in the C/O Berlin, in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris, and in the House of Photography, Hamburg. In 2019 she was awarded the working scholarship of the Hans und Charlotte Krull Stiftung.