AYA OKUMURA
AYA OKUMURA
(*1990, Tokio) is a solo dancer at the Staatsballett Berlin. She studied at the Rumiko Yamaji Ballet School, Tokyo, and at the John Cranko School, Stuttgart. In 2006 she won First Prize of the Nihon Ballet Association (NBA) in Japan and in 2009 a gold medal at the international dance festival TANZOLYMP in Berlin. Since 2017 she has been a soloist with the Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam, and since 2019 with the Staatsballett Berlin.
The planned ballet gala on the big stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin at the turn of the year 2020/2021 had to be cancelled due to Corona restrictions. Nevertheless, the State Ballet danced: Aya Okumura and Alejandro Virelles danced the pas de deux from THE NUTCRACKER. Instead of live before an audience, it was online. It was a masterful achievement of the duo to focus the energy so intensely that the spark sprang over to the viewers on their monitors. And perhaps it is possible to see at home what could be lost in the expanse of the huge hall and beyond the orchestra pit: the fine movements, extreme body tension, and a lightness that we can only hope to see again.
JORDIS ANTONIA SCHLÖSSER
(*1967, Göttingen) studied 1988–1996 at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts with Arno Fischer and Gisela Scheidler. Member of OSTKREUZ since 1997. In 1998 she was taken into the World Press Masterclass. 1999 DAAD scholarship and finalist in the Grand Prix Care International du Reportage Humanitaire. She has received national and international photo awards, including the YANN GEOFFROY COMPETITION and a WORLD PRESS PHOTO AWARD as well as the HANSEL MIETH PRIZE. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, e.g., 2003 HAVANNA ZWISCHEN DEN ZEITEN, National Museum Breslau; 2004 EINE STADT VERSCHWINDET, Bieler Photo Days, Switzerland; 2008 AM RANDE EUROPAS, ABSCHIED VON GESTERN, Goethe Institute, Paris and Bordeaux; 2009 AUF DER KIPPE, Clervaux—Cité de l’Image, Luxemburg; 2017 at the Katara Photography Festival, Qatar; 2020 DER ABGRUND, DER MAL HEIMAT WAR, Open Air Wander Exhibition in 20 different cities, organized by Greenpeace.