Ewa Zurakowska, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist, performer, singer, and theatre director. Ewa attended the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices and graduated from the University of Warsaw with an MA degree in Cultural Anthropology. She wrote her doctoral thesis on traditional songs and site-specific theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where currently teaches performance and ritual at the Anglo-American University. Since 2010 she has been performing as a singer for Korjen, whose music draws inspiration from her ethnomusicological journeys to the Balkans, the Republic of Tuva,Lapland, Eastern Poland, and Ukraine.

Her artistic work explores the connection between space, sound, and body. She performed for the Czech company Divadlo Continuo and for Teatr Novogo Fronta as well as for several other organizations such as Studio Matejka (PL), Budalasultan (Turkey), and Rose Bruford College (UK). She directed the documentary musical performance based on mining folklore and taught at the Milon Mela Centre for Performing Indian Arts. Ewa also works as a coordinator for Polish-Czech cultural partnerships and supports the Gorzanow Castle Foundation in Lower Silesia Poland.

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Olga Lidia Kozłowska is a clinical psychologist as well as a voice artist and researcher.  Olga specializes in Slavic and Georgian vocal traditions as well as in improvisation and community singing. She is the founder of Authentic Voice and has been leading workshops since 2011 in France, Germany, UK, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. She works with universities as well as cultural and non-governmental organisations in her native city of Wroclaw, Poland. Olga was the leader of a Georgian polyphony choir and is currently working on bringing together traditional Polish and Georgian songs with her Trio Usakhelo.

Adam Koan is a butoh dance educator and performer. Adam trained in Ballet and Modern Dance at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida and at the University of South Florida. From there he studied for five years at the Himalaya Subbody Butoh School in Dharamsala, India, where he would later become an instructor. He has since then trained under 41 butoh educators and has toured the world performing,teaching, and writing about butoh. He has guided numerous butoh workshops and intensives ranging 3 weeks to 3 months in over 15 different countries. Adam is known for his heavily detailed Butoh Manual as well as for his YouTube channel Shadowbody. Theokinesis, a Christian-inspired butoh practice, is his latest pedagogical and performative project. 

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Shreya Radhika Lakhani is a Sanskrit scholar and mantra singer as well as a social impact consultant. Shreya has studied Sanskrit and been immersed in Vedic traditions since the age of six. She holds an MA in Sanskrit from Balliol College, University of Oxford, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law. She deepened her knowledge of Sanskrit at Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth, Kerala, and at Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh, the latter of which has been her spiritual home. Her expertise includes Pāninean grammar and linguistics, Advaita Vedanta philosophy, epics, poetry, and other literary works and thought systems. Shreya also has a breadth of experience across the social impact sector. Her work has spanned interfaith dialogue for WASH, women’s education and menstrual health, climate tech and policy, and social activism for decolonisation. She believes Sanskrit,mantra, and ancient wisdom have the power to transmute our inner worlds and transform our communities to create harmony in the world.

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Swan Frayne-Dao, PhD, is a theatre maker and psychotherapist as well as the founder and director of the Institute of Devotional Arts. After studying philosophy and theology in Melbourne, Oxford, and Chicago, Swan worked as a supervisor at the University of Cambridge where wrote their thesis on individual and social transformation. They trained at the Jacques Lecoq school of physical theatre and explored various forms of alternative theatre such as applied theatre, paratheatre, psychomagic, and drama therapy as well as numerous artistic disciplines ranging from ballet and contact improvisation to butoh and polyphonic chants. Swan also holds certificates in tantra yoga, breathwork, and hypnotherapy. They guide individuals and groups and curate seminars, retreats, art residencies in Europe and North America.

Rafael Duarte-Uriza is a researcher and transdisciplinary artist. He empowers people to comprehend that we part of parcel of the interdependent web of nature. Rafael studied Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia where he created the piece “Reciprocal Compression, a refuge for bees” with the support of The Foundation for Colombian Biodiversity. His work focuses on radical interdependence, coexistence, and regeneration to create art installations providing spaces of ecological awareness. His performative practice is also informed by Vipassana meditation and Contact Improvisation. As a researcher in Geobiology and Biohabitability, he is investigating georelations and respiration. His current project is entitled "Breathe deeply, dwell slowly, walk silently”.

Kamil Remes is a musician, conductor, and researcher. Kamil studied guitar at the Conservatory of Pardubice, musicology at MUNI Brno, as well as Persian traditional music and Tar with Ashkan Rahbar in Esfahan. As a researcher,he specializes in the Early Modern Period as well as in non-European ethnomusicology and in anthropology of music. As an active musician he has been involved in many music projects across the genres – alternative music, world music, and early music – where he uses a wide range of historical and ethnic stringed instruments. Kamil is a theorbist and co-founder member of La Bilancetta ensemble, which focuses on Renaissance and Early Baroque music.

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Benedetta Fabbri is a classical violinist, holistic sound practitioner, teacher, and translator. Benedetta holds a master’s degree in Violin and Music Performance from the Giuseppe Verdi State Conservatory, Turin, Italy.Her work revolves around the call to facilitate communication as a form of translation. Communication between her embodied self and the world as well as between languages, people, and nature. As a stage musician, recording artist,and orchestra teacher, she always aims for the commingling of instrument al languages and contemporary music genres.

Benedetta lives part of the year on the small volcanic island of Filicudi (northeast of Sicily) where she focuses both her artistic and personal research on the inner need to connect with the energy of nature through the vibration of her violin – a project called EolieMusica. The performance stands between free improvisation, sound meditation,ritual, and sensory experience.

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Nataraaj (Noé Peyre) is a philosopher, painter, and musician. Nataraaj studied Ancient Greek and Indian Philosophy with a focus on Neoplatonism and Advaita Vedanta at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He weaves diverse traditions – Jewish, Indian, Sufi – into a tapestry of artistic expression. Nataraaj plays the guitar, sitar, sarod, and tabla. His music is a lifelong pursuit of a universal language, a non-dual harmony uniting art, philosophy, and spirituality. Nataraaj worked with the Jamaican spiritual teacher Mooji for a number of years. He currently teaches philosophy by the Lake Leman and paints calligraphy in a dozen languages including Sanskrit, Arabic, Farsi, and Japanese.

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