People

Enrique Pardo is a theatre director, performer, writer,and visual artist. Born in Peru in 1946, he went to school in France, studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and taught Fine Arts at Goldsmith College, University of London. He joined the Roy Hart Theatre in 1968, a utopian avant-garde company known for its radical voice work, with which he moved to Malerargues, Southern France, in 1875. In 1878, he founded Pantheatre (from Pan, the dancer-singer god), which he co-directs with his partner, Linda Wise. Enrique has collaborated with a wide array of artists, thinkers, and psychotherapists. One of his main intellectual sources of inspiration is the post-Jungian psychologist James Hillman, father of archetypal psychology, with whom he created the Myth and Theatre Festival in 1986. Enrique directs and teaches choreographic theatre and voice performance, weaving together movement and dance, music, voice and singing, with a complex poetical approach to the inclusion of text, which he describes as « Cubist, as in Cuba », that is, closer to voodoo than to formal cubes.

‍

Linda Wise is an actor, director, and voice coach. Linda grew up in Kenya and trained as an actress in Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Linda worked the Roy Hart Theatre, an avant-garde company known for its radical approach to voice work from 1969 and was one of the founders of the Roy Hart Centre in France. She currently directs, with Enrique Pardo, Pantheatre, which they founded in 1978. Linda has performed, taught, and directed shows around the world. She has taught voice work at national theatre schools in Denmark,Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Scotland, and France. She performed Nedda in the Roy Hart Theatre’s OBIE winning performance of“Pagliacci” and later directed “Moby Dick” Prix Jean Vilar. She has directed a series of solos (Cassandra, The Song of Songs, Granade, Les sybilles) as well as a jazz-opera “Overflaten” in Norway, an immersive theatre piece in NY“ Inside the Wild Heart”. Her latest piece “the Invader’s Fear of Memories”, written and performed by Ben Rivers, premiered in Johannesburg in 2023.

Joanna Hruby is a visual artist, performance maker, writer and cultural activist based on Ibiza, Spain. She is the founder of the company Theatre of the Ancients, whose aim is to harness the myths, folklore, and ancestral culture of Ibiza through puppetry, mask theatre, and symbolic visual performance. The company has developed experimental work based on participatory, immersive, and ritual theatre, often in site-specific locations and in alignment with the seasons. Joanna graduated from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2011 with a first class BA(hons) in Theatre Practice – Puppetry. She has since undertaken an internship with the Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont, USA, and studied myth and storytelling with the British mythologist Martin Shaw. Joanna produces a podcast called The Wells of Tanit which is recorded beside Ibiza’s ancient wells, and her writings have been published by the Dark Mountain Project and the independent publishers Hedgespoken Press. She sees the multi-disciplinary branches of her Ibiza-based work in myth, story and folklore as strivings towards a global movement of regenerative, localized culture in times of societal and climate collapse.

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.

‍

Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, author, and educator. Jorge was a professor for more than 20 years at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he served as chair of the Department of East–West Psychology. He is the author many articles and books on transpersonal psychology, integral education, religious studies, and intimate relationships, including Espiritualidad Creativa: Una Vision Participativa de lo Transpersonal (Kairos, 2004), Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion (SUNY Press, 2017), and Love and Freedom: Transcending Monogamy and Polyamory (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). Jorge was a member of the Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory and Research as well as an advisor to the Religions for Peace organization at the United Nation.

Nino Naneishvili holds a Bachelor of Arts in Piano and a Master of Sacred Music from Tbilisi State Conservatory. Nino is a lecturer at the University of Church Chant as well as at Rose Bruford College in London as well as a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Ilia State University. She has published several articles on the Georgian singing tradition, especially on sacred music. As an award-winning singer, she was a member of various folk ensembles and church choirs such as the Sathanao choir and the Alilo Ensemble. She has performed and offered workshops throughout Europe. Nino also served as strategy coordinator for the Ministry of Culture from 2015 to 2016 and has been guiding annual tours in a dozen Georgian regions over the past 20 years.

‍

Jessica Bockler, PhD, is a psychologist, theatre practitioner, as well as the co-founder of the Alef Trust, an organization working in transpersonal and integrative education. Jessica has extensive experience of expressive arts facilitation, including physical and participatory theatre, and experimental movement and voice work. Jessica’s vision and research interests centre on holistic and creative approaches to social change, bridging embodied ritual and imaginal practices with activism and social change initiatives. She is on the academic advisory board of the Inner Development Goals initiative, and she is also a member of the UN’s Conscious Food Systems Alliance. Jessica serves as Programme Leader for Alef Trust’s Master’s programme in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. She teaches across a range of modules in integral psychology, creativity & transformation, research design, and applied transformative psychology, relating spiritual perspectives to activism and social change.

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.

‍

David Dubois, PhD, is a comparative philosopher, author, and Sanskrit scholar. David is one of the leading scholars on Kashmir Shaivism, a branch of classical tantra. He has translated and commented on numerous tantric texts such as the Vijnâna Bhairava Tantra (Almora, 2015). He is the author of over twenty books on the subject and on other spiritual themes. David studied Sanskrit and Tantra amongst masters of the tradition in India, where he also trained in Indian martial arts and Ayurveda. He believes in an approach rooted both in tradition and democracy. He teaches the yoga of space and the path of desire in the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism but is also inspired by Christian prayer as well as other wisdom traditions from the East and the West alike.

‍

‍

Eliana Perinat is a visual artist and certified art therapist with many years of meditation practice. Eliana finds her main sources of inspiration within the natural world. Art is the path of consciousness that connects her to reality. Through artistic creation, she is able to focus, to see, to open up, and to reflect on herself and on the environment in which she finds herself. It is her way to inquire into existence and into human relationships. She finds awe in micro-macro patterns and in the forms inside and outside our bodies. Eliana offers individual and group sessions for healing through creative expression and for intuitive connection with nature.

Stephanie Canavesio is a therapist and meditation teacher. She builds a safe space for expansion, leading with empathy and listening. Each time she comes to the cushion with her students it is together with equality and equanimity, truth and trust – from a place of knowing the work that is necessary to reach our fullest potential, awareness of narrative, a conscious mind, and an open heart. No stranger to the limitations of our addictive patterns, Stephanie is an authentic guide for the healing journey. She is the founder of Presence Embodied, which brings together Compassionate Inquiry, meditative practices, and various other healing modalities. Stephanie connects you to the present moment to restore you to your truest expression and the practice of consciousness.

Karina Bertolotto is a psychologist and art therapist. She trained in Humanistic Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology, Artistic Expressive Therapy, and Integrative Somatic Therapy. Since 2005 she teaches Art therapy and Expressive Movement at the University of Barcelona and she is in charge of coordinating the Psychology programme for the Master's of Music Therapy at Barcelona University. She is a PhD candidate at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Her doctoral research focuses on performance as a contribution to Art Therapy practices and sacred dimensions of the feminine. She is student and a collaborator of Claudio Naranjo and organizes his teachings for SAT programmes in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Uruguay, and China.

Olga Lidia Kozłowska is a licensed psychologist, singer, and voice coach. She is certified in Core Energetics Body Psychotherapist, Process training (A&A Mindell), and holds an MA in education. Drawing inspiration from Alexander Technique and Polyvagal Theory, Olga approaches voice work in a holistic and embodied way. She specializes in traditional Slavic and Georgian singing, choral music, and improvisation. Her teachers include Franke Kane, Natalia Polovynka, Emma Bonnici, Amit Carmeli, Kristin Linklater, and Lane Aryne. She is the founder of Authentic Voice and has been leading workshops since 2011.

Maria R. Sideri is transpersonal psychotherapist and creator of the methodology of Transpersonal Dance Therapy. Student of different teachers of the buddhist and the shivaist tantric tradition. Therapist and teacher of body oriented psychospiritual integration. She holds a degree in Psychology from the Panteion University of Social and Political Studies of Athens as well as an MSc in Culture and Mental Health from UCL London and an MA in Dance Movement Therapy from the University of Barcelona. She trained in Reichian/Lowenian body-oriented psychotherapy, holistic sexuality, female sexuality and systemic constellations.  She has designed and leads a four-year training course in Transpersonal Dance Therapy: transpersonal psychotherapy through dance, movement and creativity. She lives and works between Ibiza, Barcelona, and Athens.

Gaiea holds a degree in Sanskrit from the University of Oxford where she was granted a singing scholarship. Combining her love of Sanskrit with an exploration of the voice, she has visited India regularly to study with local teachers. She performs, writes and records songs,and leads regular kirtan, Sanskrit, and meditation workshops in London. Gaiea also studied Music Theatre and qualified as a teacher of the Alexander Technique. She believes that all sound comes from and returns to silence, all movement comes from and returns to rest, and all success comes from the potential that can only be realised once one stops letting the mind rule. Through vibrations made manifest in Sanskrit, the heart opens. Gaiea has recently released a film series documenting her pilgrimage through the United Kingdom and Ireland.

‍

Riki Parenti is a certified music therapist (Les Heures, University of Barcelona) and an accredited neurologic music therapist (MTAE-53). He hold degrees in music from the University of Bologna and in transpersonal psychology (IPTB). Riki has been working as a music therapist since 2010 and specializes in neurorehabilitation. As a singer, he has been exploring the voice in its most ancestral aspects, mastering the overtones singing technique. He was a member of MuOM Overtone Singing Choir with which he released two albums and toured internationally. In recent years, he has been deepening the Dhrupad singing technique. Riki facilitates the personal growth laboratory "Journey through the Voice" where he mixes body and vocal work with transpersonal music therapy.

Annalisa is an Italian contemporary artistand macrobiotic chef based in Ibiza. Her work is the result of many years of multidisciplinary study in art education and therapy as well as Easter philosophy. She works with various natural media such as Chinese ink, sand, soil, and clay. Seeking to translate presence and silence into art, Annalisa empowers others to pay attention to the beauty of the perfect imperfections of life. She views her own body as an instrument of expression, and the brush as an extension of the mind and heart.

‍

‍

‍

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. 

‍

Holly Taylor-Zuntz is a singer and choir director. Her mission is to bring the folk music of Georgia to a global audience. She holds a BA (Hons) in European Theatre Arts from Rose Bruford College and studied Natural Voice Leader with Frankie Armstrong as well as Advanced Circle Singing and Vocal Improvisation leader training with Guillermo Rozenthuler. Over the past five years, Holly has been conducting research on Georgian polyphonic music, spending several months a year in Georgia learning from local ethnomusicologists. She created three theatre shows about Georgian music in the UK. She is the founder and co-host of the Voices of the Ancestors podcast and directs the Georgian choir in Oxford. Holly also leads open-access community choirs and offers workshops that encourage everyone to sing, no matter their vocal experience.

Kara Leva is a singer and pianist as well as a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. She holds an MA in Transdisciplinary Studies at the Zurich school of Arts. She works on intercultural and transdisciplinary projects focusing on the embodied voice in diverse and multimedia contexts. Kara gives workshops for theater as well as dance productions.

Marta Carvalho is a visual artist and a creative healer. She has been creating sacred spaces of transformative and healing arts since 2012. Marta holds degrees in Graphic Design and Visual Arts Theory. Her approach merges intuitive painting with vocal improvisation, somatic awareness, and performative practices. For the past four years, she has been developing numerous collaborative, interdisciplinary, and participatory art projects in Portugal. She guides personal and artistic development processes through individual mentoring, art therapy courses, and art residencies.

‍

Adriana Medina is a clown artist. She is co-founder and co-director of the clown company Yo SoY Semilla as well as the founder and artistic director of the interdisciplinary clown project Bee Infinite. Adriana has been performing as a clown and leading workshops for over 20 years, inviting people to laugh,cry, and play to cultivate joy and curiosity. To her, the art of clowning is a way of opening our hearts and of allowing creativity to spring forth through presence, simplicity, and awe. She draws inspiration from her training in voice work, yoga, Qigong, and reiki, as well as on her work as a visual artist. Since 2018 she has been organizing networks of creatives composed not only of professional artists but of diverse local communities. Adriana has taught workshops, exhibited, and performed in different cities of Mexico, as well as in the USA, Cuba, Italy, Japan, Costa Rica, and China.

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”.

Andrea Saito is an artist, art therapist, and researcher. She holds MAs in Cultural Management (International University of Catalonia) and in Artistic and Creative Therapies (ISEP, Barcelona). She also studied engraving (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and Japanese Woodblock (University of the Arts, London). She published Essencial Tune (2016) and Art Lab vol.1 (2017) in collaboration with Radar Art Lab. Andrea led interdisciplinary art labs in Lima and was in charge of the Cine Olaya Cultural Center. She worked as a cultural manager at Nau Bostik and Acid House in Barcelona. She currently offers Art Therapy sessions for individuals and groups and is a Dance Therapy teacher at Holistic Dansart, Puigcerdà.

Tiffany McSwaker is a dancer and performance artist. She studied dance at the Iceland University of the Arts and contemporary creation at the Sorbonne University. Her approach to movement and dance integrates body-mind connection, emotional awareness, healing modalities, and spirituality. Tiffany is the founder of Transcendental Embodiment. Informed by phenomenology and metaphysics, Transcendental Embodiment approaches dance as a holistic and transformative experience. Transcendental Embodiment is for dancers, movement lovers, and for people seeking psychological and emotional support through the practice of dance. Tiffany teaches online as well as in live events across Europe and Central America.

Marco Balbi Dipalma graduated in theatre studies and socio-cultural education from the University of Bologna. Since 2004 Marco has been working with the Polish actress and paratheater theorist Rena Mirecka. He was her assistant and became the director of the training school and laboratory The Sun with the support of the Grotowski Institute. Marco is now conducting independent research on ritual performance and acting pedagogy in Wroclaw. He is also a photographer and videographer.

The Chamgeliani Sisters – Ana, Eka, and Madona – are a trio coming from a long lineage of singers from the isolated and mountainous province of Svaneti. Keeping their oral tradition alive, they sing songs that have been passed down for centuries from generation to generation.

Ana, Eka, and Madona grew up in Svaneti and deep knowledge of the ecosystem and the culture in which the songs emerged. Ana, who is also a member of ensemble Sathanao, is a virtuoso on the ch'uniri, a 3-string bowed viol. Madona is an ethnomusicologist and scholar of Svan culture.Her research includes studying and recording ancient songs about the forest queen Dali. Eka is a housewife and plays an important role in hosting guests at their home in the village of Lakhushdi. All three sisters are at the helm of the effort to preserve and continue the singing tradition of Svaneti.

‍

Cristina de la Concha is photographer who has dedicated more than a decade to documentary, travel, and lifestyle photography. Cristina holds a Bachelor Degree in Social Communications and Advertisement from the Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia as well as a diplomas in holistic science from Schumacher College and from Efecto Mariposa. Her passion for travel and sustainable tourism led her to create Monasterio del Viento, a boutique hotel in Providencia Island, Colombia, which was featured in Conde Nast, the Financial Times, and Vogue. Her love of and connection to nature, authentic relationships, and self-discovery have led her on a quest to reclaim the beauty hidden in the simple and in the subtle. She seeks to make visible what usually remains unnoticed and aims to capture and portray the extraordinary in the ordinary. Currently living in Mallorca, Cristina works as a freelance photographer worldwide.

‍

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.

‍