Collaborations

Anastasia Kostner Dance Choreography Performance Movement

COLLABORATIONS

“Anastasia with her sophisticated craftsmanship in dance and choreography and both a trained and intuitive eye for detail is the utmost inspiring collaborator and rehearsal director. Her leadership is clear and purposeful, yet soft and empathetic. Anastasia’s artistic vision has a timeless and universal quality and the combination of her bright mind and refined dance technique make her a unique and poetic dance artist. Anastasia contributes to any creative and performance process in an indispensable way by bringing quality and care into the collaboration while making everyone around her shine.”

— Sandra Kramerova

Site-specific and interdisciplinary works

**SAS MUJEL**
*Sas Mujel* is a site-specific performance created within the context of the Transart Festival in collaboration with composer Eduard Demetz and visual artist Hubert Kostner.
The project transformed the alpine landscape into a living stage. Mountain climbers became performers, moving through the rocky terrain following a choreographic score across the mountains. Their movements unfolded alongside the soundscape created by Ensemble Windkraft, whose musicians were positioned within the landscape itself.
The performance premiered on the Langkofelscharte in Italy in 2019, where dance, music, and the natural environment merged into a temporary artistic intervention in the high alpine setting.

Press coverage (original and translated versions available):
DOLOMITEN
TRANSLATION DOLOMITEN

*Photo: Transart*

**DER WINTER KÜSST UNS - TRAUMVERLOREN, LA DANZA DELLA NEVE**

A site-specific performance for the Winter Gardens of the Therme Meran (2021), choreographed for and performed by an ensemble in collaboration with Fabrik Azzurro. Blending dance, theatre, and installation, the audience is guided on a one-hour journey through the park, where performers appear along illuminated paths and hidden corners, transforming the winter landscape into a magical storytelling environment.

*Photo: Kerstin Kahl*

**DANCE SCAPES**
The site-specific performance *DANCE SCAPES* enters into a dialogue with its surroundings, integrating the specificity of each space and the presence of its visitors. Existing also in digital form, the project has been developed in collaboration with visual artist Irma de Vries and presented at TEDX in Breda and AlPlan Folk Festival (IT) in 2018.
*Photo: Maria Stijger Aramburu*

**OCEANUS**
A site-specific performance by the Amsterdam-based company Between two hands, developed collaboratively with dancers as co-creators and performers. Guided through a sequence of ritualistic actions, the audience moves through a landscape of physical and sonic water compositions. The work was presented at the Over het IJ Festival in the Netherlands in 2021.
*Photo: Between Two Hands*

**NOW**
*Now* is a site-specific dance performance rooted in instant composition and contact improvisation, engaging with both the architecture and the people of each performance context. Developed in collaboration with Riccardo Meneghini, the project was launched in 2017 by IDEAtanztheaterperformance (Doris Plankl) and presented at HAP Bolzano and the Alps Move Festival (IT).
*Photo: Martin Trafoier*

CoMMISSIONS

**FREMDE FREUNDE / FOREIGN FRIENDS**
The work explores how proximity and distance shape our sense of belonging—how we meet, confront, and transform one another. Through moments of tension, empathy, and surrender, two performers navigate the fragile balance between difference and connection.
Set against the backdrop of ongoing migration movements and the violent realities of war, *Fremde Freunde* becomes a physical reflection on coexistence—on what it means to remain human in the face of separation, displacement, and conflict.
It is a meeting of bodies, histories, and gazes—a search for friendship within the unknown.
Credits
Concept: Stefan Planker, Anastasia Kostner
Choreography: Anastasia Kostner
In collaboration with Riccardo Meneghini
Light design & visuals: Mirco Lazovic
Commissioned by: Sudetendeutsches Museum München
Premiered in 2021 and continues to tour.
For further information and collaboration inquiries: Anastasia.Kostner@gmail.com.
*Photo: Jona Salcher*

**SERENITAS**
A solo by Iosu Lezameta, exploring a journey through shifting states of being in search of silence. Moving beyond conventional physicality, *Serenitas* celebrates the expressiveness of mature bodies, inviting both performer and audience into a shared experience of tranquility and inner stillness.
Concept, dance, costume & stage design: Iosu Lezameta
Choreography: Anastasia Kostner
With the support of Errante Teatro Danza.
Premiered in 2024 and continues to tour.
For further information and collaboration inquiries:
Anastasia.Kostner@gmail.com.
*Photo: Ainhoa Artola*

**EUROPEADA PROJECT**
*EUROPEADA PROJECT‍ ‍*is a research performance exploring European minorities. Commissioned by FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities) in 2016, the work brings together 24 minorities, inviting them onto the stage.

*Photo: Maarten van der Glas*

**ESPERIËNZES**
Commissioned by the art institute Tessmann Bolzano, the dance solo *ESPERIËNZES* explores cultural identity through a humorous and playful lens. The piece toured to Circolo Val Gardena and Atertheater (IT) in 2015.
*Photo: Ursula Tavella*

Music & performance collaborations

**CONTACT**
Together with conTakt percussion group, a repertoire of contemporary musical pieces (as for example ‘Trio per uno’ by Zivkovic) and improvisations were designed, which made the interplay between music and dance visible. The performance was first commissioned by the Jeunesse Festival, Val Gardena (IT) in 2010.

*Photo: Christian Miglioranza*

**PIANO RE-IMAGINED**
*Re-imagining Piano* is a performance designed for audiences seeking to experience classical music in a different setting. Combining live music, visuals, and dance, it unfolds as a *Gesamtkunstwerk*—a multi-sensory environment engaging all the senses.
The first pilot, initiated by pianist Katharina Thöni, was presented at the Bloomsbury Festival in London, from where the project developed across various locations and formats. It was later commissioned by Jeunesse Gherdëina (IT) and further produced by pianist Belle Chen, with presentations at the Royal Academy of Music Piano Festival and the Bloomsbury Festival in London.
Credits:
Live visuals: Maarten van der Glas
Piano: Belle Chen, Katharina Thöni, Eva Vinatzer
Choreography: Anastasia Kostner
Dance: Takeshi Matsumoto, Anastasia Kostner
Visual input: Annlin Caho, Emily Nelson
Sound design: Bas Gebbing, Timothy Tate
Live electronica: Ian Chambers, Dougal Lott
Bloomsbury Festival: MADEMOISELLE
Premiered in 2012 and continues to tour. For further information and collaboration inquiries: Anastasia.Kostner@gmail.com.

**DANCE AND ORGAN**
A series of performances exploring the relationship between space, music, and perception, creating a multi-sensorial experience.
Performed with organists Constanze Schweizer Elser, Margareta Hürholz, Wakako Yamanaga, Christian Rose, and Ralf Stiewe across Selb, Pforzheim, Stadthagen, Schwerte, Kelkheim, Ahlen, Menden, Hagen, Gießen, and Iserlohn (DE).
Premiered in 2012 and continues to tour. For further information and collaboration inquiries: Anastasia.Kostner@gmail.com.

*Photo: Hanke SN*

**L FOVA N IADE**
A performance exploring how two bodies interpret the same musical score in radically different ways. Sharing the sound world of *Canto Diviso* by Eduard Demetz, a dancer and drummer Hannes von Metz enter a dialogue where music is not only heard but physically lived—movement and sound unfolding as a shared yet distinct interpretation. Originally presented at the cultural event *Di dla cultura ladina S Martin de Tor* in 2025.
*Photo: Rai TV ladina*

Choreographic collaborations

**ANAM CARA**
*Anam Cara* (Gaelic for “soul friend”) is a duet choreographed and performed with Sanne Clifford in 2020, following their earlier collaboration in Sanne’s site specific work *3 Is a crowd*.
The piece explores an intimate encounter between two bodies that mirror and transform one another. Surrounded by musicians and audience in a circular setting, the performance creates a poetic space of shared presence and connection.
**MIRROR OF SOULS**
*Mirror of Souls* is a dance film directed by Sanne Clifford, developed from the choreographic material of *Anam Cara*.
Translating the duet into a cinematic form, the film explores themes of reflection and connection through movement and the camera’s perspective. The film has been screened internationally in Hungary, Italy, Sweden, India, and the United States.
*Photo: Sjoerd Derine*

**ALICE SYNDROME**
*The Alice Syndrome* is a neurological condition that alters perception, distorting shapes and spatial experience. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s *Alice*, the performance unfolds as a collage of dance, theatre, poetry, and film.
With Riva Godfried, Judigor Zimmerman Gor, Marieke Helmus, Leah Jacob, and Maarten van der Glas.
Under the supervision of Ammy Kuiper, with support from Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Stichting Stokroos.
Premiered at Radion Amsterdam (NL) in 2017.

*Photo: Dipa de Floor*

PUBLIC OPINION
This improvisation performance was presented in the frame of Tagung Tanzwelten, Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung, Theater Mollerhaus, Darmstadt (DE), after a first pilot at TAMED Tanzmedizin Symposium 2010, Frankfurt am Main (DE).

**SCHWER WIE EIN-STEIN**
This duet explores gravity through the kinetic chain that emerges when movement is led by the weight of the head. The work engages themes of interdependency, waiting and expectation, as well as humor and play. Developed in collaboration with Jungyeon Kim, it was performed at Alps Move (IT) and Sommerwerft in Frankfurt am Main (DE) in 2011–2012.
*Photo: Michael Jekel*

**FRACTALS**
This second work of the collective 20Finch House was created in collaboration with Simon Wehrli and Guiomar Campos and artistic collaborator Keren’or Petard. The piece was presented at the Canterbury Festival in London and the Alps Move Festival (IT) in 2010–2011.
*Photo: Samuel Runggaldier*

Rehearsal direction / outside eye

Dance film

**DICTATORSHIP OF LOVE**
*DOL* is a performance by Sandra Kramerova created within the framework of the Nieuwe Makers Regeling 2022-2023. Anastasia Kostner joined the project as rehearsal director and choreographic assistant.
In this production love becomes a command and a challenge. *Dictatorship of love* is a contest of lovability and endurance, where love is an order, an imposition, something both wanted and feared. This work brings together professional dancers and volunteers on stage, creating a dynamic exploration of imposed affection and resilience.
*Photo: Melanie Lemahieu*

CHOREOGRPHY

AGENDA

REVIEWS

BIOGRAPHY