Giuseppe L. Bonifati (artistic director)
Born 1985. He is an actor, playwright, poet and director. He is based in Denmark. He attended acting courses at the Civic School of Dramatic Art “Paolo Grassi”. He furthered his studies at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio D’Amico” and at the International Theatre Workshops of Venice Biennale. Between 2010-2020, he has been artist/director in residence at Odin Teatret Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (Denmark), theatre with which he has collaborated since 2008. He has participated in other residency programs in Europe and America.
He met during his artistic formation, among others, Rodrigo Garcia (as director assistant), Antonin Milenin, Abani Biswas, Maurizio Scaparro, Enzo Moscato, Marcello Magni, Vincenzo Pirrotta, Giuliano Scabia. He also followed studies on the method “Stanislavski-Strasberg” with Beatrice Bracco, Michael Margotta, Francesca De Sapio from Actors Studio. As actor, he took part in plays directed by Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley, Motus, Renato Carpentieri, Remondi&Caporossi, Ruggero Cappuccio, Andrée Ruth Shammah, Roberto Cavosi, Emanuela Giordano, Giuseppe Maradei. He was awarded with the Crystal Microphone “Umberto Benedetto”, in 2006, by RAI – New voices for radio (Jury: Giovanni Antonucci, Claudia Cannella, Gabriele Parenti, Nicola Cariglia). In 2011, he won the National Dramaturgy Award “Alessandro Fersen” and he has been chosen among the Young National Talents by Ministry of Youth in Italy. He has been granted in 2015 and 2020 with “DE.MO./MOVIN’UP” for Performing arts, by MIBACT Italian Culture Ministry/GAI. He has given workshops and lectures on performing arts collaborating with arts and drama faculties of the University of Turin, Kaposvar University (Hungary), UDESC – Florianopolis (Brazil), Aarhus University, CISPA – Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts and Copenhagen University (Denmark), Teatro di Napoli Drama School (Italy).
Since 2010 is the artistic director of the performing arts group DOO – Divano Occidentale Orientale. In 2021 he has founded Det Flyvende Teater (The Flying Theatre), based at Billund Airport. He has conceived and directed more than 30 works traveling to more than 20 countries in the world.
For the poetry, he published the collections “Ritratto all’Ombra” in 2004 and “21:31 (mi sento morire)” in 2014 by Lietocolle publisher company. The text of “Pepe El Bastardo Impaziente e Innamorato” appeared in the theatrical series “Percorsi” by Editoria&Spettacolo publishing house.
Among other movies, he took part in Ridley Scott’s movie ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, alongside international stars as Kevin Spacey, Mark Wahlberg, Christopher Plummer, Michelle Williams, Timothy Hutton. He has filmed in the BBC tv-series US, together with Tom Hollander and Sofie Gråbøl. He too part recently in the new movie FERRARI directed by Michael Mann, with Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. (IMDB)
Linda Sugataghy (creative producer)
She has a master degree of French linguistics and literature from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. Born in Hungary, she is now based in Denmark. She has been artist/director in residence at Odin Teatret Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (Denmark). She joined DOO in 2013 and participated from the beginning in the project THE JUDGEMENT. From 2015, she is assisting the project “Above the Skin”, an urban action and workshop project touring in several countries, among others in France, Italy, Spain Hungary, Brazil. She has collaborated with arts and drama faculties of the University of Turin, Kaposvar University (Hungary), UDESC – Florianopolis (Brazil), Aarhus University and Copenhagen University (Denmark).
She was the responsible of documentation and design for Art On Call in 2019, and she created for this project the doc-film “Kunst på Opkald”. She is in charge of the photo/video production, international communication and design.
Sandra Lind Þorsteinsdóttir (opera singer)
Sandra Lind Þorsteinsdóttir is an Icelandic soprano based in Copenhagen. She has a Master‘s Degree in Voice from The Royal Danish Academy of Music and a Bachelor‘s Degree in Voice from Iceland University of the Arts. She has been a soloist in various projects, most recently doing Pop-up Opera with The Flying Theatre (Det Flyvende Teater) and in Stabat Mater, a new arrangement for soprano, electric guitar and electronics with music by Marco Rosano, Monteverdi and Dowland. She has furthermore been a soloist for example in Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, in Det Hellige Land by Otto Malling, as Barbara in The Four Note Opera by Tom Johnsson and in Requiem by Fauré. As of fall 2022, Sandra is continuing her studies at the Soloist / Advanced Postgraduate Diploma studies at Danish National Academy of Music.
Flemming Viðar Valmundsson (musician and performer)
Born in1995. He is an Icelandic musician, performer, and accordionist. His main focus has been on mediating and projecting contemporary classical music, written for the classical accordion, through vivid and human performances on-stage. Flemming has studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Geir Draugsvoll and Andreas Borregaard. He is a member of the accordion trio TriOssia, who were YCAT Finalists in 2022 and performed in Wigmore Hall in London. He is also one half of the expandable post-instrumental duo PAKK Collective, which specialises in producing events that blur on the boundaries of disparate artistic practices such as performance and installation art with the conventional concert form.
As a soloist, Flemming has performed concertos with Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Spur – Arne Nordheim), DKDM Sinfonietta (SPEAK – James Black), and LHÍ Sinfonietta (Drekabani (premiere) – Tryggvi Þ. Pétursson). Among his solo premieres was the digital premiere of Kate Eisenhutt’s “Serotonin” in Valpairiso, IN, U.S.A., which was composed in collaboration with Flemming for accordion and voice. Outside of the concert halls, Flemming has had an extensive career as a theatre performer, both in award-winning amateur productions, as well as major stage productions of new and old plays on the main stage of The National Theatre of Iceland.
Besides the accordion, he has played in multiple bands of multiple genres on whichever instrument. With his main mistress, the electric bass, he has performed in various jazz ensembles and the Iceland Airwaves festival with the hardcore two-piece band Phlegm, with which he released an album in 2017. His most recent side-step is his tenure as a tenor in Staka, a chamber choir based in Copenhagen, wherein he frequently takes the role of a soloist or yeller. Flemming currently works as a music teacher and choir conductor in Copenhagen.
Fanny Paanen (actress)
Fanny is an actress and audiobook narrator from Finland, Jyväskylä, and is now based in Copenhagen. She graduated from Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts in the summer of 2022 (BA). The school’s mind-body methodology gave her excellent tools for character-building and holistic theatre-making. She has experience with the Laban-Malmgren Movement Psychology system, Stanislavski’s system, Ivana Chubbuck camera technique, Suzuki, viewpoints, and Gaga Dance to mention a few. Her first job after graduating was Nina’s role in Det Flyvende teater’s production The Seagull by Anton Tšehov directed by Giuseppe Bonifati. She speaks Finnish as her mother tongue, is fluent in English and French, and is currently studying Danish. When growing up Fanny played football and took piano classes, which has made her keep her interest in being physical and passionate about music.
Johanna Matilda Valle (actress)
She is a Finnish actor (FIA) based in Copenhagen and Helsinki. She graduated in June 2022 from Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts with a certified BA in Acting. Johanna has an extensive background of acting in theatre, film and commercials. For the past three years she has been also working as an audiobook narrator and a voice-over. Her approach to acting is holistic, influenced by the mindbody concept of her training – the amalgamation of different acting methods and philosophies, most dominantly Movement Psychology by Rudolf Laban and Yat Malmgren, Stanislavsky’s acting techniques and C.G. Jung’s research.
Johanna is a sensitive and curious actor, who indulges in ensemble work, physicality, cross-disclipinarity, exploring the tunes of presence, and the endless possibilities of character transformation.
Julius Chavez (actor)
Julius Chavez is a Finnish American actor and freelance artist based in Helsinki, Finland. His education includes an actor’s BA from Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts and an MA from University of Lapland’s Faculty of Art and Design. He has 15 years of experience from various projects and roles in theater, film, radio, video games, journalism and reading audio books. Acting and voice over are his primary fields of work, but he also excels in photography, videography, sound design, graphic design and dramaturgy. He aspires to find intriguing approaches to storytelling through the use of body, voice, image and sound. Lapland, which he considers his home region, also greatly influences his artistic identity.
Milan Ujvari (dancer)
He was born in Hungary in 1985. He started dancing at the age of six in his hometown dance school. During this period he has practiced the basis of classical ballet and modern dances. In addition he also trained in fashion dances such as hip-hop, disco and jazz dance. At the age of fourteen he was competing under the federation of IDO Dances in the disco solo male category. Between 1999 and 2000 I won six Hungarian championship’s. In July of 2000 in Portoroz Slovenia he won the World Championship of disco dance in the solo male category. In the same year I moved to Budapest to join the classical ballet department of the Hungarian Dance Academy. I graduated in 2005. After that he joined the French-Hungarian physical theater group Compagnie Pal Frenak. During that time he has started to practice martial arts such as capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In the mid 2006 I was selected by Cirque du Soleil’s casting team to play a dancer/character role in the company’s show Delirium choreographed by Mia Michaels. Between 2007 and 2008 he took part in the show’s North American and European tour. Since 2008 I have been working as a freelancer and I’m based in Budapest. In the last ten years he has worked with the following company’s and independent choreographers and directors: Arpad Schilling, Rui Horta, The Hungarian National Theater, Anna Reti, Claudio Stellato, Amos Ben-Tal, Nigel Charnock, Eva Duda Dance Company, Gregor Lustek and Rosana Hribar and Zsuzsanna Rozsavolgyi.
In 2012 he created a short solo (From the Waltz to the Mambo) which has won several prizes (2012 Best Solo and Audience Prize, International SoloDuo Festival Budapest. 2013 Audience Prize, Stuttgart Solo Dance Competition. 2013 Audience Prize, Gdansk Solo Dance Contest. 2014 Special Mention Award, BE Festival, Birmingham, UK.) In 2013 in collaboration with Bea Egyed We created Radioballet, a platform for our choreographic works. We’ve made two full shows (The Nature of Love 2013, Totem and Taboo 2015). He has been working as a dance teacher since 2012. After short workshops abroad, he taught at the Ágnes Nemes Nagy Art High School between 2014 and 2020, first as a lecturer and later as an intern. Between 2016 and 2019, he taught at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, and since 2020 he has been a teacher at the Hungarian University of Dance and Real School Budapest.
Cüneyt Pala (art educator)
Cüneyt (or June8) is first and foremost an artist, art educator and creative problem solver. He is a trained KaosPilot -a 3 year creative project and process leader education based in Aarhus/Denmark- with experience in artistic, cultural and sustainability projects both during and after the education as a project manager and as a content creator. In addition, he is an Animation Teacher educated at Odense Fagskolel and has a Bachelor in Economics from Ankara Gazi University, Turkey. From 2014 to 2022, he has worked as a Project Manager at DSI Swinging Europe based in Herning. Here he has worked mainly with young music talents in projects such as: the multiethnic orchestra GRÆNSELØS together with the musician Bilal Irshed and in collaboration with Jazz Denmark, PLAY!GROUND LIVE and PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC with musician Bo Stief, the Nordic talent development band YOUNG NORDIC STARS and LIBERTY ORCHESTRA with musician Kenneth Dahl Knudsen. He was also co-process leader for a total of 35 workshops in 7 municipalities in the Central-West Region during the project inVITAtion Lab in collaboration with Herning Library and Team Teatret. Since 2017, he has worked with ART PARTY in different constellations: From the driver’s seat of ARTBULANCE to co-facilitating sustainability workshops with children during the project ART REACTOR and producing animations for the project THERE IS NO MORE CAKE. He was also co-facilitator of an art week for children from the International School of Billund as part of the project THE GREAT SECRET ART HUNT. In October 2021, he participated in the first stage of the EU-MERGENCY: Artbulance on the road project in the Visegrad countries. In 2021 and 2022, in collaboration with the rest of the Crew from THE FLYING THEATRE, he has helped coordinate, plan and execute workshops and was tour manager in 7 cities during the Triangle Area Festival Week.
Cüneyt was also the lead facilitator in 10 schools in Billund Municipality as part of the project SUPER OLE and he was involved in the production and performance of the show for schoolchildren and parents. He is also often part of The Flying Theatre’s activities at Billund Airport.
