International Artistic & Programming Committee, Biographies

Vanessa Maria Mirza, Festival Director

Vanessa Maria Mirza is a choreographer, visual artist, researcher and curator based in Kolkata, India. Her recent choreographic works include Dream Realms, Under Face, I Do Care About You and Her Song. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Dance Bridges Festival. She has represented Dance Bridges Festival at international forums such as the British Dance Edition 2016 and TPAM 2017-Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama. She has trained at Taipei National University of the Arts in the Master of Fine Arts (Choreography) program. She has worked with Rhythmosaic Dance Company as Faculty for Choreography Studies since 2013. Vanessa also holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. As a visual artist she has had solo/group exhibitions at Taj Bengal Hotel & Mirage Art Gallery and has worked as Visual Arts Director with Chaitown Creatives (USA/India) between2015-2016.

Dam Van Huynh, Associate Director

Dam Van Huynh is a UK based Dancer/Choreographer Van Huynh was raised and educated in the United States, and graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music. He is currently Artistic Director of Centre 151, home base of his own dance company – Van Huynh Company. Dam has worked with various companies and choreographers including Merce Cunningham, The Nevada Ballet, Portugal’s CeDeCe, Richard Alston and Phoenix Dance Theatre. He was Artist-in-Residence at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2010/12. His latest creations include  Gesundheit! and the award-winning Đẹp. His choreographic works have been performed internationally and include commissions by National Dance Company of Mexico, Unlock Dancing Plaza – Hong Kong and Fóramen M. Ballet – Mexico. Dam regularly collaborates with composers and musicians such as David Toop, Rie Nakajima, vocalist Elaine Mitchener. He recently made his directorial debut in opera with Of Leonardo da Vinci by Toop and also directed Industrialising Intimacy by Elaine Mitchener.

Chieh-Hua Jeff Hsieh, Artistic Programmer

Chieh-hua Hsieh is the Artistic director of Anarchy Dance Theatre. His works are composed of a special texture derived from his architecture background. Jeff’s works of choreography so far include Second Body, Seventh Sense, Anarchy’s Dream, Anarchy, and Falling Kiss. The theatre hence names itself as Anarchy. In general, Chieh-Hua Jeff’s works possess strong structural characteristics—a creative perspective dealing with time, space and energy together. Since 2011, Anarchy Dance Theatre has started a collaborative project with Ultra Combos, Seventh Sense mainly focusing on interactive dance performance. This work in progress, Seventh Sense, has started to gain public attention, already being invited to several international festivals in Spain, Netherlands, China, UK, USA, Hong Kong, UAE. And recently, Second Body is another distinguished work combined with dance and technology.

Pierre Palluet, Artistic Programmer

Pierre Palluet is an independent producer based in London and working in the field of the Performing Arts. He currently produces the work of choreographer Dam Van Huynh and vocalist Elaine Mitchener. He is the Centre Manager for Centre151 in East London, a Community centre for Culture and Arts. Originally trained in France as a musician and actor, he specialised in Arts Management. He has worked in the past for Alliance Française Gijón in Spain, TJP Strasbourg in France, Grand Theatre Luxembourg, European Parliament and Phoenix Dance Theatre. Having spent an extended period of time in South East Asia, Pierre is interested in cross-border collaborations. He is particularly passionate about artists pushing boundaries in their own art form and open to form new connections.