This workshop has become a mainstay of the Biennial, at this edition; the workshop is led by the Berlin-based Arnd Wesemann, eminent dance critic and editor of tanz, a dance magazine, who will work with Daisuke Muto, dance critic from Japan and ten young arts and culture writers from South Asia selected from numerous entries, to bring out three newsletters that will cover the various events at the festival.
Muto is an independent dance critic and Associate Professor at Gunma Prefectural Women's University, Japan. His current research interest is focused on geopolitical and historical analysis of contemporary Asian dance. He is co-author of The History of Ballet and Dance (edited by Sho Suzuki, Heibon-sha: Tokyo, 2012) and Theater in Japan (edited by Eiichiro Hirata and Hans-Thies Lehmann, Theater der Zeit: Berlin, 2009), and has published numerous articles. Currently, he is a regular contributor to MOMM magazine in Korea. Muto served as a member of the selection committee for Toyota Choreography Award 2002, 2005 and 2008. He is a recipient of a 2005 Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to conduct a research in Southeast Asia and New York. In 2007, Muto served as a facilitator for The 3rd ITI Asian Dance Conference held by International Theatre Institute Japan Centre, Tokyo. He sits on the artistic board of Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta since 2008.
Arnd Wesemann studied Applied Theatre Theory at the University in Giessen/ Germany in the 1980s. After being a freelance journalist and author (including Data Dummies and Net Nomades: essays on the influence of the internet in underdeveloped regions in those times, and Jan Fabre, a monography on the well known Flemish artist and choreographer), he became editor of Europe's leading dance magazine, tanz (formerly ballet international / tanz aktuell / ballet-tanz), in 1997. His latest book is called Immer Feste Tanzen on the relationship between the art of dancing and the heritage of the feast. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
