Jana Bitterová is a dance artist, choreographer, improviser, creative movement facilitator, organiser and founder of MovementTouch.
Originally from Prague, she is working internationally. She has been based in Cornwall, UK (assisting and teaching at Falmouth University), in Quimper, France (assistant in choreographic structure T.E.E.M.), in Oostende, Belgium (in educational department for Mu.ZEE), in Bratislava, Slovakia (student of Academy of Performing Arts) and produced performances across EU, in USA and Cuba.
As a choreographer and performer, she creates solo performances and participates in interdisciplinary projects with musicians and digital media artists. She has been collaborating with Ian Biscoe in productions of multimedia projects connecting dance and digital technologies. She has been a member of Free Three improvisational company in UK.
(You can find more about Jana’s artistic practice in the Performance section.)
Jana enjoys introducing dance to people of all levels of experience and age. She is working as a choreographer within project School Dances organised by SE.S.TA.
One of her main interests lies in improvisation and she has been busy also with Contact improvisation, facilitating classes and jams across Europe (Contact Festival Freiburg 2017, Wednesday CI Jams at Falmouth University 2016, a founder of Bratislava Contact Improvisation group 2015).
Jana is also working as a core team member for Dance Context, Forum for dance reflection and development. She is a project manager of the Czech Dance Database.
Jana studied for her Masters degree in Pedagogy of Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, under Anna Sedlačková (a dance and Body-Mind Centering Practitioner) and Marta Poláková (a Laban Movement Analyst).
Her professional interest in movement expression led her firstly to study Dance Research at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, making her BA based on theoretical analyses and dance history. She continued her education focusing more on exploration of moving body and somatic techniques, being a student of Milan Kozánek and Zuna Kozánková (Artyci Dance Company)
Subsequently, she had an opportunity to meet in studios personalities of postmodern dance and improvisation such as Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Daniel Lepkoff, Ruth Zaporah, Julyen Hamilton, Stephanie Skura, K. J. Holmes, Malcolm Manning, Frey Faust and others. Their propositions are important sources of inspiration for her work.
Collaborations and links
www.se-s-ta.cz
– Center of choreographic development, choreographer in the program “School dances” (since 2016)
www.dancecontext.com
– Forum for dance reflection and development, also publisher of magazine www.dancecontextwebzine.com (member since 2008)
www.databazetance.cz
– Czech Dance Database, project manager
www.facebook.com/freethree.page/
– member of improvisational trio with dancer Kuldip Singh-Barmi and cellist Oak Matthias
www.falmouth.ac.uk
– teaching in Dance program of Falmouth University (2015-2016)
www.fontys.edu
– assisting in Digital Networked Arts project at Fontys University, Netherlands (2018 – 2019)
https://npapws.org
– presenter at conferences Network Performing Arts Production Workshop (2016 – 2018)
www.contactfestival.de
– teacher at international contact improvisation festival 2017
www.le-teem.fr
– collaboration with French choreographic structure T.E.E.M. (assistant 2012–2013)
www.artyci.com
– collaboration and education with Zuna Kozankova and Milan Kozanek
www.ivanamer.com
– collaboration with singer and composer Ivana Mer, project Coexistence
www.mu-zee-um.be
– member of Mu-zee-um, organization for culture and art education, Oostende, Belgium (2011–2012)
http://theateraanzee.be/
– dance workshop for children within festival Theatre aan Zee, Oostende, Belgium (2012)
http://tanecpraha.cz
– project Dance to Schools, Dance and movement education at primary schools in Prague (2011–2014)
