Prostor pro tanec, umění a komunitu v srdci Karlína.

EXPLORING DANCE, EXPLORING THROUGH DANCE
iCoDaCo is an international project focused on research, development, and experimentation in contemporary dance. It brings together a total of 12 organizations from across Europe, sharing practices, knowledge, and collaboration. And Studio ALTA is one of them!

DANCING TOGETHER FOR YEARS
Each organization forms a group of local artists who will collaborate from 2024 to 2027, engaging in collective research. Our Czech group is called iCoDaCo Collective Prague.

WHY ARE WE PART OF THIS?

DIGNIFIED CONDITIONS FOR ARTISTIC WORK
Studio ALTA aims to create dignified conditions for artistic work in the long term. We believe that artistic activity is a profession that deserves fair compensation, a sense of security, and other values that work in the arts often does not allow. We want to contribute to professional development and the overall strengthening of the artistic community from within.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ARTISTIC SCENE
Our mission is to create interesting and attractive opportunities within the Czech artistic scene—opportunities that make sense in terms of career development and bring great new things not only to individuals but to the entire community. Quality art requires quality conditions.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
We want to go beyond our bubble! International networking is an essential part of contemporary cultural practice, and we are pleased to facilitate such a significant opportunity. International emancipation is crucial not only for individuals but also for us as an institution.

RESEARCH, SEARCHING, AND DISCOVERING
Discovering great new things, having the time to explore, and bringing forward approaches that will be useful to other artists in their work and research. We want to expand the spectrum of approaches and discover those we never even imagined. We see great value in contemporary dance research.

WHAT AWAITS US IN ICODACO COLLECTIVE PRAGUE?

Now, let’s get specific.

🟣 15 weeks of research residencies

🟣 Public engagement through artist talks, workshops, open dance training sessions, work-in-progress showings, and community activities

🟣 4 online conferences for professionals, focusing on current topics

🟣 6 weeks of creative process leading to a staged production in 2027

🟣 A final mini-festival in 2027

🟣 Development and launch of a virtual open-access platform for artists engaged in contemporary dance

🟣 A continuous professional development program for participating artists and cultural workers to support sustainable practice

FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY

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ICODACO COLLECTIVE PRAGUE

Linda Straub lives in Prague and works as a director, performer and theatre teacher. She works in documentary, experimental and site specific theatre and applied theatre.
She studied Nonverbal Theatre (HAMU), Directing (KALD DAMU), Theatre Science (Charles University) and Theatre Pedagogy (DAS Ei – Theaterpädagogisches Institut Bayern e.V.). She had a one-year study placement in Spain at the Universitat de València, and work placements in England at the London Bubble Theatre Company and in Germany at Tatwerk Berlin. Since 2010 she has been creating theatre projects and leading theatre workshops in the Czech Republic and abroad.
Together with Mathias Straub she founded the Spielraum Kollektiv (www.spielraum-kollektiv.eu), with which she has created over twenty theatre productions. Depending on the theme, they experiment with ways of involving the audience and with various formats. They received a nomination for the Theatre Newspaper Award for writing and directing the show Busking Un/Limited. Their projects have been presented in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Germany, Denmark and Mexico.
In the field of applied theatre she works with a variety of age groups from children, youth, adults to seniors. For over ten years he has been leading youth projects of the Czech-German theatre network Čojč (www.cojc.eu). Breaking down the boundaries between nationalities and a respectful and inclusive approach are important to her in her theatre work with youth.
She has two children who help her to give back to the here and now and to be very much among people. She is interested in sustainability and fair conditions (not only) in creating for disadvantaged people (including mothers).

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Hana Kokšalová is a multimedia artist, performer, organizer and director. She is currently finishing her Master’s degree in the Studio Environment at the Faculty of Arts, Brno University of Technology.
She is engaged in research work combining visual and performing arts. Her projects take the form of theatre productions, participatory happenings working with specific places and groups, as well as politicising interventions in public space.
She lives in Ústí nad Labem, where she has long created a space for the development of local original works in the field of contemporary dance and performance and the development of a dance and performance community.
She is part of several Czech art collectives (all of which are struggling to find a name) and the Swiss collective bewegende kunstformen.

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Tomáš Janypka, creator, choreographer, performer and facilitator of Somatic Dialogue, graduated in Physical Theatre from the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno. As an independent artist and a member of the ZDRUHESTRANY collective, he has a number of interesting collaborations to his credit, including Jaro Viňarský, Sonja Pregrad, Jan Mocek, Viktoria Vašová, Antoinette Helbing, Juraj Gábor, tYhle collective, mimoOs and Temporary Collective. His strength lies in the subtlety and openness to different genres and approaches, focusing on intimate events, the perception of the body and its boundaries, the burden of things on the physical and spiritual levels and physical and emotional sharing with the viewer. His works include Song Lines: Expedition 97/18 (2019, with Sabina Bočková), Eight Cups and the Devil (2021, with Roberta Štepánková), Finishing the Sphere (2021, a year-long interdisciplinary research as part of an architectural and visual project), PQ 2023 opening performance and Lonesome COWBOY (2023), among others.

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MISHA RAIS A JANA NOVORYTOVÁ met in 2014 at an audition for the SE.S.TA show. Since then, they have been creating, working and living in close collaboration in various projects of different nature with overlap in different fields and disciplines.
Since 2014, they have created two original performances (Partial Uncertainty, together with Roman Zabelov and Štěpán Hejzlar, and %& 3-5-8- @#…and it’s just dawn in Alaska, together with Pasi Mäkelä and René Vitvar) that thematize participation and the role of language in a dance-theatre format. In these two more or less variable formats they have carried out more than forty different events, interventions ranging from in-home performances to site-specific performances and performances in classical theatre spaces.
As performers, they also work together in artistic projects by other Czech and foreign artists and choreographers (Martha Moore, Jiří Havelka and VerTe Dance, Mirka Eliášová, CreWcollective projects).
They are both co-directors of CreWcollective in various roles and projects – as producers, curators, performers, lecturers. See www.crewcollective.cz, projects LAB4tools, Moving Orchestra, After the Belt, I Dream of a Bright Future, workshops with international artists: Julyen Hamilton, Bettina Neuhaus and Eva Karczag, Daniel Lepkoff.
Since 2023, they have been doing research in the field of pedagogy of performing arts at the Department of Authorial Creativity and Pedagogy at DAMU. They both have young children (Franta and Žofka), which co-determines the rhythm in which they work together, both professionally and privately.

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Jitka Sara Páníková graduated from the Duncan Centre Dance Conservatory in Prague in 2017. She then went on to study at the certified school Peridance Capezio Center in New York, where she specialized in fusion of contemporary dance and classical Chinese techniques. She subsequently received her master degree from Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, focusing on performing arts in public space.
Currently, she can be seen in her original performance dis pla y, a collaboration with dancer and choreographer Tereza Lenerová. This work won the main prize of the Czech Dance Platform in 2021. Jitka has also collaborated with Tereza on the projects There is an impression of being and Glove Races.
For the second year she has been working with Brazilian choreographer Flavia Tapias. Rotas Afora and Fantasmas have been performed at Dance Prague and Dança em Trânsito festival in Brazil. On the Czech scene, Jitka has established a partnership with PocketArt collective and performs in Fairy Tales, which was performed at Sismógraf Festival in Spain, One Dance Festival in Bulgaria, Dance Prague in the Czech Republic, Juli Dance in the Netherlands and Dance Umbrella in the UK.
Jitka’s exploration of many different cultures has led her to investigate the symbolism of dance gestures and the function of mirror neurons, helping her to formulate her own dance language and relationship with the audience. In her artistic research she works with public space, especially brownfields.

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Natalie Tun is a dancer, choreographer and teacher in the field of contemporary dance. She was born in Northern Ireland but subsequently moved to Prague and in 2023 completed a six-year degree at the Duncan Centre Dance Conservatory. She completed an internship at PERA School of Performing Arts in Northern Cyprus, and is now exploring the independent dance scene through participation in various projects in the Czech Republic and abroad.
Her creative identity and movement vocabulary is still in a process of search, which is why she has received support for her further development from New Network (Nová Síť) through the New Blood on Stage program for the development of young artists and her upcoming project Yutori.