Jurys

Cláudia Berkeley graduated in Theatre from Balleteatro Contemporâneo do Porto and holds a postgraduate degree in Cultural Policies for Urban Transformation from FLACSO, Argentina.
Since 2014, she has been on the board of Teatro da Didascália, mentoring artistic creation processes with a focus on contemporary circus. She is one of the artistic directors of the Vaudeville Rendez Vous International Festival and the fAUNA – Creation Habitat residency programme, supporting the development, international circulation, and sustainability of emerging and established artists and projects. 
As a performer and creator, she has participated in over a dozen productions in Portugal and abroad. She also directs PLATEIA, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, where she engages in reflection and advocacy around on cultural policies, funding models, working conditions, and the sustainability of artistic structures, fostering dialogue between professionals, institutions, and policymakers.

Louise Bjurholm von Euler is a Swedish circus artist and performer. Since 2001, she has worked in close collaboration with her acrobatic partner Henrik Agger. Together, they have developed a shared artistic language rooted in long-term partnership. Their work has been presented internationally at festivals and theatres across Europe, Asia, and South America. 
Louise’s artistic practice combines movement with documentary elements, text, and everyday situations, transforming them into intimate and personal performances that resonate with universal human experiences. She holds a Master’s degree in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) and a diploma in Circus Arts from the Moscow State School of Circus (2001–2006), where she studied under the legendary acrobatic coach Boris Nikiforovich Belochvostov.

Antonia Kuzmanić is the artistic leader of the ROOM 100 collective, as well as the director and producer of the Peculiar Families Festival (Split, Croatia). As a young artist, she was awarded as circusnext laureate back in 2010. In 2015, she switched her focus from performing to designing and implementing projects to develop contemporary circus in her country.
ROOM 100 is part of the circusnext Platform, the Circostrada Network, projects funded by Creative Europe and numerous collaborative projects with sisterhood organisations from Croatia and Serbia. 
Now based in Barcelona, Spain, Antonia has been focused on getting back to her own artistic practice, experimenting with one-to-one art formats, public space performances, and site-specific installations.

Elena Lydia Kreusch is an artist, producer and academic researcher working in contemporary circus. For over 14 years, she has collaborated internationally with artists, festivals and cultural organisations. She was part of the Irish company Squarehead Productions (circusnext 2014 Laureate), former artistic co-director of the Austrian festival On the Edge, and worked as Arts Adviser to the Austrian Ministry of Culture as well as for several international juries. She also developed professional training programmes for emerging artists at the European Institute of Cultural Management.
Today, Elena works freelance, supporting artists and organisations in developing projects, collaborations and sustainable working practices. Alongside her production work, she publishes academic research and creates projects at the intersection of circus and video art.

Arne Mannott is a curator and dramaturg with an artistic background in circus, dance and fine arts as well as an academic degree in philosophy and politics. 
He is founder and artistic director of the Viennese festival ON THE EDGE – festival for experimental circus art. As a curator and dramaturg, he developed various creation and performance formats and worked for festivals, institutions and artists.

Teresa Noronha Feio is a portugese dancer, choreographer, and researcher active in contemporary dance, circus, and performing arts. She graduated in Dance Theatre Studies from Fontys University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands) and has been based in Italy since 2013. 
Her work focuses on transdisciplinary practices at the intersection of choreography and contemporary circus, with a strong emphasis on collaborative methodologies. She has worked as performer, co-author, and assistant with artists including Vânia Gala, Francesco Sgrò, Paul Blackman and Matteo Maffesanti. She is co-founder of Cordata F.O.R. ETS and Fabbrica C, where she develops artistic and educational projects supported by Creative Europe and the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Molly Saudek is a circus artist and one of the leading tightwire dancers of her generation. Born in Vermont, she began performing in 1989 with Circus Smirkus, training under Rob Mermin and Guennady Totokov in acrobatics, rigging, mime, and trapeze.
In 1994, she entered the École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal, specializing in dance and tightwire. She has performed for over thirty years with major companies across the international circus scene, including Tsirk Nikulin, Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Éloize, Cirque Plume, Big Apple Circus, Circus Monti, Cirkör, Rasposo, and Cirque Romanès. In 2006, she joined Les Colporteurs in France for Fil sous la Neige, and continues to perform today in Méandres and Cœurs Sauvages. 
Molly holds an MA in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University of the Arts and works as a choreographer, director, and teacher. Since 2017, she has also served on the artistic jury of circusnext.

Thiago Souza is a Brazilian circus artist based in Barcelona. Trained at FLIC (Turin), ENCLO (Rio de Janeiro) and Spasso (Belo Horizonte), he also holds a degree in Social Communication from UniBH. Through his artistic practice, he explores ruptures with hegemonic imagery to evoke new individual and collective narratives.
He is co-founder of Cia Doisacordes (circusnext 2023 Laureate) and toured internationally at festivals and venues across Europe such as GREC, Cirkuliacija, Vaudeville Rendez-vous, Atoll festival, Mercat de les Flors, Ateneu 9 Barris, and Cirko. Recently, he collaborated with Cia. BarbaRosa, participated in Nonsense – Cabaret de Pensamiento at La Grainerie, and took part in La Parola Ai Corpi. He is currently co-curating its 6th edition with Gaia Vimercati.

Zed Zanzu (they/he) is a researcher, performer, author, dramaturg and curator. Their work explores gender, bodies, accessibility, ethics, care, pain, negotiation and methodologies for artistic research. They studied Philosophy at the University of Bologna and circus arts in Belgium and Canada.
They were part of the Circus Dialogues research project at KASK School of Arts Ghent and taught for ten years in the Gender Studies Master's programme at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As an independent curator, they design encounters and festivals, while accompanying artistic projects as a dramaturg, external eye and advisor on gender and ethics. Their solo EZ was a circusnext Laureate in 2021.
Currently, Zed is creating the participatory piece Who Cares for Whom? and developing research projects on perception, citation systems and live arts.