Valentina trained in Italy and France. After earning a Master’s degree in Art, Communication and Language, she obtained her Technical Aptitude Certificate in Contemporary Dance, and went on to study at the Flic Circus School in Turin. She attended workshops at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen and trained with artists she admires, such as Peeping Tom, Ambra Senatore, Adriana Boriello, Cristiana Morganti, Sara Sguotti, and The Slovaks. She has worked with Romeo Castellucci and Petr Formann.
In 2016, she founded the Terzo Livello collective, and later, the Calentina Vortese Company.
In 2018, she joined the third year at Le Lido, where she created Lento e Violento, “neither circus nor theatre”, as author and performer (Circa 2021).
Curious about metatheatre, she trained in Circus Dramaturgy and New Magic at the CNAC.
She is currently touring as a performer in Mazùt by Baro d’Evel Cirk.
Manolis was born in 1979 in Athens, Greece, where he lives and works. A performance maker and dramaturge, with a vivid interest on hybrid narratives and broadened concepts of what consists a choreography today, he is also a mentor within multiple (educational and/or artistic) performing arts contexts in Europe (e.g. Onassis AiR in Athens/Greece, KHio Academy of the Arts in Oslo/Norway, and elsewhere).
He holds two MA degrees (in “Theater”/DasArts in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2012, and “Environmental Politics & Management“/University of the Aegean, Greece, 2002). He is founding (and active until 2014) member of the Institute for Live Arts Research |Π|, and also founding (and active until 2011) member of the performance group Nova Melancholía; both collectives are based in Athens. In his work, he is fascinated by the force of language as inexhaustible shape shifter, endless vehicle of multiple meanings, and ingenious ambassador of our hopes and desires.
From August 2024 on, he is assigned the position of Professor of Dramaturgy at ESAC (Ecole Superieure des Arts du Cirque) in Brussels.
Manolis Tsipos is also a published writer of prose and poetry in Greece, France, Switzerland, and the USA.