International Company
David Bower
Artistic Director Signdance Collective UK & Sign Dance Europe/Actor, David Bower is a Welsh/English performer. He studied Theatre of the Deaf at Bulmershe College of Further Education. He joined the Basic Theatre Company and played ‘Gary’ in Ray Harrison-Graham's award-winning production "Gary", winning an Edinburgh Fringe First. He studied the newly created art form Signdance as an apprentice performer at Common Ground Sign Dance Theatre in 1989. He tours extensively, performing at major street theatre and theatre festivals worldwide. His films have been screened across the globe at festivals and events. 'Rapid Intervention' was shown at Cannes Film Festival. Radio work includes Quasimodo, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ BBC Radio 4, ‘Shall I say a Kiss,’ BBC Radio 4, ‘Dragonfly,’ BBC Radio 4, ‘A Small Piece of Silence’, 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, 2020. In July 2013, he recorded the radio version of Bad Elvis with the BBC and played the lead in the stage production. He is an associate artist at the BBC. He played Hugh Grant's brother in Four Weddings and a Funeral, directed by Mike Newell and written by Richard Curtis.
Isolte Avila
Isolte is the director of Sign Dance Collective International Croatia and Co-Director at Sign Dance Europe. She was born in Cuba and trained with the Cuban ballet and members of the Alvyn Ailey Dance Company. Isolte is an international performer and SDC UK's international collaborations director.
She has a degree in dance from the California Institute of the Arts. Isolte studied and danced with Ismael Ivo and spent many summers at Vienna's fantastic Tanz Impuls. She also danced with Carlos Ortas's ChoreoArte in Venezuela.
Isolte is the founder of the art form 'Signdance Theatre' and the original pioneer of signdance™ created in 1987.
In 2001 Isolte formed Signdance Collective with Welsh actor David Bower. Since then, she has had the privilege of collaborating with the Ana Monro Theatre Company. with Kate Lawrence UK and Ornella D'Agostino Carovana SMI.
In 2020 with David Bower, she established two new European Organizations for the continuing development of Signdance Theatre Internationally with E.U Partners
Angelina Schwammerlin
Angelina Schwammerlin is a contemporary musician based in Graz in, Austria. As a sound artist, she creates acoustic patterns and soundscapes using live, recorded, natural and digital elements. In 2006, Angelina finished her scientific work "Music as Expression" (Ways of Communication). She played in several bands and trained in immersive theatre with Ana Monro in Slovenia. In 2015 she founded the umbrella organisation Transmitter Performance, which produces contemporary culture projects. Angelina has been working with Signdance Collective since 2012. She composed the soundtrack for "Carthage/Cartagena" and is training with the company to explore methods of working as a musician within a dance-theatre process. Therefore she is actively involved in developing the pieces and playing the guitar or transverse flute. In addition, she composed and performed in the multimedia performance "In Between Spaces", which went on tour in 2021/22. Currently, she can be seen as a vulture in "Oriente Plus.".She says, "I love developing work that engages different cultures and art professionals and to have the opportunity to perform and write music, especially for the Signdance Collective with their accessible way of creating contemporary live performance."
Ivani Ca
Ivani is a Portuguese actor experienced and passionate about Voice Acting and specialized in vocal abilities.
Joining Oriente Plus as an LGBTQ+ actor is very important, and very exciting for me, because the role is so complex, and by playing a character that is, in a way, the embodiment of what it is to be a woman and a man in one single entity, will challenge me into finding a way to portray this character as a cis-gendered gay male actor and it will enrich my acting skills. Joining SDC would mean for me entering for the 1st time into a company and understanding how to work in a team and being welcomed into your family. Joining this project I want to make it a success for everyone involved.
Rob Corcoran
Rob is a filmmaker and creative producer from Wrexham, North Wales. He is the founder of production company 73 Degree Films and has produced numerous film, arts and community projects. He is currently a member of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew.
In 2017 Rob founded the non-profit arm of 73 and has also been recognized for his social entrepreneurship, in particular for projects focussed on helping people from North Wales enter the film industry. He is an UnLtd Award Winner and Social Business Wales Awards nominee.
Rob has worked with SignDance Collective since 2018, collaborating on shows including 'The Turtle Trials' and 'In Between Spaces' which have been developed and showcased internationally, including in Slovenia, Austria, Turkey, the USA, and Mexico.
Rob is a BAFTA Cymru member and producer of the FOCUS Wales Film Festival, supported by Ffilm Cymru.
Viviana F. Molinares
Viviana was born in Cuba but moved to the United States as an infant, spending her formative years in Nebraska and Virginia. She graduated from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, later taking numerous graduate courses at Florida International University and at Barry University.
Immediately after graduation, Viviana began working as a set/graphic designer for WLTV23, a local Spanish television station. Within a few months, she was promoted to assistant art director at the National Network (now known as Univision). Here she worked as a set designer locally and abroad as needed.
Ford selected her to do a one-woman exhibition in the Wynwood Art District; Viviana has created a tabletop set for a Disney Halloween commercial; designed sets for Office Depot, Imagos, Sabor a Mexico, Ford, Homenaje a Lucho Gatica, Cheyenne. Was a featured artist in a Big Brothers Big Sisters “Under Improvement” fundraiser as well as in His House galas.
Viviana continues to paint and create, for commissions or sometimes for pleasure, in her studio Micco Florida
David Omni was raised in the Alamar district, east of Havana, which according to David D, is a “young city, formed in the 1970s, as a project.” David D joined Omni Zona Franca shortly after leaving school, feeling at home in a space where according to the artist “I could express my opinions, what I said was important.” Important indeed, as some of Omni Zona’s recordings, including Protesto or Protest, has become a rallying call for a growing pro-democracy, human rights movement on the Communist island nation. His music – which pounds with rap lyrics, but where the cadence of reggae, the energy of rock or techno music, the magic of new age and eastern music can also be felt, with even a touch of African rhythm or even reggaetón suddenly emerging – is contagious and highly enjoyable at the same time that it invites reflection. Nonetheless, it has provoked scepticism from the more orthodox who refuse to accept it as Hip Hop. Nonetheless, David defends his right to transcend all limits. He terms his innovation “Free Hop".
Signdance Europe Foundation
Goro Osojnik
Producer and actor Gorazd Osojnik (nickname Goro) was born on January 20, 1960, in Ljubljana. He studied Spanish and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. He is an Actor, cultural manager, and trainer with working experience in Slovenia, Western Europe (the UK, Netherlands, and France), and the Middle East (Turkey, Ukraine). He joined the theatre in 1979 as a playwright. Since 1983, he has been a member, actor, and co-author of the Anne Monro Theatre. From 1983 to 2002, he played and co-authored most of the performances of the Anne Monro Theater in over 35 different performances. In addition, he acted in Slovenian films and in children's plays, several TV shows.
In 1995, he invented the concept of Ana Desetnica, the international festival of street theatre, and in 1996, with the support of the National House, they became a regular feature of the LENT festival program. Since 1998, the Ana Desetnica festival has been taking place in Ljubljana and other Slovenian cities, where he is the leader and chief selector.
Pedro De Senna
Associate director writer in residence and performer at SDC. He is a theatre practitioner and academic. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he started performing in 1993. He has been a member of the Signdance Collective since 2010.
Pedro has worked as a performer and dramaturge for "New Gold", "Half-a-Penny" and "The Other Side of the Coin", he has also acted as assistant director for "Carthage/Cartagena" and "Bad Elvis". Pedro is writing Oriente Plus and dramaturged the beautiful In Between Spaces for Signdance Collective
He is a lecturer in contemporary theatre and a programme leader on the BA theatre arts course with a special focus on theatre directing at Middlesex University. His academic research focuses on translation and adaptation looking at the relationship between directing, dramaturgy, and disability aesthetics. Pedro’s chapter on the company’s creative processes for "New Gold" is included in Katja Krebs' book, "Translation and Adaptation in Theatre and Film" (Routledge)
His award-winning play "A tragédia de Ismene, Princesa de Tebas" is based on the Theban myth of Oedipus and has been published by Móbile Editorial.
Finance
Brankica Brkovic
Project Management & Fundraising LUMEOS
