Panelists: Quito Tembe, Laurynas Žakevičius, Cora Hegewald
Moderator: Prasanna Oommen

How can we rethink international collaboration in contemporary dance? This online panel explores production frameworks, power structures, and collaborative models between the Global North and Global South.

Artists working internationally navigate tensions between touring and long-term local anchoring, facing precarity, visa and contract regulations, social security challenges, and growing ecological responsibilities. How can we tackle these issues together? With synergies, solidarity networks, and financially well-equipped collaborations.The panel combines different perspectives on how can we work together. What conditions, agreement are necessary to collaborate as equal partners.

Our guests are Quito Tembe, curator and festival director of KINANI in Maputo, Mozambique, Laurynas Žakevičius, artistic director Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre and partner of the artist-led network studiotrade, and Cora Hegewald, programme coordinator of the funding programme WAYS of Federal Cultural Foundation in Germany.

With our moderator Prasanna Oommen, they will look at what “working together” means in practice: differing hierarchies, work cultures and concepts of time, digital and hybrid collaboration, and finding unexpected, new relations and collaboration. The aim is to imagine fairer, more inclusive and sustainable international partnerships.

Cora Hegewald
Cora Hegewald currently co-leads the “WAYS-Towards Fair and Sustainable International Partnerships” programme at the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Previously, she worked with several cultural institutions, numerous theatres and internationally as a freelance curator, advisor, editor and author. Her curatorial and advisory practice focuses on collaborative, process-oriented and site-responsive artistic practices, often situated at the intersection of visual art, architecture and performance.

About the funding programme WAYS
The German Federal Cultural Foundation promotes contemporary culture in Germany and in an international context. With its programme ‘WAYS – Towards Fair and Sustainable International Partnerships’ , the programme aims to support German cultural organisations in establishing new partnerships outside Europe and implementing joint artistic projects until 2031. The partners develop and test new models of fair and sustainable international cooperation.

Quito Tembe
Quito Abrão Tembe is a curator, artistic director and cultural producer from Maputo with an recognised career in the internationalisation of African artists and in strengthening cultural cooperation networks between the Global South, Africa and Europe. He leads the KINANI International Platform for Contemporary Dance and serves as curator of the MITsp Biennial and associate curator of the Wiener Festwochen. He has collaborated with internationale tanzmesse nrw, the Lyon Dance Biennale and major international programmes, and was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Laurynas Žakevičius
Laurynas Žakevičius is executive director, producer, choreographer and performer at Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre . Since 2012, he has led the company, shaping it into one of Lithuania’s leading contemporary dance institutions. With over 15 years of experience, he combines artistic vision and strategic management, producing international projects and tours. Active in European networks such as Studiotrade , he strengthens global partnerships and Lithuanian dance policy.

Prasanna Oommen
Prasanna Oommen has been working for over 20 years as a bilingual moderator (German/English), public relations specialist and author. Her work focuses on transformation in the cultural, educational and media sectors, particularly in the areas of cultural education, diversity, AI and sustainability. She is an active member, mentor, and former board member of the Neue Deutsche Medienmacher:innen. From 2023 to 2025, she has been Chairwoman of the Board at EIT Culture & Creativity e. V., an initiative of the European Institute of Technology and Innovation. She also advises institutions, municipalities, and ministries on change processes and provide training in political as well as internal and external communication.