About

What is BRÜCKEREI?

BRÜCKEREI is a biennial choreographic development platform taking place in Zürich (Switzerland) under the guidance of an experienced mentor and of the two artistic directors Romain Guion and Caroline Finn. Conceived as a two-week creative playground, each edition of BRÜCKEREI is to provide a wide and varied group of passionate movers with the unique opportunity to research how to communicate choreographic ideas in diverse contexts, expand their movement language and challenge their creativity.

Philosophy

BRÜCKEREI's mission is to build creative, human, informational and geographical bridges as a means to address the artistic challenges of today’s choreographic landscape and to advance how, with whom (and indirectly for whom) cultural work is conceived. For this purpose, BRÜCKEREI fosters a process-oriented mindset and a collaborative culture whereby the expression of a diverse range of individuals is enabled, inspiration is stimulated, failure is embraced and experimentation is encouraged.

Central to BRÜCKEREI is the question of sustainability in the arts, more precisely the sustainable development of the dance ecosystem. BRÜCKEREI aspires for a diverse representation of people, artistic styles, modes of expressions and techniques. BRÜCKEREI wishes to promote cultural participation and access to the arts. BRÜCKEREI valorizes artistic work and is mindful of its carbon footprint. Driven by a collaborative spirit, BRÜCKEREI strives for an artistic exchange reaching beyond local boundaries and seeks to strengthen ties between artists, organizations and communities that have rarely the opportunity to work together.

Artistic Direction

The artistic direction of BRÜCKEREI is in the hands of Romain Guion and Caroline Finn.

Romain Guion is a performer, dance pedagogue, and cultural manager with a 25-year career in the performing arts. He danced in various international dance companies such as Charleroi-Danses, National Dance Company Wales, Dance Theatre of Ireland, John Scott's Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Gelabert-Azzopardi Companyia de Dansa, Eun Me Ahn Dance Company, Staatstheater Mainz and Les Ballets C de la B. Alongside his performing career, Romain collaborates in the creation of dance, music, theatre and opera productions with artists such as Alain Platel, Martin Zimmermann, Koen Augustijnen, Eugénie Rebetez, Francesca Foscarini and Juliette Navis. Guion curates the professional training at Tanzhaus Zürich and K3-Zentrum für Choreographie Hamburg. He is a member of the Zürich-based dance collective The Field. In 2019 Guion received a cultural award from the city of Zürich. He completed a MA in Cultural Management in 2021. In 2023 he mentors the platform SHOW OFF! together with Jessica Huber. In 2023/2024 he creates OMBRA together with Alain Platel for the Opera and Ballet Flanders in Belgium.

Caroline Finn trained at the Juilliard School where she attained her BFA in Dance. As a performer, she worked with Ballett Theater Munich, Ballet Preljocaj and Compagnie Carolyn Carlson amongst others. Shifting to choreography in 2011, Finn has since created works for companies such as The National Ballet of Chile, Tanz Luzerner Theater, Bühnen Bern, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Bayerisches Junior Ballet München, VERVE and National Dance Company Wales (NDCWales). Her solo work "Bernadette" was presented at international festivals in South Korea, France, Poland and Germany. She was the Artistic Director of NDCWales from 2015-2018 and the company’s Resident Choreographer until 2021. Her work "Folk" created for NDCWales in 2016 earned her the Wales Theatre Award for Best Female Artist. In 2014 Finn was a recipient of the Matthew Bourne New Adventures Choreographer Award and in 2010 she received the Production Prize at the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition. Finn has also choreographed for opera productions in collaboration with Music Theatre Wales and NDCWales, Welsh National Opera, Opernhaus Bonn and Drottningholm Theatre Stockholm. She has worked on community-based projects involving young people from urban and rural areas in both Germany and France and continues to teach and choreograph regularly at conservatoires and universities around the world. Finn is a member of Tanztendenz München e.V and a founding member of La Ronde.