Educators

Katarzyna Kozielska (Neoclassical Dance)
Katarzyna Kozielska, a professional dancer, who, after an incredible time spent on stage as a performer, moved on to pursue a carrier as an awarded choreographer with an opportunity to create many pieces for major companies worldwide. In 2001 she achieved a Diploma within the Advanced Training Course in Dance Pedagogy, by John Cranko Schule, Stuttgart, Germany.
She has been working with Ballet Master, Folkwang Universitat der Kunste (Germany) since 2019. Her credits as a choreographer include The Stuttgart Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Hermès, the Czech National Ballet, YAGP, Chemnitz Ballet, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, John Cranko Schule, Ballet Augsburg, Youth Project Japan and Poland, Deutscher Tanzpreis, Noverre – Society for Young Choreographers, YAGP Star Gala in New York City, Roberto Bolle & Friends, Gala de Danza, Mexico, Tokyo Star Gala, Ibstage Gala, Barcelona, Birgit Keil Gala, BalletNext, New York and others.
She was a Demi-soloist in The Stuttgart Ballet from 2000 – 2018. Her dance career includes leading and solo roles in works by Georges Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, John Cranko, Jorma Elo, William Forsythe, Michail Fokine, Itzik Galili, Marco Goecke, Maximiliano Guerra, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, Márcia Haydée, Uwe Scholz, Christian Spuck, Peter Schaufuss, Glen Tetley. Specially created Roles: Alben (Marco Goecke), Firebird (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui), On Velvet (Marco Goecke), Sweet Sweet Sweet (Marco Goecke), Two at a time (Cayetano Soto), Viciouswishes (Marco Goecke), and La peau blanche… (Christian Spuck).

Minka Heiß (Contemporary Dance)
Minka-Marie Heiss, a Frankfurt am Main, Germany born artist, who studied mathematics, sports science, and contemporary dance. She was a member of the ensemble at the National Theatre Darmstadt and danced in a work created by the Slovenian choreographer Iztok Kovac in both Munich and Berlin.
As a freelance dancer, Minka-Marie worked with Eugenia Estevez, Ana-Maria Edelmann, and Sara Buhr in Sweden, as well as with Ljuba Avvakumova in Austria. She also participated in various choreographic workshops led by the Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta in France and Portugal. On several occasions, she was nominated as a dancer and choreographer for the International Solo Dance Festival in Stuttgart. In 2004 Minka-Marie established her own dance company Hausgemacht with which she toured across Germany and abroad up until 2015. In 2008 she received for her artistic work the Isadora Award from the Iwanson-Sixt Foundation.
Since 2000 Heiss has been a professor of contemporary dance at the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance in Munich. In July 2010, she was selected as a choreographer for the Swiss International Master Course in Choreography (SIWIC) under the artistic direction of Reinhild Hoffmann in Zurich, Switzerland. She also created and presented various choreographic works at the Tanzhaus Zurich. In 2012, as part of Risk to Fall production staged at the Theater Die Tonne in Reutlingen, Minka-Marie created work for the Ballett Pforzheim under the choreographic leadership of James Sutherland. In 2015 she was a choreographer in residence at the Choreographisches Zentrum Heidelberg.
Heiss regularly produces choreographies for the company Strado Danza in Ulm, a company directed by Domenico Strazzeri. She is a guest lecturer for the ballet company at the Nationaltheater München, the Nationaltheater Darmstadt, the Nationaltheater Linz in Austria, the Theater Heidelberg – Nanine Linning, Norrdans, the Theater Boras in Sweden, a teacher at The International Summer Dance Festival in Poland, and RECOIL – movement through the mind in Stockholm. She is also a lecturer at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim.
In 2022, her choreography Le (mas)sacre du printemps, 29 mai 1913 was presented at the Olympiazentrum in Munich as part of the Superbloom Festival. 

Abby Silva Gavezzoli (Contemporary Dance / Jazz) – Joffrey Ballet School
She grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she began studying dance at a very young age. After graduating from high school, she moved to New York City to attend Marymount Manhattan College, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Performing Arts. During this time, her professional collaboration with Parsons Dance began. Over many years with the company, she performed and taught around the world. She worked closely with David Parsons on numerous projects, including Verdi’s Aida at the historic Arena di Verona. Among her notable achievements is her role as the lead dancer in Remember Me, which was filmed and broadcast by PBS. She later joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York, appearing in productions such as Rigoletto (directed by Michael Mayer), Two Boys (music by Nico Muhly, choreography by Hofesh Shechter), Turandot, Aida, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Parsifal, and Don Giovanni. Her career has been widely featured in prestigious publications. She appeared on the cover of Dancer Magazine and was named “One to Watch” by Dance Magazine. She also worked as a model for O, The Oprah Magazine and was featured in Jordan Matter’s photographic book Dancers Among Us. Now living in Italy, she maintains strong ties with Parsons Dance while continuing to perform and teach throughout Italy and across Europe. She has been a guest teacher for the Dance International Program of Japan, giving classes at Tokyo Dance and Actors, Tokyo School of Music and Dance, and Osaka Dance and Actors. She has also collaborated with Fini Dance NYC and Fini Dance Italy as a performer, educator, and assistant to choreographer Antonio Fini. In 2023 she became an ambassador for the Joffrey International School in New York, conducting dancer auditions across Europe for various international summer programs and the specialized Joffrey International Trainee Program. She remains deeply committed to artistic expression and to sharing her extensive professional experience with dancers worldwide, supporting young artists through discipline, dedication, and strong technical foundations that enable lasting, authentic artistic expression.

Katarzyna Kizior (Gaga)
A dancer, choreographer, and contemporary dance educator born in Łódź. She trained at the Feliks Parnell State Ballet School and completed her master’s degree in contemporary dance pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main (HfMDK), where she was affiliated with the dance department as a lecturer from 2015 to 2022.
A certified teacher of the Gaga Movement Language, her pedagogical practice includes working with professional artists as well as leading educational and community-based projects. She collaborates with companies and theatres such as Staatstheater Kassel, Staatstheater Münster, Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, Cie. Toula Limnaios, and Oper Graz, as well as with educational and residency centers including Tanzfabrik and Dock11 in Berlin, K3 in Hamburg, and the State Ballet School in Berlin. Her teaching practice encompasses both work with professional artists and educational and social initiatives.
As a choreographer and movement director, she has worked with numerous stages and ensembles in Poland and abroad. She co-created choreography for the television program You Can Dance – Po prostu tańcz and participated in film productions, including the feature film Silent Twins directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska and the TV series Tancerze directed by Xawery Żuławski.
She is a recipient of the ZAiKS choreographic award and a Hessische Theaterakademie scholarship for pedagogical research. She currently works as an independent artist and educator, developing her own choreographic projects and collaborating internationally.

Dawid Trzensimiech (Classical Dance)
As a student of the Ludomir Różycki Ballet School in Bytom, he won first prizes at two consecutive National Dance Competitions in Gdańsk, as well as at the ‘Città di Rieti’ Dance Competition in Italy. He was also a finalist of the Prix de Lausanne International Competition for Young Dancers, receiving a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London, where he continued and completed his professional training. Immediately afterward, in 2008, he joined The Royal Ballet, where four years later he was promoted to Soloist. On the London stage he danced, among others, the Prince in Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, James in Bournonville’s La Sylphide, and solo roles in ballets by Balanchine, Dawson, McGregor, Ratmansky, Tetley, and Wheeldon. He also won Third Prize at the Beijing International Ballet Competition (2011). He took part in international tours with the London company. From 2014 he was a First Soloist with the Romanian National Opera Ballet, performing leading male roles in that company’s productions of La Bayadère, Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle, and Cinderella, as well as in La Fille mal gardée, Marguerite and Armand, Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, and Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon. In 2016 he returned to Poland as a First Soloist of the Polish National Ballet. On our stage he danced principal male roles in La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Chopiniana, Neumeier’s The Lady of the Camellias, and MacMillan’s Mayerling. He also performed solo parts in John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew, McGregor’s Chroma, and in Krzysztof Pastor’s ballets: The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Casanova in Warsaw, Dracula, And the Rain Will Pass…, Adagio & Scherzo, Moving Rooms, and Bolero. He has appeared in international ballet galas in Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, Norway, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. In 2018 he received the Jan Kiepura Music Theatre Award as the best classical dancer in Poland. In 2019 he became a Principal Dancer of the Polish National Ballet. Starting from the 2023–24 artistic season, at the invitation of director Krzysztof Pastor, he has continued his association with the Polish National Ballet as the pedagogical mentor of the newly established PNB Junior group. He currently teaches classes, conducts individual coaching in classical technique, leads repertoire rehearsals for the juniors, and co‑creates the group’s artistic program.

Michaił Zubkow (Classical Dance)
After graduating from the ballet school in Perma (Russia) in 1980, Michail began his carrier at the Nizhniy Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Five years later, in 1985, he joined the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Then, in 1992 he was invited to take over the position of a ballet soloist at the Kraków Opera in Poland.
Throughout the 22 years of stage practice, he danced in ballets with classical repertoire (Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Raymonda, Don Quixote, to name a few) as well as in performances by contemporary choreographers.
During the Vilnius period, while working with the “Fajerleh” folklore group (Lithuania), he decided to try his luck as a choreographer. Using the knowledge gained in this Ensemble, he created the choreography for J. Bock’s musical Fiddler on the Roof directed by Marek Weiss-Grzesiński. The spectacle was staged by the Kraków Opera in 1993 at the J. Słowacki Theatre and it became Zubkov’s first significant choreographic creation.
The next step in his professional career was the founding of the “Oranim Dance Group” ballet company in 1995.
In 1999-2001 the company took part in the ‘Music World Festival’ in Fivizzano, Italy. In 2001, Michaił Zubkov received a special jury award for “The Best Choreography of the Music World Festival”. A year earlier, he won the second place award at the “Le Printemps de la Dance” competition in Bordeaux (France).
At the ‘Music World Festival’, the artist met another laureate of this event – the Stanisław Hadyna’s “Śląsk” Song and Dance Ensemble, (Poland). At the invitation of the Ensemble’s management, he took the position of their ballet teacher and choreographer.
In 2009 Michaił obtained a MA degree in Dance at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warszawa and in 2013 he completed postgraduate studies in Dance Theory.
Then, on September 30, 2019, on the basis of the presented doctoral dissertation, he obtained a PhD in Art.
In January 2023, Michaił Zubkov was awarded the degree of habilitated doctor.
Currently, he is the ballet director and choreographer in the Stanisław Hadyna’s “Śląsk” Song and Dance Ensemble. He carries out projects for the Ensemble, presented on prestigious stages in Poland and abroad (among others in London, New York, and Tokyo). Zubkov collaborates with many other ensembles and art schools. He runs classical and contemporary dance workshops as well as stages theatre performances as a choreographer and director. He is a juror of national and international dance festivals and competitions.