Team

Ty Boomershine studied dance in Ohio and Missouri. In addition to dancing with various artists and companies, including Lucinda Childs, Emio Greco | PC, LeineRoebana, Dan Wagoner, Gus Solomons Jr., Bill T. Jones, Ton Simons and the Merce Cunningham Repertory Ensemble, he has also performed in pieces by Dancenoise and Giulia Mureddu. He danced in Robert Wilsons’ “Einstein on the Beach” and has been Lucinda Child’s Artistic Assistant, as well as rehearsal director for the ICKamsterdam. Ty Boomershine joined the Dance On Ensemble in 2015 and became its Artistic Director in 2019.

Valentina Boroni studied Art and Cultural Management at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and Università di Bologna. During and after her studies, she worked at various theaters in Italy and Germany. Since 2018 she’s been living in Berlin and working in the dance scene in the field of production. During the past years, Valentina worked for fabrik Potsdam,  PURPLE! International Dance Festival for Young Audiences, the German Dance Association, and more. From 2019 to 2021, Valentina was part of the production team at fabrik Potsdam for the Potsdamer Tanztage and the Made in Potsdam festival. She also coordinated international guest performances and residency programmes such as Etape Dance. From 2022 to 2024, Valentina led the production office at of the German Dance Association. In this role, she was responsible for production management of several events, among which the German Dance Award and the first German Showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In January 2025, she took over the production direction of the Dance On Ensemble at Bureau Ritter as a maternity leave cover.

Laura Böttinger studied classical dance at the MUK Music and Arts University in Vienna. There she was involved in the Dance Association ‘Ich bin O.K.’ for people with and without disabilities. She has worked as a dancer for the LUX Helsinki Festival, Kadir Amigo Memis (HAU Hebbel am Ufer) and Yolanda Gutierrez (Kampnagel, Kigali), among others. She has been part of the Bureau Ritter team since 2016: from 2016 to 2020, she worked first as a Production Assistant and later as Production Director of the Dance On Ensemble.

Since 2018, she has been Artistic Director of the Dance On Participation educational programme and the Dance On Lab. As a dance mediator, she is part of ‘Theaterscoutings’ Berlin and created the format MOMENTUM PLAY (2022) as part of the Performing Arts Festival. She was a jury member in the TANZLAND funding programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (2021-2022).

Anna Dotzek studied European Media Studies at the University and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and during her semester abroad at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. During her studies she worked in the Communication and Events Department of the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam and in the Communication Department of the International Office at SRH University of Applied Sciences Berlin. Lastly, she completed an internship at the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art in Riga, where she worked as an Assistant to the Festival Director at the international Survival Kit Festival for contemporary art and culture. Since March 2024 she works as Assistant to the Head of Communications for Bureau Ritter and the Dance On Ensemble.

Claudia Engels studied arts education in Maastricht, ethnology in Berlin and visual anthropology/ethnographic documentary film studies in Manchester. Most recently she has been working as a project manager in Berlin. At the büro für kulturelle angelegenheiten she organised various events around art, education, politics and science from 2013 to 2015, working with clients such as the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Agency for Civic Education. From 2015 to 2019 she was project coordinator of the pioneering project RomArchive – Digital Archive of the Sinti and Roma. She was responsible for translations, editing and proofreading, working closely with the curators of the archive’s various sections. She joined Bureau Ritter in August 2020 to project manage the recovery programme TANZPAKT RECONNECT.

Lewon Hartz studied philosophy and social sciences for several semesters. He worked in a variety of jobs, ran a self-sufficient business on a farm in Brandenburg for two years and eventually became a househusband. In 2018, he started doing administrative work for artists and cultural projects. He worked as a project administrator for the bildungswerk des berufsverbands bildender künstler*innen berlin from 2020 to 2022. In April 2022, he joined Bureau Ritter as a project coordinator for the INS FREIE! funding programme.

Riccarda Herre completed her dance training at the ballet school of the Hamburg State Opera in 1987. She then worked as a soloist for various companies in Germany and abroad, including CIE Red Notes in Paris, the Volksbühne Berlin and the Tanztheater of the German National Theatre in Weimar. In 2004 she graduated from the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre as a culture and media manager and went on to work as a producer for various dance companies, theatres and festivals, including Tanz im August. During Tanzplan Deutschland she took on the organisation of the first Dance Education Biennale and then became a founding member of Bureau Ritter, where she coordinated the Dance Heritage Fund, among other projects. In 2014, she developed the idea and concept for the DANCE ON initiative. In co-management with Isabel Niederhagen, she was significantly involved in the conception and realisation of the funding programmes TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund and TANZPAKT RECONNECT (2020-2024). Since 2024, both are also in charge of the programme management of the Hessian dance funding programme Next Steps.

Bastienne Kästner studied applied cultural studies at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. She went on to work on a series of international projects in the arts, including at Kampnagel Laokoon Festival and in the field of community dance. This was followed by several years as a project manager for international degree programmes at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR). In 2014, she took executive responsibility for organisation of a new African-German Master’s degree (a development and education policy project with the German Society for International Partnership (GIZ)) at the HWR. As well as coordinating the course, she managed the project budget and supported the academic director in negotiating the project’s long-term financial future. She joined Bureau Ritter in June 2017 as a finance manager and has since been instrumental in helping the office embrace digital and remote working practices.

Isa Köhler (*Leipzig) studied dance in Cologne and theatre studies in Bochum. After graduating, she worked as a project manager for Pact Zollverein. She then worked as a freelancer for the city of Wuppertal on a study on the future of dance in Wuppertal and directed the film programme for the 40th anniversary of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. From 2013 to 2016 she was project manager of the Pina Bausch Foundation and from 2016 to 2020 executive producer of the festival ‘Tanz im August’, where she co-initiated the European cooperation project ‘Big Pulse Dance Alliance’. She was a jury member of the NRW dance funding programme ‘Spitzenförderung’ (2020) and co-director of the internationale tanzmesse nrw (editions 2022 and 2024). Since 2025, she works for Bureau Ritter as project manager for ‘Next Steps’ and supports DANCE ON in conceptual, organisational and participatory matters. She also advises the IETM network (since 2019) and has been a member of its board (since 2022). She has been on the advisory board of choreographer Jefta van Dinther since 2024.

Anastasia Luck studied art history and theatre studies at the FU Berlin and completed her master’s degree in cultural and media management there in 2022. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the university’s art history department, among other places. Several internships took her from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin to the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. Most recently, she worked at the Stasi Records Archive (Federal Archive) as a student assistant in the visitor services department. For several years now, she has volunteered as a carer for people with disabilities. She first came to Bureau Ritter as an intern in 2015 and returned in June 2022 as a production and participation collaborator.

Rebekka Mauser completed her training as a tax clerk in 2002 and has since worked for various cultural institutions as an administrator and financial controller, including for the International Film Festival Munich and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. From 2013 to 2016 she studied cultural management at the Ludwigsburg University of Education. She joined the team of Bureau Ritter in September 2021, working as a project and finance manager for TANZPAKT RECONNECT and TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund.

After training as a hotel manager, Constanze Meinhold worked in various positions in the Berlin hotel industry from 1988 to 2007, most recently as director of the Hotel Berliner Hof, where she was responsible for hotel and project controlling. She then worked as office manager for the health food start-up Gorilla Natürlich Fastfood, building the company’s administration from the ground up. From 2009 to early 2015 she was assistant to the finance director of Veolia Germany, while also managing the commercial arm of the non-profit organisation starke familie e.V. until December 2021. She joined Bureau Ritter for the first time in March 2015 and returned in January 2022 after a two-year break to head up the personnel and finance team alongside Christof Müller.

Christof Müller studied geography and political sciences. He was subsequently employed as a project manager at the Institut für Europäische Politik and the Centre international de formation européenne, where he was responsible for EU-funded projects under the Jean-Monnet Programme. From 2009 to 2013 he worked as an independent project and event manager for Internet & Society Collaboratory, Stiftung Menschen für Menschen and Discover Football, among others. From 2013 to 2015 he oversaw the finances of the Tanzfonds Partner and Tanzfonds Erbe funding initiatives, both initiated by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Bureau Ritter, at sauerbrey | raabe. büro für kulturelle angelegenheiten. From 2015 to 2019 he was responsible for RomArchive’s financial administration and for contractual arrangements and legal matters related to funding. He joined Bureau Ritter as Director of Personnel and Finance in 2019, a position he now shares with Constanze Meinhold.

Following the completion of her degree in drama, comparative literature and journalism, Isabel Niederhagen joined the Theatre Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin as a research assistant before being appointed as a press officer and dramaturg at the Theater am Halleschen Ufer Berlin. In 2003 she co-founded the PR agency k3 berlin, which counted Tanz im August among its clients. In 2006 she was invited by PACT Zollverein in Essen to project manage the tanzplan essen 2010 initiative. She has been part of Bureau Ritter since 2012, initially responsible for documentation and the digital archive of the Dance Heritage Fund. In co-management with Riccarda Herre, she was significantly involved in the conception and realisation of the funding programmes TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund and TANZPAKT RECONNECT (2020-2024). Since 2024, both are also in charge of the programme management of the Hessian dance funding programme Next Steps.

Esther Ningelgen studied Italian Literature and Modern German Literature in Tübingen, Berlin and Verona, where she researched processes of aesthetic perception, transmediality and the construction of identity and gender. After working as a freelance assistant director and project manager, she headed the public relations department of Theater RambaZamba in Berlin from 2011 and also temporarily acted as its deputy executive director. Among other projects, she initiated and led the theatre’s participation in the programme “START – Youth Culture in Greece” by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Federal Association of Socioculture. From 2015 to 2017, she was co-director of Theater RambaZamba and moved then to Schauspiel Leipzig, where she worked for five years as press spokesperson and head of public relations. She has been part of the team at Bureau Ritter since August 2022, responsible for communications with a specific focus on the Dance on Ensemble.

Hélène Philippot studied musicology and music management at the Université Paris IV Sorbonne and Universität der Künste Berlin. From 2008 to 2012, she worked for a range of cultural organisations in France, including the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the festival Les Nuits du Mont Rome and the Opéra National de Paris. Between 2013 and 2021, she worked for the Berliner Festspiele as production manager for international co-productions in the fields of circus and dance, as well as for the festival Jazzfest Berlin. From 2019 to 2022, she worked as company manager for the choreographer Lea Moro in Berlin and Zurich. Since June 2021, Hélène has been responsible for the Dance On Ensemble founded by Bureau Ritter as Managing Production Director.

Hélène Philippot is constantly continuing her education. She took part in the Festival Production Management Training of the European Festivals Association from 2017 to 2018. In 2021, she completed the professional development course in business administration at the Technical University of Nuremberg and in 2024 she took part in the further education course ‘Leadership & Diversity in Cultural and Media Organisations’ at the Erich Pommer Institute.

Madeline Ritter is a qualified lawyer, arts programmer and curator. She founded tanz performance köln, an international production and performance platform for contemporary dance in 1989 and was its artistic director and managing director until 2004. She has initiated many European networks, been the director of interdisciplinary festivals and produced international co-productions with artists from the fields of dance, new media and performance art. From 1993 to 1998 she was the founding and artistic director of Pictures of (e)Motion, an international festival for dance, film and new media at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn, and from 2003 to 2008 she curated the dance programme at Theater Heilbronn. In 2004, her proposal for Tanzplan Deutschland was accepted by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and she was appointed as project director to deliver the initiative. Based on this experience, she and Ingo Diehl founded Diehl+Ritter (today Bureau Rtitter) in 2011. With her team she has been developing arts funding programmes ever since, primarily for dance. Madeline Ritter also lectures in cultural management at several European universities, is a certified transformational coach and serves as a member on various committees, among them the supervisory board of Kulturfabrik Kampnagel in Hamburg, the board of trustees of the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain (until 2023) and the advisory board of the German Dance Archive in Cologne. From 2014 to 2019 she was Deputy Chairperson of the Pina Bausch Foundation and in 2020 she was appointed Chair of its Advisory Board.

Cornelia Walter studied German and English language and literature in Munich. From 1997 to 2002, she was head of public relations at the Kulturforum riesa efau in Dresden and from 2002 to 2004 she was head of the International Dresden Summer Academy of Fine Arts. From 2004 to 2011, she published the monthly Dresdner Kulturmagazin and acted as its editor-in-chief. In 2010/11 she coordinated the Kultur Quartier Dresden, and in 2011/2012 the festival ‘Politik im Freien Theater’. From 2012 to 2016 she was the advisor for performing arts and literature at the cultural office of the state capital Dresden, and from 2016 to 2024 she managed artistic projects at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, becoming part of the senior management team in 2023. In January 2025 she joined Bureau Ritter to head up the Federal Cultural Foundation’s new funding programme ‘Übermorgen – Neue Modelle für Kulturinstitutionen‘.