de

MichaelDouglas
Kollektiv

About us

Michael Maurissens and Douglas Bateman founded the MichaelDouglas Kollektiv in Cologne in 2009.
The MDK is dedicated to creativity and exchange. Inviting artists and experts to collaborate on the choreographing of unique works that are influenced by the fields of architecture and conflict mediation. This pioneering approach to creation results in a body of work that embodies the collective’s passion for dance and dialogue that has been presented nationally and internationally.
Constantly curious about the relationship between the dancer and audience, they invite audiences to participate in often fun and always thoughtful experiences about our shared experience.

Alongside their stage performances audiences can engage through dance battles and choreographed community dialogues or co-create in workshop programs.

  • Profile picture of Adam Ster
  • Profile picture of Douglas Bateman
  • Profile picture of Michael Maurissens
  • Profile picture of Sabina Perry

Core members

  • Michael Maurissens and Douglas Bateman founded the MichaelDouglas Kollektiv in Cologne in 2009. The productions are created in regular collaboration with invited choreographers, artists and theorists (e.g. Gob Sqad, Stefan Dreher, Angela Schubot & Jared Gradinger, Stefanie Thiersch, Georg Reischl, Vivienne Newport, Fabrice Mazliah, Prue Lang, Özlem Alkis, Dana Caspersen).

    The collective’s focus includes research on collaborative art production and the development of collective creation methods in the performance context. By means of an independent and responsible structure, the collective faces the challenges of its artistic decisions, such as working as a non-hierarchical structure, reducing the usual temporal parameters for artistic process development (One Week Stand), and advancing a dialogue and fostering exchange at the interfaces to disciplines and themes such as communication, architecture, sociology, psychology, and conflict resolution.

  • Adam Ster is a dance artist and yoga teacher based in Cologne. He was born in Budapest and graduated from the classical ballet department of the Hungarian Dance Academy. After his studies he was engaged by dance companies such as Jeune Ballet de France in Paris, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and Pretty Ugly Dance Köln. As an independent artist he created and performed works with Stefan Dreher and Fabrice Mazliah.

    In 2008 he took on Electronic Music Production studies at the SAE Institute, Cologne. Since then he has created commissioned soundscores for dance productions by Lucas Jervies (AU) Edan Gorlicki (DE) and within the frame of the MD Kollektiv.

    Adam is a certified Hatha and JM Vinyasa yoga teacher and teaches yoga in Cologne and at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance).

  • Douglas Bateman (DE/UK) is a dance artist based in Köln. He studied at the London Studio Centre and danced with various companies in Europe: London City Ballet, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and pretty ugly tanz Köln amongst others. He was a long time collaborator with Tony Rizzi and the bad habits and was invited as a guest performer with Paula Rosolen and Go Plastic. In 2009 he co-founded the MDKollektiv.
    As a creator he creates participative danced city tours, experiences that critically embrace local narratives and also performs as the post racial and post gender character “Shirley Not”, an ongoing investigation of identity. As an educator he established and teaches the seminar Professional Networks at the Centre for Contemporary Dance. He also teaches and coaches mixed-abled professional dance companies as well as amateur groups. He also acts as a panellist and moderator for cultural events and as a jury member for cultural funding programmes.

  • Michael Maurissens has more than 25 years of expanded practice as a dancer, choreographer and lecturer, evolving both in private and state institutions and as an independent artist since 2009.

    He is founding member and co-artistic director of the MichaelDouglas Kollektiv and the Profitraining Köln e.V.

    For several years now, Michael Maurissens has been working with media in the fields of graphic design, photography and film (as filmmaker, cameraman and editor) and in 2013 he completed his postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne with best mention; his studies focused on scenography, applied fine arts and documentary filmmaking. Today he directs and produces films, experimental video works, documentaries, participates in joint visual art projects and leads screendance workshops across the globe.

  • Sabina Perry, is a choreographer and performer. She received her Bachelors from CODARTS Rotterdamse Dansacademie in 2005. From 2005 to 2007 she was a member of "De Meekers Uitgesproken Dans Company Rotterdam" and since then she works freelance internationally. In 2010 Sabina Perry was nominated for the Green Room Award (Australian National Theater Awards) for Best Dancer, the Critics Choice Award for Best Dance Performer in Australia. Since 2014, she has worked as a choreographer and movement specialist for actors with director Stefan Bachmann (and others) at Schauspiel Köln. Since then, she has been invited to work on choreography for theateres across Europe, for which her work, a hybrid between dance and theatere, was honoured with an invitation to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2020.
    In 2021, she received a master's degree from Leuphana University in arts and cultural management and has been Lennard Perry's mother since 2019. Sabina is a founding member of the MichaelDouglas Kollektiv.

Artistic Collaborators

Performance

Music

Research

Creation

Design

Dramaturgy

Media

  • Almut Elhardt

  • Julian Schmidt

  • Martin Miseré

  • Michael Maurissens

  • Nik van der Giesen

  • Paul Voggenreiter