toaspern|moeller explores the intersection of movement and sound. Founded by dancer/choreographer Alma Toaspern and singer/composer Mathias Monrad Møller in Copenhagen in 2020, our collaboration aims at shows, in which music and dance are the necessary conditions for each other. Starting from a point of disillusionment with current practices of dance and music theatre creation processes, we're investigating possibilities in the integration between the different art forms involved in a stage show. We frequently experiment with swapping roles (the dancer as a singer, the singer as dancer, the composer as choreographer), and are conceptualizing our pieces in an ongoing, intense exchange. We're based in Copenhagen and Leipzig, working across the Danish/German border.

 

Alma Toaspern is a dancer and choreographer from Germany. She studied contemporary and classical dance at the University of Music and Performing Arts  in Frankfurt/ Main and received a scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). In 2014 she graduated from the Research Cycle at P.A.R.T.S., Brussels under the direction of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. She collaborated as a dancer internationally a.o. with  Bobbi Jene, Trajal Harrell, Tilman O'Donnell, Ben Frost, Ioannis Mandafounis, Kristin Ryg Helgebostad and Alexandra Bachzetsis at venues such as MoMA New York, Kaaitheater Brussels, Beirut Art Center, Centre Pompidou Paris and The Royal Danish Theater. Between 2018-2022 she was a member of the experimental dance Company Corpus as part of the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. She is chairwoman of the association 4ft - Tanzplattform Leipzig e.V.

 

Mathias Monrad Møller is a Danish-German tenor and composer. Born in Odense, Denmark, Mathias grew up in Germany, and was a member of St. Thomas Boys Choir in Leipzig. He studied composition at Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and holds a BA in singing from Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ Berlin, and an MA from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He attended the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Opera, and has sung several productions at the Royal Danish Opera. As a singer he specializes in music by living composers, as well as repertoire of the Baroque. His compositions have been performed at festivals in Scandinavia, Germany and the US and broadcast by German, Danish and Norwegian national radios. In 2017, he was awarded Hans Voigts Mindelegat as a singer, and the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Talent Prize as a composer. In 2018, he was a recipient of the Sonning Talent Prize as singer and composer. In 2019, he was awarded Annemarie Mortensens Legat. His debut album as a composer The Best Version of Myself, co-produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, was released on the Austrian label col legno in 2021.