A musician since early childhood, Pol Pi has been drawing music and dance into new and exciting relations, first in Brazil, and since 2017 across France, where he founded the company NO DRAMA, and Europe, where his works tour extensively. They have been presented at venues such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris), PACT Zollverein (Essen), and Radialsystem (Berlin), among many others.

With a degree in classical music from the University of Campinas (Brazil) and a master’s degree in choreography exerce from the Centre Chorégraphique National in Montpellier (2013–2015), Pol Pi brings a rich interdisciplinary background to his work. He has also trained in theatrical forms and butoh, and has performed professionally for over ten years as a musician, actor, and director. His experience with stage performance is vast – spanning musical direction, comic opera, and sound design for theater, dance, and film.

In July 2025, Pol Pi launched an ambitious intercultural initiative titled “Culture, Biodiversity and Resistance: A Cultural Exchange between the Indigenous Xavante People and the Occitan Culture of Périgord-Limousin.” Developed as part of the Brazil-France Season 2025, the project celebrates dialogue between ancestral knowledge and contemporary creative practices. A key component of this initiative, the Festival Capforcha, titled à la croisée des chemins (“at the crossroads”), was led by members of the Xavante Indigenous community, and featured a documentary filmmaking program and creative workshops for children. The event underscored Pol Pi’s ongoing commitment to exploring the intersections of ecology, culture, and collective and community artistic practices.

Pol Pi and artist Tiphaine Besnard founded Les Ateliers de l’Âge – Lieu d’invention et de partage in 2025, as a creative hub dedicated to artistic residencies, cultural events, and art-therapy workshops located in the heart of the Périgord-Limousin Regional Natural Park. His current explorations include intuitive listening as a creative tool, altered states of consciousness, and care as both an artistic and social practice. Based at present in Dordogne (France), Pol Pi is also learning to dance with horses.

As Valeska Gert Visiting Professor, Pol Pi will share with the Freie Universität community how his artistic engagement with dance practices across diverse communities – from amateur collectives and art schools to queer spaces and the medical-social sector – has expanded the boundaries of his embodied research.

About the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship

The Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship at the Institute for Theater Studies has been in existence since the 2006/2007 winter semester. This program is supported by Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with the Berlin Artist Program, funded by the DAAD with funds from the German Federal Foreign Office, and the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

The guest professorship is named after one of the most innovative dancers of the historical avant-garde, Valeska Gert (1892–1978), whose work was characteristic of the city of Berlin. She is thus representative of dancers and choreographers who are yet to be discovered and whose history is still to be written.