Katherine Profeta will join SPARKS in the capacity of an advisor. She will bring strong dramaturgy, choreography and performing arts experience to the project.

Profeta is a founding member of the award-winning New York City theater company, Elevator Repair Service (ERS). She has lent her hand to nearly all of its productions since 1991, often as choreographer, movement coach or movement dramaturg.

Profeta has worked with choreographer and visual artist Ralph Lemon since 1997. Other collaborators have included Alexandra Beller, Nora Chipaumire, Julie Taymor, Karin Coonrod, Frederick Wiseman, Annie Dorsen, Emma Griffin, David Thomson, and Theater for a New Audience.

Profeta has taught in the theater departments of Barnard and Queens College in New York. She is currently a Professor in the Practice at the Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama.

Her book, Dramaturgy in Motion: At Work on Dance and Movement Performance, came out from University of Wisconsin Press in December 2015. In addition, Profeta has written for many journals and magazines, like Performing Arts Journal, Theater Magazine and TCG's Production Notebooks, and a chapter in the Museum of Modern Art's edited collection.

Profeta holds an MFA and DFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Sparks advisors have been invited to work directly with the artists by sharing their knowledge and being a sounding board throughout the project. Advisors are Mathilde Monnier, Antony Hamilton, Bia Oliveira and Katherine Profeta.

Read more: The SPARKS project is progressing: eight dance proposals shortlisted for the Erkko stage