The association Belluard Bollwerk International has chosen Anja Dirks as new director of the Belluard Festival. Anja Dirks will begin the post in August 2013 and succeeds Cis Bierinckx.
Anja Dirks (b. 1970) grew up in Germany and France. From 2009 to 2014 she was artistic director of Theaterformen in Braunschweig and Hanover, one of the leading festivals for contemporary forms of international theatre in Germany. From 1989 to 1995 she was an assistant in Berlin, notably at the Schiller-Theater, the Volksbühne and in the independent scene. She then studied theatre directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art. She was assistant to Matthias Lilienthal for the Theater der Welt festival in 2002 and has since worked as a programme dramaturge, initially at the FFT Düsseldorf and, from 2004 to 2007, as a member of the directorial team at the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee. She curated the festwochen forum at the Wiener Festwochen culture festival in Vienna in 2008.
Photo © Adrian Moser / FOC