2026 FINALS CONTEMPORARY JUDGES

Rehearsal and Production Director | International Relationships Coordinator | Contemporary Tutor at RAMBERT SCHOOL

Jason Mabana is a contemporary dance lecturer, choreographer, and performer. Born and raised in Belgium, he moved to London to pursue his training, earning a BA (Hons) from the Rambert School and a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance from The Place.

As a choreographer, Jason has created works for leading dance companies, conservatoires, and international events, including Holstebro Dance Company, Conny Janssen Danst, Hamburg Contemporary Company, BalletBoyz, SpringBoard, Royal Ballet School, Stella McCartney, and De Beers. He is also the founder of Jason Mabana Dance, where his work has been recognized with nominations for Best Choreography in Denmark, the Asian Arts Awards, and the Amnesty International Freedom of Speech Awards—attesting to his creativity and powerful voice as an artist.

Jason is a sought-after guest teacher at conservatoires worldwide, having taught at institutions such as Juilliard, Taipei National University of the Arts, NAFA, University of the Arts Amsterdam, Korea National University of Arts, and the Royal Ballet School. His distinctive teaching and choreographic style emerges from his fusion of contemporary and hip hop.

As a performer, Jason has danced with world-renowned companies including Akram Khan Company, Wayne McGregor, Shobana Jeyasingh, Saju Hari, and Candoco Dance Company. His repertoire spans works by Trisha Brown, Yasmeen Godder, Alexander Whitley, Jerome Bel, Thomas Hauert, and Hetain Patel. This extensive performance experience continues to inform his teaching and choreography, grounding his artistry in both innovation and deep technical understanding

Stéphen Delattre is an international choreographer and artistic director of the Delattre Dance Company and the Evolution Dance Platform. Known for blending classical and contemporary vocabularies into a dynamic and emotionally authentic style, he has created works for leading ensembles and institutions worldwide, including Balletto di Milano, Split National Ballet, Staatsoper Ballett Hanover, Elmhurst Ballet (UK), the National Dance Academy Beijing, and the Conservatoires of Lyon, Cannes, and Marseille.

In 2012, he founded the Delattre Dance Company in Mainz, which has since presented over 20 productions and celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Mainz State Theatre. He has also choreographed for international stars of the Paris Opéra Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, English National Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, and more.

Delattre has received numerous awards, including the Critics’ Prize at the Hanover International Choreographers’ Competition, Sweden’s ilDance Choreography Prize, and Italy’s Premio delle Eccellenze della Danza. In 2021, he was named Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Through the Evolution Dance Platform, launched in 2022, he also supports the next generation of professional dancers in Germany and Europe.

Sharon Watson is CEO and Principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, she was one of the first female Principal Dancers invited to join the all-male award winning Phoenix Dance Company, touring with the company from 1989 to 1997 where she choreographed Never Still and Shaded Limits. Having left Phoenix to pursue a number of other ventures including setting up her own company ABCD, Sharon returned in 2009 as the new Artistic Director.

During her tenure at Phoenix Dance Theatre, Sharon received several awards and accolades: In 2010, she was named as one of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s ‘Women to Watch’, a list of 50 influential women working in arts and culture in the UK. She was awarded The Sue Ryder ‘Yorkshire Women of Achievement in Business Award’ and named ‘Yorkshire Woman of the Year’ in 2016. She recently received the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts’ Companionship Award from Sir Paul McCartney and was recognised as one of ‘100 faces of a vibrant economy 2017’ by Grant Thornton. Acknowledged at the 2017 Northern Power Women Awards as part of the very first ‘Top 50 Power List’, in 2018 Sharon won the First English Woman’s Award for Arts and Culture. In 2018 choreographing the award winning Windrush: Movement of the People

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In November 2020, Sharon was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year’s Queens Honours 

Sharon is a trustee of factory International and Leeds 2023. She is committed to improving diversity within the arts by supporting the creative voices of women and Black, Asian, and ethnic minority artists.

Sanja Maier Hasagic. Internationally renowned modern dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Sanja Maier-Hasagic started performing at an early age in her native Sarajevo / Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since then, her work has taken her around the world – both on and off stage, and as a much sought-after dance teacher and competition juror. In 2005, she started working as a coordinator, teacher, rehearsal director and creative / study coach at the Bachelor in Dance department at her alma mater, the renowned Codarts Rotterdam University of the Arts, where she received the 2018 Teacher of the Year Award.

Her innate curiosity for all aspects of the arts has taken her to initiate and lead various multidisciplinary

projects and collaborations with composers, rock bands, visual artists, architects, photographers, film makers and fashion designers, as well as renowned orchestras and ensembles in the Netherlands, like the Radio Chamber Phiharmonic Orchestra and the Doelen Ensemble. She helped to lay the ground work for the development of contemporary dance in Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the founders and artistic directors of Zvrk – International Dance Festival in Sarajevo. She now internationally teaches classes in improvisation, composition, contemporary techniques, creative coaching, and ballet, and has been invited by The Ailey School (New York City / USA),Eifman Dance Academy( Saint Petersburg/ Russia), Le Centre International de Danse Rosella Hightower (Cannes / France) as Artistic coach at COMMA Co-creation of Movement Masters of Arts (Netherlands), A.E.D. (Livorno / Italy), RASL Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL), the Hacettepe University Ballet Department (Ankara / Turkey), Axe ballet (Pistoia / Italy), Tanzelarija and the National Ballet school (Sarajevo), and the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Cracow/Bytom (Poland), among others.
Sanja Maier Hasagic

Since graduating from the National Ballet school of Sarajevo, the Dance specialization at Centre de Danse

International Rosella Hightower (Cannes / France), and completing her two Majors in Dance and Choreography at Codarts, as a dancer she worked with companies and choreographers from Europe and America, like The National Ballet Sarajevo, Dansgroep Krisztina de Chatel (The Netherlands), Jeune Ballet International (France), Lieber Gorilla, Gato Bizar, Bodies Anonymous, Samuel Wuersten, Conny Janssen, Christina Binder, Sascha Engel, Cie Jasmina, Dick Hauser, and other freelance productions in The Netherlands and abroad. She was a principal dancer and dance captain for Charleroi Danses (Belgium) at the EXPO 2000 in Hannover / Germany, with more than 500 performances in six months. Her choreographic work has been performed regularly in the Netherlands and abroad, and has been granted residencies and guest performances on International Festivals.

Sanja Maier Hasagic has received scholarships from the DanceWeb ’99 (sponsored by Rudolf Nureyev), Rosella Hightower and the Corrie Hartong Fonds for her dance education, as well as from the Van Beek-Donner-Stichting for her choreography studies. In 2001, she was awarded an honorary mention by the NPS webd@ns competition for her collaboration in the interactive dance film Can Jar Last Jam In.

She also works regularly as a jury member at International Dance Competition Spoleto,TeramoDanza –

Concorso Internazionale Città di Teramo, and Concorso Novara in Danza in Italy. Between 2010 and 2013, Sanja Maier Hasagic also worked closely with Jiří Kylián as a coordinator of the Jiří Kylián research project “One Of A Kind”.

Sanja Maier Hasagic resides in Schiedam / The Netherlands.

Baptiste graduated from the National Conservatoire in Paris in 2000. His professional career began with Nye Carte Blanche in Norway before returning to France to work with Luc Petton and Gilles Schamber. In 2002 he joined Scottish Dance Theatre where he took part in numerous creations with choreographers including Ruy Horta, Didi Veldman, Janet Smith and Liv Lorent. In June 2006 he returned to France for a second time to begin working with Maryse Delente, to rejoined Luc Petton's company with whom he toured Jordan and Slovakia, and to work with companies mixing dance and circus including L'eolienne and Acronote. He has worked with Ballet Lorent and with Company Chameleon as a rehearsal director. He joined the faculty of LCDS in 2012 and has recently taken on the new role as the Director of the Undergraduate Course and International Development.

Giuseppe Canale is currently the Artistic Director of GCDANCEVENTS and a former international dancer. He began his training in Italy at ArtGarage under Emma Cianchi and later pursued advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and the Palucca Hochschule für Tanz in Dresden. Professionally, Canale has danced with several world-renowned ballet companies, including: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (Canada) West Australian Ballet (Perth, Australia) Sofia Opera and Ballet (Sofia, Bulgaria) Israel Ballet (Tel Aviv, Israel) National Moravian-Silesian Theatre (Ostrava, Czech Republic) Throughout his career, he has collaborated with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Marcia Haydée. In 2019, he founded GCDANCEVENTS, an international dance agency dedicated to guiding dancers through the audition process and securing professional opportunities worldwide. 

The agency represents prominent choreographers such as Garrett Smith and Ken Ossola, promoting their creations globally, as well as acclaimed principal dancers for international opportunities. The agency also organizes audition events, galas, and artistic interventions during major festivals in Italy, Japan, Korea, Argentina, Canada, and the Philippines. As Artistic Director of GCDANCEVENTS, Canale works closely with prestigious academies and companies worldwide, serving as an international recruiter to identify and promote talented dancers for study and employment opportunities.