The 2023 edition of WIPCOOP brought together an international company of promising artists. What happened to their work after that? We look back at the trajectories of Melisa Diktaş (Amsterdam), Eli Mathieu-Bustos (Brussels) and Ping-Hsiang Wang (Berlin), and how their careers continued to grow after WIPCOOP.
Melisa Diktaş is a dancer and maker who develops her own narrative dance language, incorporating traditional Kurdish “goven,” hip-hop and urban contemporary . In her performance That which is indomitable she embodies an indomitable being that expresses struggle, survival and immortality through Kurdish movement language, rhythms and stories of oppression and resistance.
Melisa was already supported by Right About Now during her participation in WIPCOOP. Since then, she has taken significant steps: she presented her work at Dansdagen Haarlem, Fringe and RIGHTABOUTNOW festival 2024 and won the Fringe at Best Awards and BNG Dance Prize which allowed her to tour eight Dutch theaters under the format DansClick 27. She got the new maker arrangement with ICK and Cinedans as partners. MAP is now discussing with her and RAN a January 2026 residency. https://rightaboutnowinc.com/
Eli Mathieu-Bustos brings in HAVE A SAFE TRAVEL his first experience with ethnic profiling on stage in a powerful solo. Through his self-developed De Caelo technique, he interweaves emotion, improvisation and astrology. His dance style draws from classical ballet as well as urban and experimental forms. Thus, he fuses his political identities into a unique, physical language.
Eli continued his artistic trajectory after WIPCOOP under the management of AnAku and in co-production with La Balsamine and deSingel, among others. Together with MAP and Tatwerk, he was able to do a residency and 2 presentations at Tatwerk (Berlin) in 2024. Another showing of Have a Safe Travel took place at Kaaitheater (Brussels), after which it premiered at La Balsamine (Brussels) and DESINGEL (Antwerp). More performances were at the Short Theatre Festival (Rome), Belluard Bollwerk Festival (Fribourg) and Feminist Futures Festival in Buda (Kortrijk). September 2025 he was programmed at Het TheaterFestival van Vlaanderen www.anaku.org
Ping-Hsiang Wang is a Berlin-based theater director from Taiwan. His work combines multiple performative elements using text, sound, movement, live streaming video, objects, documents and scenography. With Retina Maneuver, he delves into his digital past. When “Girl on Fire” is no longer just a pop song but a marching tune for soldiers going to war, Ping wonders, will his fragile memories be destroyed by the fire of war?
MAP invited Ping – supported by Tatwerk – after WIPCOOP for a residency at wpZimmer (Antwerp) and show moment at MAP’s Monty Takeover at Monty (Antwerp) in 2024. His work has been programmed at the Right About Now Festival (Amsterdam), in a double program at KVS in co-production with Kaaitheater (Brussels) and at CO NOVA (Antwerp). The premiere is scheduled from Sept. 10 to 13, 2025 at TATWERK, Berlin (more play dates via Tatwerk).
According to theater critic Wouter Hillaert in Pzazz, “Retina Maneuver” is an autobiographical feelgood documentary that unfolds like a sweet love story, focusing on the transience of time and the forgetfulness of life. Wang reconstructs his life from his best side, against the backdrop of global upheavals, exploring themes of (self-)disguise and identity.
Read more: https://www.pzazz.theater/nl/recensies/performance/netvlies-in-brand https://www.kholekaraoke.com/ https://tatwerk-berlin.de/en/
