Markus Michalowski | Director

The 36 year old director, mime and choreographer is a cosmopolitan in the best sense of the word. Multilingual, married to an Australian dance teacher, Markus Michalowski made his first professional steps at the English circus school Fool Time in Bristol. After some time with the Cuban state circus, Michalowski studied mime in his hometown Essen at the prestigious Folkwang School. With Hajo Scholer he founded the internationally acclaimed mask theatre company "floz production" and since then has been working as a director, actor and fight director for countless German speaking theatres - Theatre Colgne, Bonn, National Theatre Mannheim, Bregenz, Luzern, National Theatre Weimer...

As a fight director he choreographed numerous productions of Romeo and Juliet, aspiring to find a physical, direct access to the story of the star crossed lovers.

Lorca Renoux | Choreographer

Lorca started his artistic career as a sprayer "Kontest" in the concrete ghettos of the Parisian suburb Montreuil. This banlieu is largely populated by immigrants of former French colonies - mostly North Africa. The Hip Hop Milieu of Montreuil has sharpened Renoux's street instinct and his critical awareness of nealiberal globalisation.

After studying at the Folkwang School he danced for Pina Bausch. With his company "les petits poisson" he moves once a year into the Suburbs of Hebran where he organises and leads dance theatre workshops for Palestinian youth: political youth work between gunfire and curfew.

What Renoux wants is authenticity. That's why he loves the energy of Hip Hop. "Breakdancers take the same quality to the street that we take to the stage." He should know.

Alexandru Catona | Composer, Cello &
Beatboxing

Born and raised in Bukarest, " Europe 's darkest capital" Alexandru started learning the cello at the age of six. "In Romania it is like that, if you don't start early enough, you're lost".

Alexandru Catona could play in a classical orchestra today, and move tomorrow from church music straight on to jazz improvisation. He tracks his versatility back to Miles Davis, who constantly reinvented himself, bored by success in one genre.

Acting, dance, composition and improvisation are his strengths, not to mention being fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Romanian of course.

Together with choreographer Lorca Renoux he is a founding member of the international artists group "les petits poisson". 50 people from sprayers to circus artists to mimes and dancers are part of this politically active constantly growing group. "Whoever works with us, stays for life, they become the small fish - les petits poisson".

Zekai Fenerci | Producer

Zekai co-founded Renegade Theatre with Markus Michalowski in 2002. He is considered the godfather of Hip Hop in the Ruhrvalley area, the cultural and ethnic melting pot of Germany. He is the organiser of the Ruhrpott battle a yearly highpoint in the Hip Hop calendar.

Ulrike Reinbott | Julia

Professional dance is a hard job requiring Prussian virtues. Self-realisation and the pursuit of happiness seem to only be possible in this genre through the utmost discipline. Ulrike manages to embrace the demanding side of things.

Leaving school at 17, she went straight to study dance at the renowned Folkwang School in Essen. Finishing there with outstanding achievements, she went on to Brussels' famous PARS Dance Institute on a grant from the DAAD.

And her artistic attitude? To cut it short: truth not cliché.

Silke Grabinger | Ann

Which B-Girl can keep up with a male competitor during a battle? The answer is Silke Grabinger, a Graphic-designer from Linz in Austria and arguably one of the best female dancers on the European battlefields of Hip Hop. Somewhere the fight-gene must be in her DNA, because Silke, as her aka goes, descends on her mother's side from the south German Knights “von Heegn”. Her roots go back to the 11th Century.

She is in demand around the world and recently gave workshops on a tour through Southern France and the Bask country. She is part of the seven strong show team of US Hip-Hop gear company Tribal, who select only the very best for their contracts. She founded the first European B-Girl-Crew Female Artistics. For a 23 year old a rather impressive dance CV.

RUMBLE is her first work in the theatre.

Lenka Bartunkova | Ann

After the relaunch of Rumble in spring 2004 Lenka Bartunkova took over the part of Ann, Tybalt's girlfriend, a dramatic fusion of Lady Capulet and the Nurse of the original R&J.

With a grant from the Duncan Centre in Prague, Lenka came to the Folkwang School in Essen Germany where she took part in pieces choreographed by Samir Akika amongst others. The thrilling element of Rumble for her is the cross over from breakdance to modern dance and back. Breakdance she claims is male dance: athletic, aggressive with a focus on battle.

Lenka, who seems quite calm and withheld on first appearances, turns into a fiery feline man-eater on stage. It's the strong focus on her own centre, artistically and physically, which makes it possible for her to work. It is a feeling which is hard to translate into words - that's why she dances.

Denis Kuhnert | Thybalt

Getting famous is a basis of Hip Hop. "If you work your butt off, you want fame,” says Denis 'Koone' Kuhnert from Halle . The student of Sport and English at the Martin-Luther University talks so cool about the nature of Hip Hop as if he was the PR man of US rapper "Snoop Dog".

Denis Kuhnert has been a sprayer for 14 years and dancing for 10. He has been with his eleven strong crew "East Side Famlee" since 1989. "It's rare with crews, that people stay together that long."

Marcel "Speedy" Gebhard | Paris

I live to dance. For a long time I thought I was the only one who thought that way." Says Marcel Gebhard, who is only called "Speedy" by everybody because - well, you guessed, it's a question of the legs being faster than the eye. Not having been at the first castings, he was only offered a place as backup, but it didn't take long for the 24 year old from Herne to convince everybody that he needs to be in the show. It was the unanimous vote of the team.

Hasan Birkent | Gregorio

After his apprenticeship as a papermaker, Hasan Birkent studied to become an economic engineer. But his studies had to take second place after Rumble turned out to be the success it is.

For 16 years he has been dancing under his artist alias: "Styly Weezl". He had major success with his Hip Hop formation "Move to Kill". Apart from numerous appearances at the national " Battle of the year" he also performed at the "International Battle of the year", the biggest Hip Hop dance event worldwide.

Sefa Erdik | Romeo  

Sefa is a 22 year old B-Boy from Dortmund in Germany of Turkish descent. With his crew "battle bunch" he has won nearly every battle competition in Germany. His skills are “way up there”.

Dimtri Jourde | Mercutio

Dimitri trained at the CNAC as an acrobat, trick rider and dancer and worked for the "Désaccordé" Circus. He performed in "C'est pour toi que je fais ça" and composed the choreography of "Les oiseaux - Le bord du Monde". He is also a member of the Kubilai Khan Investigations "S.O.Y" group.

Since 2003, Dimitri has worked with Norway's most exciting dance company “zero visibility”, dancing in the duet “ It's only a rehearsal”, which was a big success in Edinburgh and has taken them to over 80 performances all over the world including Sydney Opera House and the performance space 122 in New York in autumn 2005.

Frederik Rohn | Mercutio

Frederik spent the first 14 years of his life in Namibia in Southwest Africa. Namibia has only half the population of the Ruhrvalley area (around 5 million) but it is twice the size of Germany. Frederik still keeps his base in Windhoek, and if he needs to get some air, he goes back.

Recently a team from Korean television company KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) visited the Rumble rehearsals. Their interest focused on Frederik Rohn, who with his partner Nam Young Baek, stunned the punters at the International Mime Festival in Chuncheon, north of Seoul.

Originally Frederik wanted to become a doctor like his father. "But sitting still for too long wasn't my thing". Finally he decided to study mime at the Folkwang School in Essen. With his piece "Maybe today is tomorrow" he won the Folkwang prize.

Pat von Bardeleben | Benvolio

Pat exudes an enormous stage presence with his 196 cm. He is an expert in controlling his limbs. In 1986 he completed a bricklayer apprenticeship, but he never worked in that profession again and instead put all his energy into dance.

Pat is a founding member of the former Berlin sprayer gang "Fresh in Attack". They turned into one of Germany's best and steadiest breakdance formations. In the " Battle of the year" Pat von Bardeleben's Crew came first in 1999, third in 2001 and second in 2002.

Most fascinating for him is the group. In the beginning it was learning and learning again. Everybody who could teach him something was welcome: the group as a family surrogate; something to hold on to. And, most importantly: violence gets turned into creativity.

Through dance, Pat claims a consciousness builds up in the body. He feels he can express anything, because the dance is authentic. Whether Capoera - the fight dance of Brazilian slaves - Salsa or Tango, the roots are deep in the streets.

Lewon Tatewosian | Balthasar

The curly haired Armenian with the big smile has appeared in different TV Shows and theatre productions in Germany before he joined the Rumble team. Having reached the final in the solo competition “UK championships” and first place with his crew “Rockin´ Attack” in the German national “Battle of the year” are just two glimpses of his standing within the B-Boy scene. He is regularly invited as juror to competitions in Hungary, Switzerland, France and Germany to name but a few.

Although he came in after “Sancho” left RUMBLE to do a two-year stint with Cirque-de-Soleil in Las Vegas, he is a lot more than just a replacement, but according to Director Markus Michalowski “just the guy we were hoping for”.