Pirinola is the continuation of a long-lasting collaboration of Lilian Mosquera, Susann Schreiber, Verena Becker and Gesa Volland. Our home base is Leipzig und with Werk2 – Kulturfabrik and Tanzerei Flugfisch we have reliable long-term partners in the city who help us to realize our dance projects. In 2022 we joined together to form Pirinola in order to provide a professional framework for our dance projects. We are united by years of professional experience, a big heart, and a vibrant curiosity. Like a Pirinola, a little spinning top, we are always in motion.
Lilian Mosquera
Artistic direction • dance • choreography
Lilian, also known as “Lili,” can be found on stage or in the dance studio. Together with Gesa, she is in charge of artistic direction. Her passion and work lie in dancing with children. She loves the spontaneity, creativity and honesty of young people and sometimes feels like a child herself.
Lili is from Bogotá, Colombia, and has been involved with theater, dance, and movement since her childhood. She continuously discovers creative ways to use her legs for much more than just walking. She is small but very lively. When it comes to contemporary dance, she is unstoppable. During her youth, she received a 2-year scholarship for classical ballet. She studied sports education, and danced with various companies in Colombia.
She moved to Leipzig for love reasons and has stayed there ever since. Lili completed the “minor specialization in dance” at the Sports Faculty of Leipzig University , and she danced with various choreographers and developed her own pieces. At some point in her journey in Leipzig, she met Gesa, and since then they have been working together on various projects for children in kindergarten and elementary school age.
Gesa Volland
Artistic direction • dance • choreography
Gesa is one of the creative minds behind Pirinola. She loves engaging in open exchanges with audiences of children and approaches projects with energy, curiosity, and a lot of passion. She is famous for her laughter. Together with Lili, she leads the artistic direction.
Gesa studied ballet pedagogy and contemporary dance in Cologne and London, and then worked as a dancer in Istanbul for nearly a year. She began developing her own dance pieces and founded a dance school for artistic dance called Tanzerei Flugfisch in 2006. With the Tanzlabor Leipzig, she choreographed two formative dance theater productions. It is through this experience that Gesa personally witnessed the profound power that artistic projects possess and how they contribute to the development of society. A few years later, she met Lilian Mosquera, and they focus together on teaching dance to children in kindergarten and primary school age groups.
Gesa feels equally at home in classical ballet as in contemporary and free dance. She enjoys improvising with others and following musical, social, and physical impulses. In addition to dance and her family, Gesa enjoys vegetarian food, her cat Tuuli, ice bathing, and skiing.
Verena Becker
Project management • dramaturgy • instruction
Verena works at Pirinola in the areas of dramaturgy, theater pedagogy and production. She is particularly interested in how to best engage the audience with a story and provoke thought. Her relaxed demeanour brings a sense of calm to the chaotic rehearsal process.
Verena completed her training as a stage dancer and dance educator at the Ballettförderzentrum in Nuremberg. Subsequently, she began her master’s studies in transcultural theater studies at the University of Leipzig. She has been involved in various scientific studies and evaluations, focusing on dance research, dance education, contemporary theater and performance formats and networks. She has been passionately teaching courses in children’s dance, classical ballet, and modern jazz for several years. Verena is a member of tamed e.V. (a professional association for dance medicine) and has completed numerous further training courses in anatomy, dance medicine, dance pedagogy, and anti-discriminatory education.
Whether onstage or offstage, in the dance studio, or engaging in academic discussions, Verena always brings a sense of curiosity and a desire to learn new things. In her free time she enjoys reading books, baking, and spending time with animals.
Susann Schreiber
Project management • public relations
Susann Schreiber was born in Jena. She studied theater studies, logic, philosophy, and book sciences in Erlangen, Bern, and Leipzig, and completed an extra-occupational training program in theater education in Berlin.
In 2001 she began her career in the field of performing arts in Leipzig as an assistant director at Theater der Jungen Welt. Later, she worked as an actress, director, theater educator, and producer. She served on the board of Cammerspiele Leipzig and subsequently worked as a freelancer with a focus on production in the performing arts and cultural education.
She was a board member of Landesbüro Darstellende Künste Sachsen e.V. (until 2019), board member of WERK2 e.V. (until 2019), member of the Advisory Board for Performing Arts of the Cultural Office Leipzig (until 2020), board member of Landesverband Amateurtheater Sachsen e.V., and member of the spokesperson group for Performing Arts of Leipzig Plus Kultur.
At Pirinola, Susann is responsible for production management, acquisition of funding, and coordination of internal processes.
