Ali Schwartz is a queer-feminist freelance artist, contact improvisation dancer, choreographer, performer, curator, activist and relationship therapist based in Leipzig, Germany. Motivated by visions of social and healing justice, Ali is committed to embodied emancipatory practices.
As a trained family therapist Ali works with individuals, couples and groups, often with migrant and queer community members.
Since 2017 Ali is part of the intersectional performance collective POLYMORA Inc. working with mixed-abled dance and inclusive relaxed performance concepts. During the pandemic Ali initiated the award-winning community building project POLYRHYTHMS for queer refugees.
Ali´s intercultural and interdisciplinary work is shaped by having lived in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Stockholm, Barcelona, the US and many international theatre and dance group collaborations, including the theatre academy in Tehran/Isfahan, the Freedom Theatre in Jenin or Mazovia Institute of Culture in Warsaw.
Further, Ali teaches inclusive contact improvisation within the Tanzlabor dance education program, and is a regular guest lecturer at the film department of SAE Institute in Leipzig, the Trans Art Institute, and Liverpool John Moores University, where Ali also co-supervises PhD researchers.
Among other projects, Ali has curated the Walls Down Festival with refugees in Würzburg (2015), the Radical Contact Meeting for Contact Improvisation and Body Politics in Gothenburg, Sweden (2014/15) and co-directed YANTE – Community Dance Palestine in Ramallah, West Bank (2015).
Ali holds a DGSF-diploma for Systemic therapy from GST Berlin (2022) and a teaching qualification for Philosophy/Ethics/Theologies, English and Physical Education (2012) from the University of Würzburg. Extensive contemporary dance training include professional dance scholarships at Broadway Dance Center, NYC (2005) and Vertigo School of Dance, Jerusalem (2014).
Further education includes trauma informed resilience training, LGBTQIA+ psychotherapy, Non Violent Communication, Restorative Justice Circles and the Wheel of Consent by Betty Martin.
Ali is currently training as NARM* practitioner – a trauma therapy / body psychotherapy specialized on treating attachment and developmental trauma.