. trained professionally in figure skating and ice dancing before entering the dance department at the Folkwang Academy in Essen. While studying there she worked on projects with Henrietta Horn, Eloisa Mirambasi, Andres Ebbert, Carolina Zimmerman and Urs Dietrich and won a scholarship to participate in the Dance Web '99 programme in Vienna and, in autumn 1999, took part in a preparatory workshop in Brussels for a new production by Wim Vanderkeybus.