WE ARE BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. Bringing Dance to Hamburg’s Youth!
We are passionate about making high-quality dance education accessible to young people in Hamburg. Our dedicated team is motivated, creative, and full of fresh ideas to offer the best opportunities for aspiring dancers.
Our team consists of experienced and passionate dance educators, choreographers, and cultural organizers who bring a wide range of expertise and styles to our programs. We are united by our love for dance and our commitment to supporting and inspiring the next generation of dancers.
We believe in the power of dance to inspire, empower, and connect. That’s why we work tirelessly to create diverse and exciting programs, from weekly classes and workshops to international exchanges and performance opportunities.
Whether you're looking to explore dance for the first time or take your training to the next level, we are here to support you on your journey. Join us and become part of a vibrant, growing community that shares a love for movement and expression!
FIONA GORDON
Fiona Gordon is the founder of this organisation. She began her career originally as a professional dancer and dance teacher. She's a great lover of observing and working with the human body, the posture, the movement and the expression.
She has the ability to illuminate peoples' personalities by interpreting their movement or posture, through observing their bodys' movement patterns, consequently finding ways to help them make subtle changes to allow her students to grow both physically and psychologically, both externally and internally.
Fiona Gordon comes primarily from England and studied Contemporary Dance at the renowned Laban Centre in London from 1986 to 1990. Later she danced in the "Transitions Dance Company" and got the opportunity to work with famous choreographers like Claude Brumachon and Herve Jourdet (France), Matthew Bourne and Yolande Snaith (England). Since then, she has gained numerous dance experiences with many different international choreographers, including Mark Murphy, (England), Muriel Baader (Zurich) Angela Guerreiro (Portugal), Rica Blunck and Jan Pusch (Germany). Together with them she toured worldwide. In 1999 she won first prize at the "International Solo Dance Competition, Stuttgart" with the solo "Please Help Yourself".
She works as a Contempoirary Dance and Improvisation teacher since 30 years at the Erika Klütz Schule and has freelanced at CDSH, K3-Zentrum für Choreografie and the Volkhochschule.
She also works as a choreographer, producing pieces for the opening of the internationally renowned Street festival: Altonale, in Hamburg, Carmen 2000, and also has worked on numerous pieces in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg.
Fiona is the founder of BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. She teaches the regular Caterpillars Class and is the creative director of the Verein.
Fiona has been working as a teacher in Hamburg since 1994 at the state-approved school "Erika Klütz - Training for Theatre Dance and Dance Pedagogy". She has also taught at the "Contemporary Dance School Hamburg" (CDSH) since its opening in 2001 - 2018. She teaches Contemporary Dance, improvisation and choreography techniques at these schools. Furthermore she choreographs numerous pieces together with her students, for various projects and performances.
She also offers open training for professional dancers and dance teachers in Hamburg.
As a guest teacher she can be experienced twice a year, at K3 - choreographic centre, at Kampnagel. She also participated in the community project "with dance for tolerance".
April 2019 she worked with her BUT I FLY DANCE COMPANY and guests on her project "Ebbe und Flut", for the opening of the Altonale, one of the biggest cultural street festivals in Europe.
LINN PETERS
Linn Anika Peters is a state-recognised dance teacher.
She is a founding member of BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. and her great passion has always been dance, musicals and theatre. She has been dancing for over 20 years now. She started out in ballet at the theatre and ballet school in Heide and flew to Zanzibar in 2016 for a three-week dance project. Linn and her crew came 3rd at the North German DTHO Championships in Bad Oldesloe. After graduating from high school, she did a six-month internship at the Altona Theatre and assisted at the Heide Theatre and Ballet School until 2023. In 2018, Linn decided to make dancing her profession and completed a three-year training programme to become a dance teacher. During her training, she took part in the dance theatre production "Lucky Lindy Hop" and started working as a choreographic assistant at the Altona Theatre in March 2018. The highlight of the dance pedagogy training was a performance of the final choreographies, in which Linn was the organisational director and acted as a dancer in 5 choreographies. In 2021/2022, Linn continued her training at the CDSH, specialising in contemporary dance. In autumn 2022, Linn began training as an occupational therapist to deepen her knowledge and interaction with people of different ages and abilities, and in the future she would like to work primarily on dance and theatre projects that involve all people.
Linn is one of the founders of
BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. and is in the Organisation Team
SARAH EDNA SCHNEIDER
“I love my job as a dance teacher and I believe that this is my calling. I have been dancing my whole life with pure joy. Processing my own feelings and expressing them with my body is what dance can express for me.”
After studying education in Chemnitz, Sarah took the direct route back to dance and successfully graduated from the Erika Klütz Schule für Theater Tanz und Tanzpädagogik in 2019 as a state-approved dance teacher. In the years before, as well as during her training and in the current period, it is more than important to the dance teacher to constantly educate herself, try out new dance styles and discover new directions. Sarah is at home in ballet, but she is also very fond of modern dance and hip hop dance.
Sarah currently works full-time as a dance teacher at a wide variety of spots in Hamburg in the areas of children's dance, ballet, JMC and project work. In BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. she sits on the board and together with Fiona Gordon organizes workshops, dance events or an exchange between youth companies.
As a choreographer she has worked on “Lucky Lindys Hop” (2021 under the direction of Ruby Doo), “Was soll en aus uns werden” (2024 under the direction of Manfred Hüttmann) or children's plays such as “Im Land der Eiskönigin” (2022 own production) or “Die Unterwasserwelt der kleinen Meerjungfrau” (2024 own production). Projects where I was seen as a dancer include “Ebbe und Flut” (opening piece, Altonale 2019 under the direction of Fiona Gordon), “Love Est” (Elbhilharmonie 2023 under the direction of Kian Jazdi) or “Was soll denn aus uns werden” (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, 2024 under the direction of Manfred Hütmann)
If there's one thing Sarah really likes, it's working with children, young people and adults. “They are creative and have a curiosity that also inspires me. It's a great feeling to see what can be achieved together.”
Sarah is one of the founder members of
BUT I FLY DANCE e.V. and is in the Organisation Team
LEONIE SOPHIE BUHR
Leonie Sophie Buhr began ballet dancing at the age of four, laying the foundation for her lifelong passion for dance. In 2022, she successfully completed her dance pedagogy training at the Erika Klütz School. Throughout her studies, the creative process was always encouraged, strengthening her desire to bring her own ideas to life and experience dance on a deeper level.
As early as spring 2021, she began developing her own extracurricular choreographic projects. Both her academic and independent projects have been incredibly enriching, contributing to her continuous development and critical self-reflection.
After completing her training, she initiated further projects with a variety of dancers and collaborated with costume designers and musicians. In her work, Leonie explores themes that are personally relevant to her or arise from her daily life. Her goal is to create universally applicable themes that can resonate with and touch people on a deeper level.
The interaction between inner inspiration and external movement forms the foundation of her artistic work. For Leonie, choreography means telling stories through dance. She takes the images and visions that form in her mind and brings them to life. She draws inspiration from her surroundings and personal experiences while also absorbing the energy of the moving bodies around her.
Leonie Sophie is the BUT I FLY DANCE COMPANY trainer and choreographer
CHARLOTTE LEFEBVRE
In Charlotte's footsteps
Charlotte is a dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and dance therapist.
She trained as a dancer in Lyon and as a dance teacher in Nantes and Paris.
She then went to New York to train in various modern techniques (Graham, Horton, Limón, Cunningham, Gaga, etc.), and to Israel to deepen her Gaga practice with Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company.
Finally, to deepen her relationship with dance both professionally and personally, she wanted to train in dance therapy, so she did a degree in psychology and a master's in dance therapy.
Charlotte has been working in the world of dance for over 15 years now, working with children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens, people with disabilities and people facing difficulties and/or life issues on a one-off or long-term basis. She has worked in France, Australia, Turkey, West Africa and Spain. Since 2019, she has been working as an entrepreneur in Germany, which gives her a great deal of freedom to pursue her various artistic, educational and therapeutic projects.
Dance has played an important role in Charlotte's life from an early age. Her dance creations and her work around musicality, movement and the relationship with the body nourish and are nourished by her personal and professional development, which are constantly connected.
Charlotte has been a member of the association since the very beginning and supports us each year as our financial auditor.
ALEX-JAY PETERS
Since childhood, Jay has valued art as a medium for personal expression and free creativity.
He has been dancing since the age of three, beginning—like many others—with creative children's dance and ballet.
As a teenager, he focused not only on ballet and hip hop but especially on contemporary (free) dance, for which he quickly developed a passion. This led him to the decision to share the joy of dance with others.
In October 2024, he completed the three-year dance pedagogy program at the Erika Klütz School for Theater Dance and Dance Pedagogy (gGmbH). During the program, he created two video projects, three solo pieces, one short choreography, and a final independent dance project. As a student, he also frequently participated in the development of materials for the school's summer performances and in the choreographic processes of his classmates.
Through The Current Dance Apprentice and Exit Like An Animal, Jay had multiple opportunities to take part in smaller improvisational projects, such as “[stadtküsten – verweben]” as part of the 2023 Architecture Summer, a performance at the DAIM retrospective at Woods Art Institute, and einfachmachen1 as well as einfachmachen3.
Since 2023, Jay has been working as a dance educator and dancer, creating and teaching original sequences and choreographies to his students. He places great importance on cultivating a creative and open environment where children, teenagers, and adults can explore dance and discover more about themselves.
One of our registered dance teachers, Jay teaches a weekly dance class at Grundschule Traberweg and leads workshops during the school holidays.