has been Professor for Sociology of Movement, Sports and Dance at the Dept. for human movement at the University of Hamburg (UHH) since 2002. She is Director of Performance Studies Hamburg, Co-Director of the Research Center for Media and Communication at the University of Hamburg. Her main research areas include Performance Studies, Dance Studies, Dance in popular culture and urban environments, transnationalisation of dance cultures. She was a Guest Professor at the Department for Performance Studies, University of California in Los Angeles, USA, the University in Bern, Switzerland, the »Mozarteum« in Salzburg, Austria, the Smith College, USA, and at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.