ABA NAIA is a feminist performance collective from Berlin that works at the boundaries between theater, performance, and dance. Founded in 2017, the collective members are choreographer, director and performer Kysy Fischer, performer Rafaella Marques, along with dramaturge and producer Jaika Bahr. In a continuous artistic process, their work deals with themes of sexuality, absurdity, humor, stream of consciousness, failure, and resistance to the fascist wave.
In addition to numerous stage projects, they have created the performances “We Can Do It Moaning,” which won the PorYes Award 2023, and “Super Superficial,” which was most recently shown at the Tanztage 2025 at the Sophiensælen. During 2025, the collective developed the project “Obscenas” at HAU as part of a residency grant from the Fonds Darstellende Künste. In 2025, the collective is also realizing a new artistic research project, which was made possible by a work and research grant from the Berlin Senate: “bzw. Ethical Choreographies of Being Together.”
DIRECTOR AND PERFORMER
Kysy Fischer (BR) uses humor to confuse disciplines such as dance, performance, and theater. As a choreographer, she is interested in minimalist exaggeration and playing with contradictions. Kysy often deals with psychoanalysis and class related topics. In her work, she seeks forms of contact with the audience and criticizes the hierarchies of artistic spaces and practices. In her academic research in Brazil, she explored performance art as an applied philosophical practice. Since 2017, she has been the director of the ABA NAIA collective, with which she primarily explores feminist humor. Kysy Fischer’s latest work, “Super Superficial,” opened the TanzTage Berlin 2025 at the SophienSaelen, and she was named Newcomer Choreographer of the Year in the TANZ__Jahrbuch 2025.
PERFORMER
Rafaella Marques is a Brazilian performer. She performed in more than 10 productions of the theatre companies Vigor Mortis and Cia Silenciosa in festivals across Brazil. At that time Rafuska was an active guest artist in the San Francisco theatre scene. In 2009 she received an artist grant from the Goethe Institute, this gave her the opportunity to intern at the Maxim Gorki Theatre and participate in workshops in Berlin. She collaborated with Draft.inn – Space for the risk in the Performing arts in Madrid. She took part in the Internationalen Theaterforum – Theatertreffen in Berlin, at the Venice Bienalle with Jan Lauwers (Needcompany), Falk Richter and in Poznan with Rodrigo Garcia. Currently she is also part of Colectivo Fango (Madrid) and ABA NAIA (Berlin).
DRAMATURG
Jaika Bahr was an intern at Deutsches Theater Berlin for productions by Daniela Löffner and Andreas Kriegenburg. She studied Cultural Sciences at the European University Viadrina with a focus on Linguistics and Literature as well as studying Art, Culture and Media at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. Alongside her studies she has been working as an assistant director and dramaturg for Theater an der Parkaue, Ballhaus Naunynstraße and Heimathafen Neukölln in Berlin.
VISUAL ARTIST
Óscar Barbosa is a Spanish photographer and visual artist based in Berlin. His work focuses on analog photography and processes with a strong documentary character. Óscar’s personal projects deal with identity, upbringing, and childhood, overcoming trauma, and reviving old memories through a conceptual thought process. As a documentary photographer, he loves to capture the essence of the performances he works on. He has been collaborating for years with the queer performance collective Once We Were Islands and the Berlin collective ABA NAIA. His latest work, “Sinárra,” was selected as the winner of the 2024 Art Prize at the Altonale Festival in Hamburg.
PERFORMER
Teija Vaittinen is a performer and theatre facilitator whose work is characterized by comedy, (failing) bodies, improvisation, clowning and movement. She is originally from Finland and has been living in Berlin since 2012. Teija Vaittinen has a master’s degree in Theatre Education / Drama from the University of the Arts Berlin. In Finland she studied both acting and sociology.
In addition to her artistic work with ABA NAIA, Teija Vaittinen creates clownish solo acts and directs various theatre projects with children and young people. In recent years, she has collaborated on projects with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Grips Theater, das Weite Theater, jtw Spandau, Circus Cabuwazi, as well as at several youth cultural centers, schools and daycare centers.
SOUND ARTIST
Mattias Larsen is a Berlin based Sound Mixer and Sound Designer with great attention to detail, as well as an understanding of the bigger picture and the importance of teamwork. Since 2015 he has worked on over 70 projects, including short films, novella films, documentaries, commercials and seven feature films. Apart from film, his sound has also been part of exhibitions in Sweden, Germany as well as Kurdistan. Mattias Larsen’s formal education is one year of Sonic Culture at Linköping University in Sweden as well as a BA in Electronic Music Production at dBs Music in Berlin. Since 2022 he collaborates with ABA NAIA in the short movie “Ad Absurdum” and in the play “otherMess” by Kysy Fischer.
LIGHT, SOUND TECHNICIAN
Erik Pade is a German technician, lighting designer and audio producer. He studied Theater Technology at the BHT in Berlin and works as a freelancer for plays, performances and concerts. Throughout the years he worked for Heimathafen Neukölln, Neuköllner Oper, Sophiensaele as well as creating lighting concepts for individual performers. As a passionate guitarist he played for several Berlin based bands. Every once a while he performs in plays and concerts.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Mari Vass studied sociology at the university because she have always been interested in understanding human beings. Whether in social or individual spheres, this curiosity has turned her into a born observer. Photography was the tool she found to portray them and also to express herself in her own individuality. Her aim is to go in search of that which seems genuine. Emotions, gestures, a beautiful detail. Photography for her is the art of the constant search for the hidden, or what is not easily seen. Mari collaborates with ABA NAIA since 2019.
FILMMAKER
Yuri Salvador is a Brazilian DOP based in Berlin with a Master’s Degree in Cinematography at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, in Germany. Currently working with documentary and narrative productions as music videos, advertisement, and feature. He shoot the documentary “Exodus” by Oscar nominees Hank Levine and Fernando Meirelles and recently worked as a second unit for one of the biggest Netflix’s documentaries, that will be released in 2021, produced by Camp Fire.
LIGHT AND SOUND DESIGNER
Emilio Cordero Checa is a lighting designer and sound artist. He is dedicated to creating light-sound installations and interdisciplinary pieces in which he brings together mechanics and human interaction. His work has been shown in Ecuador, Spain, the US and Germany and he has also worked at the Fête des Lumières (FR), the Fiesta de la Luz and the VAQ (EC), the BAD (ES), and the Berlinale (DE). In Berlin, he works with various dance and performance groups and at Ballhaus Naunynstraße.
FILMMAKER
Caroline Reucker is a freelance filmmaker, director, producer and author. She was born in 1985 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia. After graduation from high school in 2006, she began training as a media designer Image & Sound and works after graduation in various film and television productions. From 2010 to 2016, Caroline studied Directing / Documentary Film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, where she graduated with a diploma.