Sofia Jusslin, Ed.D., is University Lecturer and Post-doctoral Researcher in Swedish (L1) and Literature Education at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Sofia is a certified primary school teacher and secondary school teacher in Swedish and Literature Education. She earned her doctoral degree with honors in 2020, and in the doctoral thesis Dancing/Reading/Writing: Performative Potentials of Intra-Active Teaching Pedagogies Expanding Literacy Education, she collaborated with a dance teaching artist and two primary school teachers to develop and explore teaching pedagogies that integrated creative dance in fifth-grade literacy education. Her research interests include literacy and language education, academic writing, dance integration, embodied learning as well as arts-based approaches to teaching literacy, literature, and language. In the ELLA project, Sofia’s research focuses on kindergarten children’s early literacy and language learning through the arts as well as multi-professional collaboration in teacher education. She has the primary responsibility of a systematic literature review about embodied language learning. Sofia holds post-doctoral grants from the Kone foundation as well as Högskolestiftelsen i Österbotten. Her research is also funded by Svensk-Österbottniska Samfundet and Harry Schaumans stiftelse and conducted in collaboration with the Regional Dance Centre of Ostrobothnia.
Sofia.jusslin@abo.fi, https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/sofia-jusslin

Niina Lilja, PhD, works as University Lecturer of Finnish at Tampere University. She holds the title of docent in Finnish at the University of Helsinki. She works in the field of interactional linguistics and multimodal conversation analysis and is especially interested in role of embodiment in language use and learning. She has published on the use and learning of Finnish as second language in various interactional contexts, such as language classrooms, everyday interactions, service encounters, construction sites and social circus workshops. In ELLA, she is involved in the ELLA TALKS subproject analyzing second language learning in and through dance pedagogical activities. Contact information: 
niina.lilja@tuni.fi; https://www.tuni.fi/en/niina-lilja

Tone Pernille Østern, with a Dr. of Arts in Dance from the Theatre Academy/University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, is a Professor in Arts Education with a focus on Dance at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She holds a visiting professorship in Dance Education in Contemporary Contexts at Stockholm University of the Arts from 2020. She is active as artist/researcher/teacher, with a special interest in socially engaged art, dance in dialogue with contemporary contexts, choreographic processes, performative research, and bodily learning. She is Editor-in-chief for the peer-reviewed journal Dance Articulated. She is international partner in ELLA. 
Photo credit: Andy Day

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/tone.pernille.ostern; www.dance-company.no; tone.pernille.ostern@ntnu.no

Angela Aldebs is a dancer, performer and a pharmacist. She has worked with many Artists from all over the world for contemporary and physical theater performances and choreographed some of them. Due to her belief that arts come in the 1st place to defend human rights, social issues and  support the society, she has led many workshops for nonprofessional people about the basics of theater and Performing arts and has worked with many projects that support the community and helped abused women and children during the Syrian war. Her rich experience in the artistic field in the MENA region and Europe, fostered her interest for sharing those experiences with artists from all over the world, hoping to integrate cultural diversity in the field. Since 11/2019, Angela has worked as an Artist based in Finland. There, she has been exploring the wide artistic field through many collaborations such with: Artist in the research Project” ELLA” Embodied Language through the art / now / The theatre Academy - University of the Arts, Helsinki / Zodiak- Center for new dance/ Finnish National Theatre / Helsinki City Theater and Alexander Theater. Angela was born in Damascus 1995, between 2003-2012 Angela was an active member of The Damascus Ballet School, which led her to pursue a bachelor's degree for dance at The Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts - Dance department - in Syria between 2014-2018, while simultaneously pursuing a degree of Pharmacy at The University of Damascus. Between 2017_2019 she was a Ballet teacher for children in Damascus Ballet School. 

Mariana Siljamäki (PhD) works as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her main teaching areas are dance pedagogy, interculturality and equality in physical education teacher training. Mariana´s research interests include dance pedagogy, embodiment, embodied language learning and social justice and equality in dance and physical education. She has published several research articles and book chapters nationally and internationally. She was involved in the ARTSEQUAL-research project (2015-2021) coordinated by the University of the Arts Helsinki. Mariana also works as a dance teacher in the basic education in the arts and as a choreographer of a  multicultural dance company, Mami Wata (since 1998). 

Nanna Heino is a research assistant at the Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies at Åbo Akademi University. She is also a primary school teacher student at Åbo Akademi University. She works as a research assistant in the ELLA project.