Good morning, friends!

This is the first edition of Coffee with a Dancer series. In 2026, I’m choosing to spend more time on what brings me joy. Once a week, I will take a moment to slow down, meet a dance artist, and carry on with an idea, reference, or feeling into my day. I invite you to join me in these small pauses. And if this moment doesn’t feel like yours, you’re always free to step away using the links above or below.

This week my guest is ‘more of a tea person,’ so we are having a matcha instead of a coffee. Meet Katja Vaghi.

When I ask Katja how she went from ballet classes in New York to studying literature in Zurich to earning a PhD in dance philosophy in London, she laughs. "I would say life happened." Her answer strikes me as unpretentious coming from someone whose work spans centuries and continents—from 17th-century Baroque notation to AI and digital bodies, from Louis XIV's court to today's algorithmic choreography. 

Currently based in Berlin (while keeping ties to London, Prague, and Bern), Katja is a dance researcher, choreographer, performer, and somatic teacher who embodies the mobility and intellectual restlessness she writes about.

In her essays for A Dance Mag, Katja explores a tension that runs through all of dance history: the push and pull between order and freedom, perfection and imperfection, control and release. She draws unexpected lines, from mechanical ducks in 1739 to Instagram bodies today, asking urgent questions about what it means to be human in an age of digital perfection.

What stays with me, though, is that Katja doesn't pretend to have it all figured out. She writes about wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic of embracing imperfection, while admitting she's "always been an up-tempo person" rushing between teaching gigs across Europe. When I ask how she actually lives the philosophy she preaches, she pauses: "Maybe it is finding the wabi-sabi in a busy life.”

Looking for inspiration, I ask Katja what’s keeping her company these days. And here’s what I find:

📖 On her nightstand: Byung-Chul Han's Non-Things (2022). In it, the Korean-German philosopher explores how our obsession with information is making us lose touch with physical reality. I find it a fitting read for someone interested in what happens when everything becomes data.

📺 On her screen: Any Nordic noir in original language. A slow burn, darkness, landscapes that feel like characters in their own right.

🎧 Listening to: Andreas Weber's talks, particularly For Love of the World, where the German biologist and philosopher argues that ecosystems are love stories. "Organisms don't just interact—they desire, they create, they express," Weber says. I agree.

👤 In her feed:

🍲 On her table: Kerala Stew when Berlin winter hits, the South Indian coconut curry with vegetables is warm, fragrant, and grounding. Or Lohikeitto, Finnish salmon soup, which is basically comfort in a bowl: creamy, dill-heavy, the kind of thing that makes you forget you're cold.

📍 Where to find her: Working from Restaurant Hackescher Hof (Rosenthaler Str. 40-41, Berlin) over tea, beer, or soup, depending on the day and the deadline. Or sipping matcha at Mamecha, because even dance philosophers have their rituals.

Read her full interview and discover her journey from Baryshnikov sightings to mechanical ducks, and why she believes it's always time for a tiny dance.

Find her essays "Fluctuating Structures" and "Structuring Flow" in A Dance Mag Issues 04 and 05. You can find them at a bookshop or library near you. Our Stockists are listed at the link below.

Thank you for joining us for this first matcha. I can’t wait until next week! 💙

Warmly,
Jana Al Ob.
Founding Editor