Grace Ellen Barkey (IND/NL), who co-founded Needcompany (BE) with Jan Lauwers in 1986, is an established performer and choreographer whose work arises where theatre, dance, live art and plastic art meet. Since 1992 she has successfully built an international career with her own productions for Needcompany. Needcompany’s long-standing collaboration with PACT Zollverein dates back to 1999 when ›Tanzlandschaft Ruhr‹, directed by PACT’s founding and current artistic director Stefan Hilterhaus, co-produced Grace Ellen Barkey’s production ›The Miraculous Mandarin‹. Since then Grace Ellen Barkey&Needcompany has presented: ›AND‹ (2003), the world premiere of ›Chunking‹ (2005), the German Premiere of ›The Porcelain Project‹ (2008) and ›This door is too small (for a bear)‹ (2010) at PACT.Since 2000, Grace Ellen has worked closely with visual artist Lot Lemm, which led to the launch in 2004 of the label Lemm&Barkey under which they produce projects in theatres, museums and galleries. The world premiere of their production ›MUSH-ROOM‹, was held at PACT in spring 2013.

In 2017 Lemm&Barkey and Needcompany return to Essen with the PACT co-production ›Forever‹.