Anika Bendel began her dance training in Berlin and graduated as a contemporary dancer and international arts manager at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne. She completed her Master’s degree with a thesis on “Influences, Controversies and Potentials of German-Iranian Cultural Work using the example of DIWAN Deutsch-Iranische Begegnungen e.V.”.
She has been living in Stuttgart as a freelance dancer and arts manager since 2013.

She has danced in choreographies by Juliette Villemin, IPtanz, Johannes Blattner, Marja Leena Hirvonen, Katja Erdmann-Rajski, Rafaele Giovanola, Georg Reischl, Anouk van Dijk and Richard Siegal, among others.

From 2010 to 2016 she has been creating choreographies, workshops and researches in cultural spaces with other dance traditions. She has taught workshops on mutual dance exchange in India, Iran, Bangladesh and Sudan. She combined improvisation techniques of contemporary dance with traditional knowledge of another dance culture. In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut she conducted the residency “Imagining Improvisation” (India), the dance piece “The Limits Beyond” (Bangladesh) and the workshop “Physical Performances in site-specific spaces” (Sudan).
As assistant director of Helena Waldmann’s production Made in Bangladesh, she supervised the production and six international tours.

Since January 2016, she has been working as a freelancing cultural producer. She works with emerging artists and established companies, including MOUVOIR/ Stephanie Thiersch, DIN A 13 tanzcompany, IPtanz, MIRA performance and Juliette Villemin.
In 2021, together with the cultural producer Laurence Nagel, she succeeded in connecting Baden-Württemberg to the TANZ_TAUSCH_NETZWERK, with which they realize co-productions, residencies, guest performances, network meetings and further education for Baden-Württemberg based artists in exchange with dance professionals from other federal states.

Anika Bendel is particularly committed to improving the working conditions of freelance dance professionals – both artists and producers.
She is a founding and board member of dancersconnect – Ensemble Netzwerk Tanz e.V. 2021 she was elected as a board member for Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. She is on the advisory board of SYSTEMCHECK , a research project of the BFDK in cooperation with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Ergonomics at Leibniz Universität Hannover, the ensemble-netzwerk e.V. and the Institute for Cultural Governance.