The Stadt-Land-Bund initiative is the first work process of its kind in cultural policy: public sponsors from municipalities, federal states and the federal government are engaged in an intensive exchange of information and experience, and working with dance-scene representatives to develop a national model for the promotion of dance.
The dance-promotion initiative group, which has been operating since the spring of 2013, has assembled a working group of experts and directors at specialist units at federal state ministries, at municipalities and at the federal government level, as well as other sponsors and dance-scene experts. The initiative group, which emerged from the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (Umbrella Association for Dance in Germany / DTD), initially comprised the following members: the DTD, the non-profit agency DIEHL+RITTER gUG (now Bureau Ritter gUG), K3 – Centre for Choreography Hamburg, Tanzbüro Berlin and TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg.
The aim of the Stadt-Land-Bund initiative is nationally co-ordinated dance promotion with a focus on quality and international reach. The initiative links the funding potentials of federal states and municipalities, and enhances them with an efficient, long-term funding instrument at the federal government level.
The promotion programme TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund is the result of this continuous exchange and an important milestone in it.
Dance in Germany means 60 ballet and dance theatre ensembles at municipal and state theatres, around 1,000 independent contemporary ensembles and project collectives, around 15,000 dance professionals in artistic projects dance education and dance schools. In order to strengthen this large area of dance, the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland has joined forces with strong cultural-political players: Bundesdeutsche Ballett- und Tanztheaterdirektor*innen-Konferenz, Bureau Ritter, K3 – Centre for Choreography | Tanzplan Hamburg, National Performance Network, nrw landesbuero tanz, Tanzbüro Berlin, TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg.
From 2023 to 2025, the INITIATIVE TANZ aims to expand the project funding of the federal states, municipalities and the federal government through targeted federal funding in such a way that dance productions can be shown for longer and reach a larger, more diverse audience in cities and rural areas, that spaces for dance are created in the federal states and municipalities, and that the social situation of dance professionals is improved.
In order to strengthen the artists, ensembles and production venues of dance and to promote their offers for a diverse, changing audience, the INITIATIVE TANZ focuses on:
1. scholarship support for artistic development
2. sustainable impact and reach promotion for artistic productions
3. excellence clusters to strengthen substantial structures in dance
4. strengthening ballet, dance theatre and contemporary ensembles
5. nationwide development of the field of dance for young audiences.
In order for these measures to be implemented, the INITIATIVE TANZ is campaigning for a significant increase in federal funding in this legislative period.
The complete concept “Tanzförderung Stadt-Land-Bund” of the Initiativgruppe Tanzförderung.
In May 2014, the umbrella organisation Tanz Deutschland and the Akademie der Künste invited participants for the first time to a round table on “dance funding” – a highlight for the cultural policy dialogue on dance. This meeting brought all three funding levels - municipalities, states and federal government – into direct exchange and demonstrated a fundamental consensus for strengthening dance. The cultural policy initiatives that followed led to a much higher visibility of dance, to many initiatives for dance at the local and regional level. Further meetings in this format took place in 2016, 2019 and 2023. They marked the start and further development of cooperative urban-rural-federal dance funding, especially in the funding programme TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund.