Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz: Tanzpakt Dresden
Co-financed by: Land Sachsen, Stadt Dresden, TreuBau Stitftung
The aim of the state capital of Saxony’s Tanzpakt Dresden project is to fundamentally enhance its independent dance scene. The main preoccupation is the realisation of two measures that together will promote the development of nationally relevant structures. On the one hand, targeted construction investments will secure and open Mary Wigman’s former residence as the VILLA WIGMAN rehearsal and experimentation space, a centre that will be run independently of the city’s independent dance scene as organised in the Villa Wigman für TANZ association and which will offer conditions that are unique in Germany. On the other hand, and as a complementary measure, the comprehensive residency and production programme Werkraum Gegenwart will be developed with HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts as well as partner institutions from all areas of social life. Endowed with resources for both research and production, high-quality stagings to be presented at HELLERAU, particularly larger formats beyond workshop presentations, will thus be developed by Saxony’s independent dance scene. A scientific-artistic laboratory involving regional dance professionals and international guests will act as the launch pad for this process. The resulting stage productions will then be presented in a festival.
Tanzpakt Dresden is a co-operation of the Villa Wigman für TANZ association and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts under the umbrella of the State Capital of Dresden.
The Villa Wigman für TANZ association was founded in 2016 by independent dance professionals working in and around Dresden to support the preservation and revival of Mary Wigman’s former residential and work locations in the city and to convert them into a rehearsal and experimentation space.
HELLERAU is a municipal stage and since 2004 has been operating as a European Centre for the Arts in the Festspielhaus (festival theatre) Hellerau, a venue rich in tradition and a cradle of contemporary dance in Germany. HELLERAU sees itself as both an internationally and locally oriented production house and stage for contemporary performative arts.
Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum: Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum (working title)
Co-financed by: Land Berlin
Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum Berlin (dance-for-young-audiences offensive, Berlin) is an association of four experienced partners who are active locally, nationally and internationally on the contemporary dance and children’s and youth theatre scenes, namely PURPLE – International Dance Festival for Young Audiences, the TANZKOMPLIZEN initiative, Theater STRAHL and Theater o.N.
The joint goal is to put dance for young audiences in Berlin on an excellent and sustainable footing with regard to structure, audience attraction, appearance, education and production, something that has yet to be achieved.
In the coming years, the project will be dedicating itself to the following activity fields:
Three project symposia are planned in order to facilitate the sharing of content-related and specialist information among the partners as well as with other experts and those active on the scene regionally, nationally and internationally. Documentation including an evaluation section will be used to map and analyse the project and its results, and to draw up action recommendations for the future.
Overhead Project: Cologne Circus-Dance Festival
Co-financed by: Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Stadt Köln
The Cologne-based Overhead Project label has been creating pieces at the junction of contemporary circus, dance and performance under the artistic direction of Tim Behren since 2008.
Within the framework of TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund, the company will now be developing model formats for the presentation and interdisciplinary production of the crossover genre ‘dance and circus’ in co-operation with the ZAK circus and artistry centre in Cologne. The Cologne Circus-Dance Festival, an annual event from 2020 onwards, will offer a programme of performances, workshops and symposia and is intentionally aimed at a very heterogeneous and consequently wide audience.
The project will also be implementing a genre-specific, nationally advertised residency programme from 2019 onwards and dedicating itself to the promotion of young talent via the Junge Wilde (wild youth) mentoring format.
The long-term goal is to create a cross-genre production centre with an international reach and network.
Ben J. Riepe Company: Der Freiraum
Co-financed by: Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Stadt Düsseldorf, Kunststiftung NRW
Owing to the support lent by TANZPAKT-Stadt-Land-Bund, FREIRAUM, a collaborative conception and work venue for the arts, conceived as an “artist-run space”, will become a reality. “FREIRAUM”, initiated as well as conducted by the Ben J. Riepe Kompanie, develops on its site at Engelbertstraße 13 and will provide a free-of-charge space for artists and their co-operating partners from the fields of administration, project management, dramaturgy as well as for technical staff. Placing several office workplaces as well as a studio, which also allows for smaller presentations or showings, at the disposal of local freelance artists, it facilitates collaborative works in the research and conception phases and the start into rehearsals held together. It is our aim to offer a safe co-working space for the arts independently of a concrete production in the works, permitting unencumbered encounters between the genres and the different work areas through a flat hierarchy. In the spirit of artist empowerment, FREIRAUM wants to become a space of opportunity primarily for local artists in order to challenge virulent questions of art and society together: How can we transcend genre boundaries and imagine new interdisciplinary concepts, how can we develop a combined power and voice? How can an effect of the arts towards society be thought and reached? Our collaborators are not only an active part of FREIRAUM for an intense handling and discussion of these questions: Rather, all of the offerings provided at FREIRAUM are designed to mirror all protagonists’ knowledge, ideas and visions. Everyone is invited to share their respective “superpower” so the diverse skills of all involved may cross-pollinate, paving the way for important knowledge to spread throughout the independent scene.
While the organisation and arrangements of procedures, both in everyday as well as in special structures, will be taken care of by a project manager, the Ben J. Riepe team itself will be incorporated into the collaborative processes and discussions happening within FREIRAUM while also participating equally in them. Additionally, the company furnishes its knowledge on contemporary art production to interested outside artists. Together with the FREIRAUM artists and affiliated professionals, the Ben J. Riepe team devises the FREIRAUM event calendar, geared towards demands and requirements and mostly on short notice, scheduling workshops on grant and support application, dramaturgical and artistic production content, project management, PR and contract law as well as discussions and thematic lunches on virulent cultural political issues.
Anna Konjetzky: NOMADISCHE AKADEMIE
Co-financed by: Stadt München
The aim of Munich choreographer Anna Konjetzky’s project NOMADISCHE AKADEMIE is to connect the Bavarian dance scene with selected dance scenes abroad. Between 2019 and 2021, the academy will be guesting for one week each in Poland, Australia and Palestine. There will also be an annual 10-day knowledge-sharing platform in Munich that will also involve other Bavarian cities. The platforms will be modular in structure and use various public formats to target different audiences.
National and international co-operation partners will be contributing to the project with skills and expertise, and establishing a discourse on themes, physical practice and impetus based on a ‘ping pong’ of questions and answers among the various locations and protagonists, the aim being to promote both a continuous theoretical investigation in dance as well as long-term international networks and interdisciplinary discussions.
In an age when the world is witnessing a return to national considerations and thereby to borders and exclusion, Konjetzky’s research and network project will be looking at those free spaces where resistance is evident and that offer opportunities for dialogue and action. In doing so, special attention will be given to the political dimension of the body and its forms of expression and movement. The investigation will be conducted in the academy at both the physical and theoretical level at all times.
The nomadic principle not only lends its name to the project but is also a constituent aspect of Konjetzky’s approach: it is evident in the academy’s ‘wandering’ but equally in the organisation of knowledge that will emerge on an online platform alongside the events, the platform not only fulfilling a documentary function but also providing a work and dialogue space, independent of time and place, for use by participants during the project period. Both live and online, the NOMADISCHE AKADEMIE will thus operate like ‘whispered messages’, gathering content and practices, and adapting, spreading, developing and publicising them.
The first NOMADISCHE AKADEMIE platform will take place in Munich in December 2019.
Felix Landerer and Helge Letonja: TanzRAUM Nord – Global Moves
Co-financed by: Land Niedersachsen, Land Bremen, Stadt Hannover, Stiftung Niedersachsen, Theater Bremen, Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung
The aim of the regional dance-development concept is to strengthen dance as an ensemble art and enhance the local dance scenes in Bremen and Hanover. Under the artistic direction of Helge Letonja and Felix Landerer, an independent 10-strong dance ensemble is emerging in the production network in northwest Germany. The dance works created will be presented in Bremen, Hanover and other cities in the region. Over three seasons, TanzRAUM Nord – Global Moves will thus be opening up development, production and presentation spaces specifically for independent and local choreographers, and for the internationally established choreographers Helge Letonja and Felix Landerer. Productions and co-operations with the ensemble will also open up new fields of work for dance professionals working on the local scenes. In addition to the development of a regional tourist network, a comprehensive dance transfer programme will also be a fixed element of the overall concept to boost dance in the northwest region.
TanzRAUM Nord – Global Moves is a co-operation involving the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, the cities of Bremen and Hanover, the cities’ municipal and state theatres (Theater Bremen and Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover GmbH), the ballet company at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, the Internationale Tanztage Oldenburg festival, venues on the independent scene (Schwankhalle Bremen, Kulturzentrum Faust and Eisfabrik Hannover), other theatres in the region (LOT-Theater Braunschweig, Schlosstheater Celle and Deutsches Theater Göttingen) and international partners (Corzo Den Haag, Scenario Pubblico and Catania).
Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, Abteilung Kulturförderung: TANZPAKT Stuttgart
With TANZPAKT Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg is aiming to support the local independent dance and performance scene with human, infrastructural and financial resources in a bid to add another facet to the aesthetic diversity of the local dance scene, its current beacons being The Stuttgart Ballet and Gauthier Dance.
The expanded room for manoeuvre will allow the non-profit organisation Freie Tanz- und Theaterszene Stuttgart and the production centre Tanz+Performance to work specifically on the quality of Stuttgart’s independent dance scene network.
The independent scene, working with Theater Rampe, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Musik der Jahrhunderte and the Office for Culture in Stuttgart, will be further developing interdisciplinary dance creation in the city. Using residencies, summer schools, mentoring offers and symposia, the alliance will create trans-regional platforms that facilitate open-ended work and the sharing of expertise.
Dance education in schools, participative formats and dance productions for children and young people are planned with other co-operation partners such as the Junges Ensemble Stuttgart (a children’s and youth theatre) and the Cultural Education Network.
In addition, the jointly curated Sommerfestival Interdisziplinär (interdisciplinary summer festival) will be held in 2020 with the intention of increasing public participation in interdisciplinary dance creation.
TANZPAKT Stuttgart will facilitate the experiencing of a broader range of contemporary dance forms in the city, will create a lively, informed and networked cross-regional scene there, and will further develop the artistic discourse on contemporary dance in the Stuttgart valley.