Dear Audience, dear Friends of Tanztage Berlin,
due to the ongoing uncertain planning situation, after three attempts of postponing the festival since January 2021, we have to inform you with a heavy heart that the event won’t take place this year. The twelve performances we were supposed to present received an invitation to participate in its next edition in January 2022. The artists received their production/revival grants, cancellation fees, and rehearsal space and dramaturgical support throughout the season. The works are finished and ready to be presented live. On July 1st, we are going to publish an open call for Tanztage Berlin 2022. We would like to thank the artists and our audience for their patience and understanding. We were very happy about the interest in our online kickoff of the Tanztage in January – you can still find the podcasts of the online kickoff here.
Under the new curator Mateusz Szymanówka, the 30th edition of Tanztage Berlin speculates on the future of our dance floors and how we can fight isolation from each other. In dance we enter into unexpected alliances: Through dance we heal, mourn, resist.
When the theaters closed in 2020 and the clubs turned into museums, dance sloshed across screens, through bedrooms, basements, parks and streets. Undisciplined bodies occupied digital and public space to rave, but also to rave against, resist violence, unjust politics and systemic oppression. Since hard times require furious dancing, this year’s festival explores the anti-authoritarian tradition of dance. It explores the revolting body in its fragility, mortality and ability to transform itself and others. With the hope that moving ̶t̶o̶g̶e̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ on stage can be as urgent as live gatherings outside.
Confronted with the constant resurgence of fascism, a global pandemic and other doomsday scenarios, dance tries to tell stories about other futures. In the dystopian “now” after the afterparty, science fiction becomes a somatic practice, a tool that not only serves to create better worlds, but also to cultivate critical bodies and rehearse scores for times when the boundaries between us are blurred: Scores of tenderness and solidarity that call us to stick together and leave no one behind.
TANZTAGE BERLIN ARTISTS 2021 Clay AD, Juan Pablo Cámara, James Batchelor & Collaborators, Judith Förster, Layton Lachman/Samuel Hertz, Lecken, Ana Lessing Menjibar, Michelle Moura, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Tiran Willemse Normanson/Nkisi, Lulu Obermayer, Robert Ssempijja, Shiori Tada u. a. CURATOR Mateusz Szymanówka DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT Maciej Sado, Maxi Wallenhorst
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SOPHIENSÆLE Franziska Werner MANAGING DIRECTOR Kerstin Müller PRODUCTION OF FESTIVAL Johanna Withelm PRODUCTION Aurore Werniers PRESS Miriam Seise COMMUNICATION Sarah Böhmer, Manuel Chittka, Gina Jeske, Siri Lindell (FSJK), Sofia Popp GRAPHIC DESIGN Jan Grygoriew HOMEPAGE Manuel Wisniewski ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION Henriette Fock, Andrea Spirkl TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Fabian Stemmer TECHNICHIANS Florian Brückner, Ignacio Buquete, Gordon Dyballa, Mohammad El-Awad (Azubi), Walter Freitag, Ernesto Hernandez, Sebastian König, Falk Windmüller
The 30th edition of Tanztage Berlin is a production of SOPHIENSÆLE. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. With the friendly support of Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte and Förderband e.V./Berliner Spielplan Audiodeskription. Media partner: taz. die tageszeitung