Looking back to the future
The discussions that were started at the DIS-TANZEN Festival should find productive continuations. What was shared at the festival should be able to be discussed further. What others, who could not be there, want to contribute, can be added. In five thematic fields we want to enable further thinking and further movement.
Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste, we are launching discussion forums, initially online, in which topics of artistic work can be explored in depth. The festival and forums will thus also become part of the nationwide Artists Labs of the Fonds Darstellende Künste. The discussion process will flow into the work of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (DTD).
Concept: Sabine Gehm, Margrit Bischof and Michael Freundt
Coordination: Sarah Holzmann
Dance and physicality - psychosocial health.
What traces has the experience of such profound shocks of the Corona period left physically in the body's memory? To what extent have these experiences inscribed themselves in the body? But also: what are the consequences of missing training, stagnant production processes, social distancing or possibly a covid illness? How do mind and body cope with a permanent "re-thinking, re-organizing, re-peating, re-adapting, re-loading"?
Dance and life stages
"In the dance scene, the fear of finitude is perhaps greater than in other art fields. And those who are willing to watch old dancers confront dangerous territory - their own mortality. The qualities that are commonly thought to make a good dancer are high jumps, speed, agility, a lithe body. These are the very qualities that age first takes away from a body. A dancer or a dancer can't hide that." Nanako Nakajima
Corona acted many times as a lens for the question of age and aging - in terms of social security and changing physical possibilities. For some, it became a subject of artistic exploration, while others reoriented or even hung up their careers. To what extent does the question of temporal location in one's own life, the current situation / the respective phase of life and the perspective of aging, change or shape one's own artistic work? Which questions have become more urgent or which new questions have arisen?
Art production and sustainability
Standstill gave time to reflect on the work structures associated with producing and touring. Questions about sustainable working became particularly relevant again against the backdrop of the pandemic, fueled by the climate crisis. How can we tour less or more sustainably while maintaining visibility? How can the sometimes hectic, driven, neoliberal nature of art production be changed and its demand for the ever-new be influenced? What alternatives are conceivable? How and which networks can lead to longer-term production structures.
Dance and digitality
Despite all the abandonment, the Corona pandemic has acted as a powerful digital driver. New digital formats could and were tried out. To what extent have new artistic possibilities emerged from this? At the same time, the limits of the digital were also questioned. Questions about the audience community and the necessary physical co-presence were raised. What does a digital theater evening need and what can it do? And: How much space can be created in the minds of the audience alone?
Dance and the public
Dance practitioners were challenged to develop new ideas and formats to build communities in other ways, and public space increasingly became the stage. To what extent have stages reached new audiences in digital and public spaces? How can audiences be reclaimed in post-pandemic times? What role does digital media continue to play? What role should print media/could critics* play? How can newly acquired formats be further developed to reach additional audiences? Which (new) mediation formats have proven successful?
And: How has the audience's view of dance changed as a result of the crisis?
The discussion forums take place online via Zoom. Each meeting is open to all interested parties, and the five thematic fields are each addressed in breakout rooms. It is possible to participate in one or more meetings. Everyone can focus on one topic or participate in different topics. The discussion forum will be held mainly in German, English questions and word contributions are most welcome.
In the breakout rooms, participants will have access to Miro boards for collecting ideas and setting priorities. The Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (DTD) invites interested dance professionals, dance scholars and publicists to summarize the collections of ideas afterwards and to formulate findings, conclusions and demands - in texts, images, videos.
These materials form a basis for further discussion in the DTD as well as for the "BALL der Freien Darstellenden Künste - das bundesweite Labor der Labore" of the Fonds Darstellende Künste.
The „BALL der Freien Darstellenden Künste – das bundesweite Labor der Labore“ of the Fonds Darstellende Künste will take place live at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 14 and 15 October 2022. It connects the results of various previous nationwide Artists Labs in the scene with each other and opens the space for deepening the dialogue in exchange formats, working groups, panel discussions and impulse lectures.
Participants should receive an allowance for their participation in the forums and following steps in preparation for the BALL.