Tandem Dance
Dance and school NRW – joint development!
Tandem Tanz NRW is a joint training programme for dance artists AND teachers or educational staff in schools.
Over the course of a school year they will go through joint modules together resulting in learning from and with each other – as multi-professional tandems. They will combine their skills and develop individual teaching concepts. The design and realisation of a project in the school guarantees direct practical knowledge. The focus is on participation, team teaching, improvisation and choreographic work with children and young people.
The training programme culminates in a final presentation and concludes with a certificate for dance in schools.
Tandem Tanz is a nationwide initiative with a pilot project in NRW, which is why these pages and especially the integrated learning platform are constantly growing!
Teachers or educational professionals with their class/group in Bad Honnef and the surrounding area can apply HERE until 17 March 2025. Dance experience is welcome, but not a prerequisite.
Dance artists should plan to travel to Bad Honnef and can apply HERE by 30 April 25. Experience in schools / teaching is welcome, but not a prerequisite.
For 2025/26, the open call is aimed at schools in Bad Honnef and the surrounding area. Artists should take this into account when applying. The pilot region 2026/27 will be announced.
Don’t have a tandem yet?
No problem.
Already have a tandem?
We ask each to fill out the application form, naming the tandem.
Do you have any questions?
Contact us at tandem@aktiontanz.de
Artists can register for an info zoom:
- 26 February 2025: 10 am
- 19 March 2025: 6 pm
- 09 April 2025: 2 pm
- and 29 April 2025: 10 am
Please also contact us if you have any questions about accessibility.
Multi-professional collaboration needs time and methods!
The aim of the training is to combine the different professional perspectives and competences of dance artists on the one hand and teachers/educational staff on the other – as a tandem of dance and school. In addition to team teaching, the focus is on participative approaches, personality development, improvisation techniques and creative choreographic work with children and young people.
MODULE 1: Courses
In 6 courses of 2 days each, the tandems receive impulses from different lecturers for the development of individual teaching concepts and working methods. The courses are also dedicated to the preparation and follow-up of the joint practical project. The overview of all course topics and lecturers, soon to be published, is currently being developed by the committee.
MODULE 2: Practical project
The format and thematic content of the practical project will be developed in tandem and individually tailored to the students. It can take place in regular lessons, throughout the day and as an interdisciplinary project on a regular or compact basis at school. It takes approx. 30 hours and ensures direct practical transfer.
MODULE 3: Learning platform
Practical experience and practical theoretical knowledge are channelled into an online learning platform. A well-founded selection of different image, video and text material is gradually collected and made available to all training participants.
MODULE 4: Professional support
Individual support for the tandems strengthens their professionalization and is based on coaching developed by Aktion Tanz.
MODULE 5: Conclusion / Certificate
Tandem Tanz concludes with a final presentation with the students of the practical projects. Various formats find their place here and offer space for exchange. All participants – the dance artist, the schools and the teacher or teaching staff – each receive a certificate
The first round of the training programme will take place from September 2025 to July 2026 in the Bad Honnef pilot region, in cooperation with the local partner Bad Honnef tanzt:
- 19 + 20 September 2025
- 07 + 08 November 2025
- 28 + 29 November 2025
- 20 + 21 February 2026
- 17 + 18 April 2026
- 12 + 13 June 2026
- 08 to 11 July 2026 Final Presentation
The practical project (of approx. 30 hours) will take place in Bad Honnef from 8 February 2025 to 8 July 2026.
A second round will start in September 2026 in another region in NRW.
Tandem Tanz is based on the conviction that both tandem partners – from the school and from dance – are experts in their professional fields. Applicants are open to creative formats of school and dance. An eye level encounter is crucial.
Dance artists
Dance artists with AND without teaching experience who have active artistic practice are eligible to apply. A further criterion is willingness to share their dance practice with children and young people in a participatory way.
Tandem Tanz offers dance professionals:
- An entry into a new professional field / space for intensive reflection on their own working methods in school context.
- A new network of tandem partners in schools and all-day programmes.
- At least one paid practical project (60€ x 30 hours, €1,800 in total). The format, the distribution of hours, will be developed together with the tandem partner.
- A tandem dance certificate.
Teachers and educational professionals
Eligible to apply are teachers and educational professionals who work in a school with at least one group with whom a practical project can be realised as part of the training course. No previous experience in dance is required.
Tandem Tanz offers teachers and educational professionals:
- Creative approaches to working with groups / space for intensive reflection on their own working methods.
- A new network of tandem partners from the dance scene.
- Free courses and a project including a performance for their class/group!
- A Tandem Dance certificate.
Tandem Dance is a free further training programme!
Dance artists will receive an hourly payment of 60€ for a minimum of 30 hours, with a minimum of €1,800 for the practical project. In this way, we enable freelance artists to integrate high-quality and time-intensive further training into their everyday working life as self-employed artists.
The teachers carry out the project as part of their regular lessons at school.
Tandem Tanz is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science in NRW and the Kulturstiftung der Länder as a pilot project from 2024 – 2027.
A vision for nationwide implementation!
Tandem Tanz has been created as a nationwide initiative in the Aktion Tanz working group on dance and school development and is politically committed to structurally anchoring dance in schools – in flexible formats.
In this way Tandem Tanz NRW is anticipating the future ruling of legal entitlement to all-day support which will come into force in August 2026. Non-school leisure activities and schools in NRW will need reorganising. It will be important to keep a close eye on quality and venture into new alliances. The Tandem Tanz further education programme provides further training – specifically for the school context – in a target group-oriented and format-open manner!
Social change
We find ourselves in dynamic times that are characterised by processes of change in society as a whole, which also affects schooling. Digitality, especially the latest developments in AI, permeate our lives, increasingly shaping them. Our ideas and perceptions of the body, expression and communication are experiencing both exciting and frightening paradigm shifts. Tandem Tanz meets these challenges in the field of education and dance and tackles them together.
Project phases of the pilot project
- 2024/2025 Development of the curriculum in the committee
- 2025/2026 Pilot region 1 Bad Honnef: First run of the training programme in rural areas with local partners
- 2026/2027 Second run of the programme in a second pilot region
Evaluation and certification process
The long-term goal is to develop and regulate access to funding models for dance in schools through the certification and quality assurance of Tandem Tanz.
Further links:
Tandem Tanz pilot project in Berlin
Report on the network meeting in Freiburg 2024
Who is Tandem Dance?
A pool of experienced lecturers offers various courses. Tandem Dance is broadly based – with a high practical relevance to the school context – an innovative addition to existing training programmes.
The curriculum for the training programme is currently being developed by the committee: The lecturers and course topics will be announced in the near future!
A committee accompanies Tandem Tanz NRW and develops the curriculum of the training programme:
- Ursula Dreeser – Bonns 5. Gesamtschule
- Prof.in Dr.in Nana Eger – Hochschule Merseburg
- Michael Forster – Ballett am Rhein
- Bahar Gökten – freischaffende Tanzkünstlerin
- Maresa Grote-Sinn – tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf
- Ulrich Huhn – TanzZeit Berlin
- Sigrid Huppertz-Reifenberg – ehem. Grundschullehrerin Aegidienberg
- Marco Jodes – Learning through the arts ® e.V.
- Prof.in Dr.in Antje Klinge – ehem. Ruhr-Universität Bochum
- Henrike Kollmar – nrw landesbüro tanz
- Marc Krampe – Bundesakademie für Kulturelle Bildung Wolfenbüttel Niedersachsen
- Justo Moret – Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Tanz Nordrhein-Westfalen/ Deutscher Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik
- Linda Müller – Landesverband der Musikschulen nrw
- Prof.in Dr.in Claudia Steinberg – Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
- Prof.in Dr.in Corinna Vogel – Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
- Sonia Franken und Anna-Lu Masch – Leitungsteam Tandem Tanz
Tandem Tanz NRW is supported by the forum ‘Tanz in der kulturellen Bildung in NRW’, which emerged from the ‘Kulturrat NRW/Sektion Tanz’:
- Akademie der Kulturellen Bildung NRW
- Bad Honnef tanzt e.V.
- Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
- Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
- Landesverband der Musikschulen in NRW / JeKits
- LAG Tanz NRW
- NRW Landesbüro Tanz
- NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste
- Tanzhaus nrw
Alliance partners
The original founding organizations of Tandem Tanz come from the following federal states: Berlin (TanzZeit e. V.), Bavaria (Fokus Tanz München), NRW (Bad Honnef tanzt) and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Perform[D]ance e. V.).
Local partners | Bad Honnef
In addition to the nationwide initiative, the many local partners play a key role. They enable sustainable embedding in the local community: Bad Honnef tanzt e.V., Stadtjugendring Bad Honnef, Stadt Bad Honnef, Bündnis Familie Bad Honnef.
Sonia Franken draws on many years of practical experience in the fields of independent dance production and dance education. She initiates and directs various projects, training programmes and festivals, including with the Bundesverband Aktion Tanz, nrw landesbuero tanz, Montag Stiftung, University of Cologne, the Kölner Philharmonie and the rehearsal and production venue Barnes Crossing. As a producer and choreographer, she works on trans-disciplinary formats and has received various awards, including the Cologne Dance Prize in 2022. Artistically, she works at the interface of dance and the theatre of things on themes relating to the contradictory relationship between humans and nature, ideas of the body and the absurdity of everyday life. Having co-founded various collectives (El Cuco Projekt, Polar Publik, Bauchladen Monopol), her work is also characterised by diverse collective processes. Since graduating in dance education with a focus on improvisation and composition (BA, CODARTS / Rotterdam) and dance studies (MA, ZZT / Cologne), she has been active in various cultural-political functions. She is currently a jury member of the nationwide Tanztreffen der Jugend for the Berliner Festspiele.
Sonia was a founding member of Aktion Tanz e.V. and has been an employee since 2024. She brings her many years of experience in the field of dance and schools as well as in professional support to the co-management of the pilot project Tandem Tanz.
Anna-Lu Masch is passionate about stage work with school classes and ‘amateur performers’ of all ages in connection with interdisciplinary arts and her dance ensemble. She is a dancer, choreographer and certified DANAMOS teacher. She completed the LTTA artist training and attended ballet training at the Essen-Werden grammar school. She is the founder of ‘Bad Honnef tanzt’, manages the project and the cultural education dance festival. In 2024, her participatory project ‘Magic Future’ won the national prize ‘Mixed up’ and her youth dance company was invited to the Haus der Berliner Festpiele as a prizewinner of the ‘Tanztreffen der Jugend’. Masch gives further training in the field of dance education, offers contemporary dance lessons for all ages and leads the movement programmes at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck. She works in the Rhineland-Palatinate programme ‘Generation K’ and was employed as a dance mediator for community projects at Theater Bonn in the 23/24 season.
Anna-Lu has been a board member of the Bundesverband Aktion Tanz e.V. for over 10 years, heads the working group ‘Dance and School Development’ and has developed the concept for Tandem Tanz. She took over the co-management of the pilot project in 2024.
Contact
Contact persons / co-project management
Anna-Lu Masch und Sonia Franken
Project Office Tandem Dance
030/67380703
tandemtanz@aktiontanz.de
Please also contact us if you have any questions about accessibility.
Funded by:
Tandem Tanz NRW is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the Kulturstiftung der Länder from 2024 to 2027.
