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 Tandem Tanz certificate.
Tandem Tanz is a nationwide initiative with a pilot project in NRW, which is why the project and especially the integrated learning platform are constantly growing!
Our first training programm will start September 2025 in Bad Honnef and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. Application period is currently closed.
Interested in updates about Tandem Tanz NRW? Email to Tandemtanz@aktiontanz.de with “Aufnahme Newsletter”.
Do you have questions? Find the answers below.
Tandem Tanz FAQ
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.
Teachers or educational professionals with their class/group can apply online in spring 2026. The online application from will be published here. Dance experience is welcome, but not a prerequisite.
Dance artists can apply online in spring 2026. The online application form will be published here. Experience in schools / teaching is welcome, but not a prerequisite.
For 2025/26, the open call was aimed at schools in Bad Honnef and the surrounding area. The pilot region 2026/27 will be announced.
Don’t have a tandem yet?
No problem. We will look for a match for you.
Already have a tandem?
We ask each to fill out the application form, naming the tandem.
Do you have any questions?
Contact us at tandemtanz@aktiontanz.de
Please also contact us if you have any questions about accessibility or childcare on saturdays.
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.
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
Tandem Dance is a free further training programme!
Next to free courses 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?
Tandem Dance is broadly based – with a high practical relevance to the school context – an innovative addition to existing training programmes.
A pool of experienced lecturers—including Felix Berner, Petra Diedrich, Daniela Rodriguez Romero, Benedetta Reuter, and René*e Reith—offer a diverse range of impulses and a varied course program.
The training is continuously accompanied by Sonia Franken and Anna-Lu Masch and focuses to the needs of schools and dance.
A committee accompanies Tandem Tanz NRW and develops the curriculum of the training programme:
- Ursula Dreeser – Bonns Fünfte, Inklusive Gesamtschule der Bundesstadt Bonn
- Prof.in Dr.in Nana Eger – Hochschule Merseburg
- Michael Foster – Ballett am Rhein / “Tanz mit!”
- Bahar Gökten – freischaffende Tanzkünstlerin
- Maresa Grote-Sinn – tanzhaus nrw e.V.
- Ulrich Huhn – TanzZeit e.V.
- 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 landesbuero tanz
- Marc Krampe – Bundesakademie für Kulturelle Bildung Wolfenbüttel Niedersachsen
- Justo Moret – Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Tanz Nordrhein-Westfalen/ Deutscher Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik
- Linda Müller – Landesverband der Musikschulen in 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
- Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
- Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
- Landesverband der Musikschulen in NRW / JeKits
- LAG Tanz NRW
- nrw landesbuero 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 and Anna-Lu Masch are the joint project managers of Tandem Tanz.
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 Franken was a founding member of Aktion Tanz e.V. and has been an employee since 2024. With her many years of experience in dance education and collaboration with schools as well as in professional support, she brings valuable expertise 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 Masch 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
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.
