About

Strengthening dance and dance professionals in rural areas – if you only had one sentence to describe the work of »tanz weit draußen«, this would be it. As a dynamic, cross-state network, »tanz weit draußen« consists of eight partner organisations in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Berlin, Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg.

Founded in 2022 with the help of the »Verbindungen Fördern« funding programme, we are committed to bringing the art form of contemporary, professional dance to life in areas where it is otherwise rarely present: in the countryside, in small and medium-sized towns and on the outskirts of large cities.

While large and vibrant dance scenes exist in urban centres such as Berlin, Munich and North Rhine-Westphalia, with permanent ensembles and freelance dancers and choreographers, the situation is very different in rural regions: Here, there is not only a lack of dance artists, initiatives and communities, but also a lack of infrastructure such as rehearsal and production venues, funding opportunities and training centres. Local people have little or no opportunity to get to know dance as an art form that enriches their lives. With a view to the equality of living conditions enshrined in the German Basic Law, we have established that in almost all federal states, the majority of the population is unable to experience dance as an art form. Our goal is to change this in the long term.

Because: dance, as the most physical of all art forms, is directly linked to contemporary social and political issues – and is therefore important everywhere, even and especially where there is little of it.

Strengthening dance and dance professionals in rural regions, Video: Tom Scheppan & Valentin Hennig

How can we strengthen dance in rural regions? Dance professionals ‘far out there’ often experience themselves as isolated lone fighters who have to travel long distances for their work and have little direct contact with colleagues from their own field or other disciplines. The collective moment of dance – in moving, choreographing, inventing, exploring and questioning the body together – is challenging for dance artists in rural regions. This is why we facilitate encounters and exchanges between dance makers outside of urban centres – in digital, hybrid and, of course, analogue form.

As a network, we promote residency opportunities in rural regions and are working to ensure that dance artists can tour their productions anywhere in the country – in places where dance is rarely or hardly ever seen. We connect dance makers from different regions beyond the big cities so that they can share their experiences and questions with each other. Pooling information and knowledge, networking and counselling are important fields of work for the »tanz weit draußen« network.

»tanz weit draußen« was formed in 2022 by Aktion Tanz e. V., Tanzregion Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e. V., TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg e. V., tanz.nord (represented by: KuB Bad Oldesloe, TuP.SH, DfdK e. V. Hamburg, K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg) and fabrik Potsdam e. V. In 2024, Ponderosa e.V. Stolzenhagen (Brandenburg), Szene 2wei Lahr (Baden-Wuerttemberg) und Tanz- und Theaterwerkstatt Ludwigsburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg) were added. All partners have been working professionally in the field of dance and artistic dance education for many years and are committed to dance in rural regions.

• TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg e. V. weiterlesen

• Tanzregion Mecklenburg-Vorpommern weiterlesen

• Tanz und Theaterwerkstatt e. V. Ludwigsburg weiterlesen

• Szene 2wei / beWEGEnd e. V. weiterlesen

• Ponderosa e. V. weiterlesen

• tanz.nord weiterlesen

• fabrik Potsdam weiterlesen

• Aktion Tanz – Bundesverband Tanz in Bildung und Gesellschaft e. V. weiterlesen

Fostering connections

Since 2022, »tanz weit draußen« has been one of a total of 10 alliances in the model programme »Verbindungen fördern« (Fostering connections) des Bundesverbandes Freie Darstellende Künste (Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts)«, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The funding will initially run until the end of 2025.

Working methods

The network meets monthly for a jour fix on all overarching conceptual topics. There are also thematic working groups in which project priorities are set, developed and finalised. Regular strategy meetings ensure personal dialogue and direct cooperation. By gathering feedback from the communities via digital exchange formats and at face-to-face events, needs are identified and taken into account when planning formats. In addition, the partners attend the ongoing events that take place at the other and associated locations in the rural areas, both analogue and digital.

Formats

Programming, curation and implementation are carried out by the permanent partners together with Aktion Tanz e. V. and the project management team. Many formats invite you to participate and are published accordingly.

• Model dance projects in rural regions, including touring, residency, education and advisory formats that enable participation and visibility
• Networking between dance professionals, cultural stakeholders, non-artistic
• stakeholders and those interested in dance for professionalisation and visibility
• Research and mapping, i.e. the visualisation of protagonists and places for dance. This includes the development of map.weit.draußen for dance in area regions. This can be used to visualise networks, identify resources and needs, as well as record rehearsal and event venues for dance professionals and filter them according to users’ needs
• nationwide symposium for exchange, knowledge transfer and supra-regional visibility

Origins

Aktion Tanz realised its first project on dance in rural regions together with TanzSzene Baden-Württemberg, Fachstelle Tanz MV and Tanzregion Vorpommern e. V. It consisted of the hybrid symposium on dance in rural areas ‘Es braucht ein ganzes Dorf … Tanz in ländlichen Räumen’, which took place in May 2021 and was attended by a total of 120 interested people, as well as a subsequent mentoring programme.

Contact us

tanz weit draußen
Aktion Tanz – Bundesverband Tanz in Bildung und Gesellschaft e.V.
Mariannenplatz 2
D-10997 Berlin
Mail: tanzweitdraussen@aktiontanz.de

Project management & network coordination:

Photos: © Bente Stachowske