Symposium

The »tanz weit draußen« symposia bring together dance professionals and dance enthusiasts from different regions and with very different backgrounds. In addition to social and political visibility, one aim is to explore together how dance professionals can develop their art in rural areas – and thus make an important contribution to basic cultural provision as well as to the formation and preservation of democracy.

‘Empowerment, standing together and sharing! The 2023 symposium

Video: © Tom Scheppan (Video currently only available in German.)

Under the motto »Empowerment, standing together and sharing«, a total of 80 artists and representatives from the dance scenes of various rural regions as well as from education, culture, politics and administration came together from 8-10 November 2023 at the »Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art«, Dieselkraftwerk« and TanzWERKSTATT« Cottbus.

The aim: to jointly explore how dance professionals can develop their art in rural areas – and thus make an important contribution to basic cultural provision as well as to the formation and preservation of democracy.

Accompanied by artistic productions, there were discussion rounds and workshops on the impact of dance on a political and social level, on meaningful networking, on format developments for research, production and performance as well as on the transfer of knowledge and experience.

The programme was curated by Elisabeth Nehring and Dörte Wolter together with Sabine Chwalisz, Martina Kessel, Martin Stiefermann, Jessica Buchholz and Pam Goroncy. The programme lasted 2.5 days and included, among other things

_ a bus tour through the Cottbus/Spremberg region to explore cultural and dance venues in Lusatia with choreographer and cultural manager Michael Apel,

_ the panel discussion “The value and necessity of dance in rural regions” with Brigitte Faber-Schmidt (Head of the Culture Department at the Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture), Gabriele Grube (Head of the Culture Department at the Cottbus Cultural Office), Lars Heller (Head of the Culture Department at the Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture), Martin Piefer, Jessica Buchholz and Pam Goroncy, Cultural Office Cottbus), Lars Hecker (Project Manager ‘Verbindungen Fördern, BFDK), Kerstin Evert (Head of K3 – Centre for Choreography, Hamburg) and Mark Christoph Klee (choreographer),

_ the fishbowl discussion ‘Dance meets politics’ with impulses from Michael Apel, Kattrin Deufert, Stefan Hahn and Hannah Ma (independent choreographers) moderated by Jo Parkes (moderator, choreographer, dance educator),

_ various exchange, discourse and mediation formats, among others with Karin Kirchhoff (Project Manager Tanzland, German Federal Cultural Foundation), Martina Kessel & Katharina Schneeweis (ChanceTanz project management team), Tabea Herrmann (Plattform Kulturelle Bildung Brandenburg), Kerstin Hübner (Coordinator of the IU Research Centre Cultural Education – Cultures of Postdigital Subjectivity and Managing Director of the Network Research Cultural Education), Gitta Barthel (lecturer in contemporary dance),

_artistic practice in the form of the two pop-up productions ‘Where the boys are’ by Yotam Peled
and team and ‘4 Rooms’ by Modjgan Hashemian and team,

_a performance in public space by young people from Cottbus led by Golde Grunske (Head of TanzWERKSTATT Cottbus) to commemorate the Reichspogromnacht.

Further details can be found here in the original programme:

Symposium_tanz-weit-draussen_231107 Download (Currently only available in German.)