TANZTAGE BERLIN 2009

02-12 January 2009

Inspired by the current study of the Fond Darstellende Künste "on the situation of professional theater and dance professionals", TANZTAGE BERLIN also developed a questionnaire, which the participants of the festival answered. With this action we want to draw attention to the working conditions and the economic situation of young choreographers in Berlin. The answers show that the vast majority of participants developed their pieces with a budget of 0-800 Euros. 

AIUAIO 1.2, the only production that had a larger budget, received financial support exclusively from France. But here, too, the funding corresponds to only a quarter of the production volume, if one includes unpaid personal contributions, little-rewarded friendship services, or the provision of rehearsal space by the Theaterhaus Mitte. Accordingly, most productions can only be realized through good cooperation partners and a lot of personal contribution. TANZTAGE BERLIN also supports individual productions with a small production cost subsidy from its own budget. However, if one considers the rehearsal periods and the number of artists involved, no production reaches a financial framework where one can speak of professional work in the true sense of the word. The question always arises: How does one organize oneself as a freelance choreographer with such a low income? The questionnaires show that very few of the festival participants can live from their artistic work, and therefore have additional jobs to earn a living.

For young artists, Berlin's funding and job market situation is the basis, but also a constant challenge, for positioning themselves as choreographers in the city. To talk about this topic, current changes and future prospects in more detail, the Dachverband Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V. (ZTB) invites to an information event and panel discussion in the Virchowsaal.

In addition to financial and work organization details, we were keen to elicit answers from festival participants about their working methods. We know that it is always difficult to be brief when describing one's own work. So we were surprised by the concise and interesting details about the methods of material development as well as the themes and methods of composition. We hope that the reader will also compare with interest the answers of the respective artists listed in the program booklet. 

In the artists' answers about their place of training, it is noticeable that a large proportion of the choreographers living in Berlin were not trained in Berlin. Here, although many begin with advance training, it is often only in preparation for study at an international university. In order to close the gap in Berlin's training situation, the pilot project Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz (HZT), an initiative of Tanzraum Berlin and ZTB.e.V., was recently launched in cooperation with Tanzplan Deutschland, the UdK and the HfS Ernst Busch. The educational opportunities for contemporary dance in Berlin have always been an important aspect for us as a festival for young talents when selecting and designing the program. Jana Unmüßig, student of the new MA program Choreography will show her work "Ich bin Baum" in this year's festival. The festival will be accompanied and critically scrutinized by MA students of dance studies at Freie Universität Berlin, who will write short reviews about individual productions.

After the last jury decision of the Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs and the resulting cut in our basic funding for 2010, Berlin colleagues and an interested audience will surely be worried about the future of TANZTAGE BERLIN. We, too, were shocked and astonished by the "soft throttling" of funding for a festival that has developed from an initiative by Barbara Friedrich and Benjamin Schälike over the past 10 years into an incredible success story with a huge influx of audiences. And yet we understand that even the tried and tested must be questioned again and again and that new goals and ways of further development should be sought. Thus, the decision was the starting point for new negotiations. The current positive developments of the talks with the Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs and the management of the Sophiensaele give hope for continuity and further stabilization of the TANZTAGE BERLIN with even stronger ties to the venue that has long been associated with the festival. We look forward with confidence to the coming changes and wish everyone a good start to the new year with TANZTAGE BERLIN 2009.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Peter Pleyer TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Benjamin Schälike STAFF TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Sandra Blatterer PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Franziska Köhler PRODUCTION OFFICE Lina Maria Stahl, Cilgia Gadola ENGINEERING Jörg Bittner, Stefan Neumann, Fabian Lehmann, Arnaud Poumarat, Lucas Gruber, Peter Meier, Falk Windmüller VIDEO DOCUMENTATION Mime Centrum Berlin DESIGN Bailey und Bailey, www.baileyundbailey.de PRINTING Gutendruck THANKS TO the staff of Sophiensaele, ZTB e.V., Mimecentrum Berlin and Peter Stamer

The 18th TANZTAGE BERLIN is a production of Tanztage Berlin GbR in cooperation with Sophiensaele and Tanzfabrik Berlin e. V. Supported by the Governing Mayor of Berlin - Senate Chancellery for Cultural Affairs. With the kind support of PRACTICE - "Performative Research And Cho-reographic Tools In Contemporary Environments", HALLE TanzBühne, Akt-Zent e.V., artblau-Tanzwerkstatt Braunschweig, Galerie Dieter Reitz, Theaterhaus Mitte, Tanzwerkstatt / Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH and Instituto Cervantes Berlin.