Productions

27.–29.08.  accessible anytime, free admission

An ’impossible forest’ is taking root in the asphalt courtyard of the Uferstudios. Gradinger is creating a shared space for development in collaboration with nature and his newly extended community. With its dead trees and growing plants, the garden constitutes a social choreography. This new space begs for an encounter between human and nature, directing our attention to the cycle of blossoming and decay.

A garden by Jared Gradinger in collaboration with Silke Bake, made possible by the help of many, realized within the framework of Tanznacht Berlin 2016, with support by Tanzfabrik Berlin and Uferstudios. Co-produced by nature.
Construction and tree work carried out by the company Andreas Doletzki, Groß-Kreutz.

27.08. 19.00, (max. 30 min), Jared Gradinger, Liz Rosenfeld und The Seedlings  «Procession of the Flower Children» Kid’s Choir,  free admission

Together with The Seedlings, a choir of children, aged 7 to 13, Jared Gradinger and Liz Rosenfeld will open the “Impossible Forest”. In an afternoon workshop, the kids have explo­red the community garden installation and will find their own voice in the natural settings.

27.08. 19.30 (30 min), 22.00, (30 min), Otis Sun, Concert,  free admission

Otis Sandsjö (saxophone) and Marc Lohr (drums / electronics) performing tribal techno and wordless pop.

27.–29.08. Marc Lohr, Sound Installation, free admission
Marc Lohr plays the sounds of the garden in the “Impossible Forest”.

Photo: Jared Gradinger

27.08. 15.00–19.00 + 20.00–23.00, 28.08. 15.00–23.00, 29.08. 16.00 – 22.00, tent at the yard, every hour (45 min), DE / EN, free admission

By and with: Thomas Lehmen

Lehmen is interested in communicative choreographies. He works with the relation­ship between movement, cultural exchange and the gift as a social connection. Between March 2013 and December 2015, he covered 85,000 km on his motorcycle across 29 countries in Europe, Asia, and North and Central America, working in more than 30 places and using his countless encounters to create art. He will recount these stories for two visitors at a time and give them an intro into culture of giving.

Two people at a time. For reserva­tion, send your pre­ferred time and contact details to: assistenz@tanznachtberlin.de

The project has been supported thus far by: NPN, Kunststiftung NRW, Pact Zollverein, Uzès Danse Festival, Don and Joni Siewert, Raum Bologna, Cialo Umysl Warschau, Goethe Institute Chennai, Dhaka, Mailand, Sofia, Beijing, 50/50 donors, route buyers, many friends around the world.

Photo: Thomas Lehmen

27. 08. 15.00–19.00 + 19.30–23.00, 28. 08. 15.00–23.00, 29.08. 16.00–22.00, Studio 1 (ca. 30 min), EN, 9 / 6 Euro

Tickets 27.08.

Tickets 28.08.

Tickets 29.08

One’s own voice becomes a place for action, a spectacle, a surprise and the choreogra­phy’s protagonist. In a mini stage space, the spectator enters into a private world and becomes the performer in his own performance. The act of speaking and simultaneously hearing your own voice turns into a theatrical and choreographic experience, sculpted anew with each individual interpretation of the score.

Admission every 15 minutes. Due to low capacity, pre-sale tickets recommended.

Concept: Begüm Erciyas, Realization: Matthias Meppelink and Begüm Erciyas, Dramaturgy: Marnix Rummens, Live-operation: Begüm Erciyas, Julia Krause, Matthias Meppelink, Text: Begüm Erciyas, Emi Kodama, Matthias Meppelink, Jacob Wren, Set Realization: Tim Vanhentenryk, Artistic collaboration: Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias, Production Management: Barbara Greiner

Production: Begüm Erciyas, Platform 0090, Coproduction: wpZimmer, STUK Leuven, Tanzfabrik Berlin/ Tanznacht, Research Support/ Residency: Kunstencentrum BUDA Kortrijk, Q-O2, FrankfurtLAB, Tanzrecherche NRW, Goethe Institut – Villa Kamogawa. Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin.

Photo: Begüm Erciyas

27.08. 16.00, Studio 3 (90 min), 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets

In her new work, Arantxa Martinez creates innovative creatures out of images, devices and bodies. Martinez’s sensorial preoccupation with the body and its representational context has influenced her definition and perception of bodies themselves. She directs her interest toward hybrid forms and their ability to integrate and dissolve the idea of identity. In “Très bien éclairé”, her body emerges as a product of its own fiction and with its presence,
transcends beyond itself.

Concept and Performance: Arantxa Martínez in collaboration with Sonia Noya and André Uerba

With support from María Jerez and her project What is third, Paz Rojo and the festival „Que puede un cuerpo“ (Madrid), Bulegoa (Bilbao), 3AM (Berlin) and Anto Rodríguez, Antonio Peñuelas, Carme Torrent, Chus Dominguez, Cristina Bustos, Diego Agulló, Elena Aitzkoa, Idurre Azkue, Ismael Peñuelas, Lola Rubio, Luca S, Quim Bigas Bassart and Silvia Zayas, William Wheeler and Tanznacht Berlin.

Photo: Luca S

28.8. 16.00-20.00, accessible anytime in this period, 5 Euro

Tickets

A white cube is adapted to the conditions of theater, creating an onstage wunder­kammer, cabinet of curiosities in which strange materials, phenomena, bodies, moments and working methods from the performing and visual arts intertwine. A choreography of objects, materials and bodies develops over the course of several hours and results in a continuously shifting spectrum of situations.

Concept and Performance: Sheena McGrandles and Claire Vivianne Sobottke

With support from Tanznacht Berlin. Special thanks to HZT – Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin.

Photo: Sheena McGrandles

27.08. 16.30, 28.08. 17.00 + 21.00, Studio 15 (35 min), 9 / 6 Euro

Tickets 27.08.

Tickets 28.08.  17.00

Tickets 28.08.  21.00

“Operation Orpheus“ is an anachronistic aria. Twisting through the centuries, the drama – Orpheus and Eurydice – dissects the organs of cultural memory and operatic flesh, undermining and violating contemporary taste. In what is tantamount to a ritual, Jule Flierl samples conventions of the body and strips them of their authority, creating a vocal dance that embodies an ahistorical character: classical song and the gestural language of romantic ballet flow simultaneously out of one body.

Concept/Choreography/Performance: Jule Flierl, Productionmanagement: David Eckelmann, Costume: Dorothée Henon

With support from: Exerce Montpellier, LaPanacée Montpellier, Kunsthaus KuLe Berlin. Special thanks to: Adaline Anobile, Sorour Darabi, Julie Gouju, Anne Kerzerho, Loic Touzé, Zoë Knights.

Photo: Semiha Cebti

27.08. 17.00–23.00, 28.08. 16.00–22.00, Seminarraum 2, accessible anytime, free admission

Germany is famous for its different kinds of bread. But if you’re no stranger to dance and still don’t immediately think of bread, you’re definitely not alone – just as not alone as Beide Messies, a two-buddy duo that arose amidst the milieu of other dance companies and enjoys cleaning up the fields of song, music and dance. Taking a jab at bread and for the sake of companionship, they will knead with song, bake with music, serve with dance and share their bread with their companions.

Beide Messies: Andreas A. Müller & Bo Wiget

Photo: Anne Sophie Malmberg

27.08. 17.00–19.00 + 19.30–22.30, 28.08. 17.00–22.00, 29.08. 20.30–22.30, Studio 13, every hour, EN, free admission

In conversation with artists of the festival and audience members, Diego Agulló will measure the temp­erature of contemporary dance in Berlin. Choreographers and performers are invited to talk one at a time about their impressions of the work of their colleagues presented during Tanznacht Berlin, which will be followed by an open discussion with the audience on their observa­tions and assessments. In the ‘Gefährtenzimmer’ (companion’s room), pre-recorded interviews will provide additional information on the political body of Berlin’s contemporary dance scene.

Here you can find a complete overview of the talks.

Would you like to be interviewed about con­temporary dance in Berlin? Contact: info@diegoagulllo.com

Interplay Berlin Video Interviews

By and with: Diego Agulló
Initiated by Tanznacht Berlin

27.08. 17.30, Studio 11 (70 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets

An absurdist melding of genres, moving between choreography, performance, film and radio play: a projection surface, a performer, a video and sound editor. The script is based upon films from the sci-fi horror genre, like “Alien” by Dan O’Bannon. The horror begins with the fear of the uncontrollable Other, which invades our territory, attacking and transforming our bodies. But how do we confront the threat? Who or what should we go after … or destroy?

Director/Video and Text Composition: Frauke Havemann, Video/Live Editing: Eric Schefter, Author: Mark Johnson, Performer: Neal Wach

Productionmanagement: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro. The 2006 premiere was funded by the Senate Department for Science, Research and Culture in Berlin and the Performing Arts Fund e.V.
Funded by he Senate Department for Science, Research and Culture in Berlin and the Performing Arts Fund e.V. in cooperation with TESLA at Palais Podewil.

Photo: ON AIR

27.08. 18.00, 28.08. 18.30, Studio 3 (50 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 27.8.

Tickets 28.8.

Recounting stories from a time long past, of radical and subversive participatory performances from the 20th century, three performers venture into the unknown realms beyond the 4th wall and summon the spirits of the pioneers that turned spectators into players, seeking change for both the art world and the whole of society. Overcome by images and emotions, the ensemble questions the efficacy of participation in art today.

Artistic Director: Alexandre Achour, Artistic Collaboration: Saša Asentić, Heike Bröckerhoff, Collaboration on the concept & Dramaturgy &: Ana Vujanović, Text: Alexandre Achour, Saša Asentić, Heike Bröckerhoff, Milan Marković, Helen Schröder, Ana Vujanović and excerpts from the poem “Rhythm 0” by Emily Hoffman, Performers: Saša Asentić, Verena Brakonier, Helen Schröder, Light Design: Dennis Döscher

A production by Alexandre Achour in co-production with K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg, funded by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and with support from Tanznacht Berlin 2016.

Photo: Anja Beutler

27.08. + 28.8. 19.30, 29.08 19.00, Studio 14 (55 min), 14 / 9 Euro
open rehearsal, 26.08. 19.30, 5 Euro, tickets at box office only

Tickets 27.8.

Tickets 28.8

Tickets 29.08

The performance is based on the glamorous cinematic melodrama, “Imitation of Life” by Douglas Sirk, and focuses on the relationships between mothers and daughters, black and white women, and men and career-oriented women. Hegenscheidt radically liberates and resamples the dialogue and body language of the film. She brings together narrative and choreography to create continuously shifting spatial and rhythmic arrangements, which offer up new contexts and interpretations.

By and with Lisa Densem, Grayson Millwood, Anna-Luise Recke, Laurie Young, Idea and Concept: Hanna Hegenscheidt and Ulrich Huhn, Collaboration: Ulrich Huhn, Moritz Nitsche, Franziska Schrage, Stephan Weiland, Light: Benjamin Schälike, Sound: TITO

Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. Supported by Mime Centrum Berlin and Tanzfabrik Berlin.

Photo: Dieter Hartwig

27.08. 20.00, 28.08. 16.00, Studio 6 (50 min), EN, 5 Euro

Tickets 27.08.

Tickets 28.08.

What remains after going to the theater and experiencing a performance? What do we remember and, most of all, how do we remember it? Ayara Hernández Holz asked different audience members to think back on a show that left an impression on them. She then compiled these recorded accounts into a video performance installation, opening up a kaleidoscopic memory space for the beholder. For Tanznacht Berlin, Hernández Holz will add to her archive with voices and pieces from Berlin.

Concept: Ayara Hernández Holz, Mentors: Nik Haffner and Maria Muñoz, Collaborator: Felix Marchand, Translations: Elena Oña, Sabina Carrao and Ayara Hernández Holz, Thanks to: Andrea Keiz, Toni Cots, Ric Allsopp, Katy Connor, Ixiar Rozas and all the participants of the videos.

Photo: Ayara Hernández Holz

27. + 29.08. 20.00, Studio 16 (60 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 27.8.

Tickets 29.08.

The legendary Serbian choreographer and dancer Kokana Šanić Koka celebrates her stage jubilee. With a background in folk dance, cabaret and magic, she has lived and worked across the world, and developed her own performance practice. She performed for artists such as Meg Stuart, Tino Sehgal, Sent M’Ahesa, Ivo Dimchev and many more. Working together with an accordion player in an intimate setting, she gives insight into several epochs of her œuvre.

Concept / Performance: Dragana Bulut, Dramaturgy: Ana Vujanovic

A production by Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum GbR in collaboration with the International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures”, the Lipperheideschen Kostümbibliothek, the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin and Sophiensaele.

Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. With kind support from Akt-Zent e.V. and Tanznacht Berlin.

Photo: Dorothea Tuch

27.08. 21.00, 28.08. 16.00, Studio 4 (60 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 27.08.

Tickets 28.08.

Dominguez wants to suspend events and create an interval of time in which he can try to integrate his past into his future. He will translate his visions and his desire to encounter the unknown through language. Dominguez is working alone for the first time in 14 years. Back then, he choreographed his work with labeled cards. Now, he’ll speak himself and give rise to a self-portrait that cites himself and some of his friends.

Concept and Performance: Juan Dominguez, Production Management: manyone

A production by Juan Dominguez. Supported by Tanznacht Berlin and Tanzfabrik Berlin/ apap-advancing performing arts project – Performing Europe 2020 / EU – Creative Europe Programme

Photo: Cuqui Jerez

27.08. 21.00, Studio 11, 28.08. 17.30, Studio 14 (60 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 27.08.

Tickets 28.08.

In these four speech acts, response and declaration, or the statement, serve as the theme and language as choreography. A bare stage and an artist that gives voice and shape to its thoughts and reassesses the speech act’s potential for action. Between political speech (having to say something) and imagistic description (a composed manner of speaking), language is turned into a tool and material for the stage space. The speech takes root in the moment of encounter with the audience. Initiated by Philipp Gehmacher in 2013.

By and with: Antonia Baehr, Agata Siniarska, Jeremy Wade, Siegmar Zacharias, Coaching: Philipp Gehmacher

Produced by Tanznacht Berlin.

The format SAY SOMETHING was initiated in 2013 by Philipp Gehmacher and premiered at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival with Claudia Bosse, Tim Etchells, Philipp Gehmacher, Maria Hassabi, Gerald Kurdian and Liz Santoro.

27.08. 22.15, Studio 14 (45 min), 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets

“Sorrow Swag” works to develop a language of sadness and, in doing so, unravels a powerful space for image and sound. The body gives evidence to suppressed anger, the voice of resistance. Employing motifs and texts from theater classics, such as “Antigone” by Anouilh or “Not I” by Beckett, Lewis scrutinizes the canonical practices of racial and gender attribution and juxtaposes a society striving for happiness against the anatomy of melancholy, pulling into focus the other.

Concept/Choreography: Ligia Lewis, Performance: Andrew Hardwidge, Sound: Twin Shadow

Originally performed by Brian Getnick.

A production by Ligia Lewis. Funded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs. With support from Human Resources Los Angeles, ada Studio Berlin and Pieter Space (Los Angeles).

Photo: Dieter Hartwig

28.08. 16.00–22.00, Studio 12,  free admission

A new cycle starts every 2 hours. Each cycle has 4 chapters of 30 minutes. Entrance every 30 minutes.

In a cross between the worlds of things and imagination, between object and human, Clément Layes sparks a struggle for meaning and situation. With an acrobatic prowess, he exposes the potential for narrative in these objects and from them extracts humorous tales. For Tanznacht Berlin, Layes and his collaborator, musician and drummer Steve Heather, present a reworking of “TITLE”, straddling the gap between durational performance, installation and concert.

Concept, Choreography, Performance: Clément Layes, in collaboration with: Felix Marchand, Vincent Weber, Snare Drums: Steve Heather, Light: Ruth Waldeyer, Sound Dramaturgy: Ulrike Ertl, Dramaturgy: Jonas Rutgeerts, Artistic Collaboration: Jasna L. Vinovrski, Press & Production: björn & björn

A production by Public in Private/Clément Layes.
Funded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs and the Fonds Darstellende Künste. With support from Sophiensæle, tanzhaus nrw, Stuk Leuven, Tanzquartier Wien, Uferstudios and Flutgraben. Special thanks to bold.

Photo: JoeriThiry / STUK Leuven

28.08. 18.30, Studio 5 (60 – 80 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets

Crocheting, dance improvisation, queer theory, AIDS activism and writing about dance: Peter Pleyer weaves together a contemporary dance from the threads and strands of his memory and interests. By reflecting on his past, he forms both his and our collective version of the present: a fabric or landscape of books, pictures, music and costumes from stories and situations; a choreographic narrative shifting between personal and universal experience.

By and with: Peter Pleyer.

Supported by ponderosa e.V., created for various performance marathons at the Ponderosa TanzLand-Festivals in Stolzenhagen/Brandenburg.

Photo: Michiel Keuper

28.08. 20.00, 29.08. 19.30 Studio 11 (45 – 60 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 28.08.

Tickets 29.08.

This is an invitation to dance, to learn together and from one another: These two choreo­graphers will share the things that they do not know and that they are trying to understand. Such processes are opportunities to continuously re-invent their relationship to each other throughout the performance. Chauchat and Trueheart play with the flow of asymmetries between them, while attending to the game-loving shapeshifter of their duet as she emerges.

Concept, Choreography and Performance: Alice Chauchat invites Louise Trueheart

Production: Alice Chauchat. Co-production: Louise Trueheart.

Supported by Tanznacht Berlin. Special thanks to Dock11 / Eden and TheaterHaus Mitte.

Photo: Yves Mettler

28.08. 20.30, Studio 6 (90 min), DE /  EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets

Along with other residents of Berlin, some choreographers also wrote letters to Dance for “Just in Time” by deufert&plischke. Before the project moves forward to New York and Tel Aviv, they continue collecting their temporary archive, bringing together entirely diverse experiences and memories of dance, as well as stereotypes and clichés, choreo­graphers Miriam Jakob, Lee Méir and Kareth Schaffer will present their letters to dance in word, image and movement.

Concept and Realization: deufert&plischke,  with: Miriam Jakob, Lee Méir, Kareth Schaffer, Stage: Valentina Primavera, Production Management: Luisa Grass & Annett Hardegen

Funded by TANZFONDS ERBE – an initiative of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Co-produced by the Goethe Institute.

Photo: deufert&plischke

28.08. 21.00, Studio 4 (35 min), 9 / 6 Euro

Tickets

The choreographic work of Colette Sadler depicts hybrid bodies in a state of transfor­mation. “Notebook Series” uses her archive of past work as a foundation for creating a kaleidoscope of otherness. Her partner on stage is a laptop that records and responds to her movements and words. In a dialogue between man and machine, Sadler draws awareness to different modes of perception and opens up a space in which the body cannot be labeled.

Choreography, Concept: Colette Sadler, Philine Rinnert, Performance: Colette Sadler, Stage, Visuals, Light: Philine Rinnert

A production by Colette Sadler, in co-production with Visual Art Quadriennale Düsseldorf / KIT (Kunst im Tunnel) Deutschland and Dance 4 UK. With support from CAMPO (Belgium).

Photo: Philline Rinnert

29.08. 16.00–18.45, Studio 3, DE / EN

4 rounds of talks on working methods and production conditions in contemporary dance.

Hosted by Dachverband Tanz Deutschland, Tanzbüro Berlin, Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V. and Tanznacht Berlin

with the choreographers Jasna L. Vinovrśki, Martin Stiefermann (Berlin) and Andrea Božić (Amsterdam/Zagreb)

with the authors Dorion Weickmann, Kirsten Maar (Berlin) and Bojana Kunst (Gießen / Ljubjljana)

with the curators and programmers Heike Albrecht, Annemie Vanackere (Berlin) and Ash Bulayev (Athen / New York)

with the journalist Astrid Kaminski as moderator

and with the journalist Claudia Henne and cultural policy maker Sabine Bangert, MdA (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) in a closing conversation to sum up the afternoon.

Dancers and choreographers from around the globe still flood to Berlin to live and work here. The number of performance venues and capacity of available funds, however, are hardly shifting at all. Since this higher demand is met with inadequate funding and locations, the situation remains stagnant.

As a result, we are continuously confronted with the question of whether we need to look for new production structures that counter this gap between increased demand and the current inflexible funding schemes, structures that also allow for the changing methods of work and production and which could possibly be established in areas outside of the existing institutions.

The four rounds of talks will shed light on the status quo and suggest potential alternatives: How do the production conditions look like in the field of contemporary dance right now? What image of dance and work, or what idea of the artist arises from these conditions? And how might other structures and conditions look if they were to correlate to the current working methods and their resulting aesthetics?

* Tanznacht Berlin: 29.08. 21.00, Studio 5 (ca. 80 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

Tickets 29.08.

** Tanz im August: 26.08. 20.15, HAU Hebbel am Ufer / HAU 1, Stresemannstr. 29,   10963 Berlin (ca. 40 min), EN, 14 / 9 Euro

“walk+talk” is a lecture performance format in which choreographers use movement and words to present their personal movement language and the diverse sources from which it derives. The words, however, are not meant to explain, nor is the movement meant to illustrate the words. Instead, movement and language are treated as equally important forms of artistic expression that strengthen one another. As these forms converge with their subject, they strive for synergy, intertwine, and, as a result, produce a choreographic tension.

“walk+talk” was initiated by Philipp Gehmacher in 2008. The Berlin edition is produced by Tanznacht Berlin in co-operation with Tanz im August.

By and with: Sidney Leoni, Sebastian Matthias, Maria F. Scaroni, Kat Válastur, Coaching: Philipp Gehmacher

Produced by Tanznacht Berlin in co-operation with Tanz im August. The format walk+talk was initiated in 2008 by Philipp Gehmacher and has been realized thus far by more than 20 artists in Wien, Brüssel, Stockholm and Reykjavík.

Photo: Kat Válastur