Dance Ambassadors Etchi, Mira, Nele and Valeria

Impressions of the PURPLE Festival 2025

An experience report

PURPLE - International Dance Festival for Young Audiences 2025

Together, we as dance ambassadors have collected our impressions of this year's PURPLE dance festival and recorded them in writing. Since we are pupils ourselves, unfortunately we could not see the pieces that ran in the morning. In our article we report on the dance productions Hush, STUCK, Schön Anders, Nowhere is a Place, The Experiment.

Hush – De Dansers from the Netherlands

Mira: Just impressive. The performance, the endurance, everything. The piece seemed to vary between wild improvisation and perfidious rehearsed movements. Dance, always accompanied and accompanied by music. Of instruments. Of singing. Of melody and words. The audience was feverish and was partly involved. Once one of the dancers put another on the lap of a person in the audience, then again they just seemed to be busy with each other. How they managed to play a wind instrument or sing into the mic after all the race and jumping was a mystery to me. And it's a great and special experience to watch the dance piece.

Club Oval - Dance Battle

Mira: The Club Oval was like every time a very special experience. Impressive dancers from different dance styles, a large audience and the perfect mix of dancing together and competing against each other. Colorful light. A fog machine and the possibility to dance yourself, even if you had not registered in advance for the battle. In addition, the audience was once again able to decide on the final winner of the solo battle. It was voted by a clear majority. The winner was noticed at each of her performances that evening with tremendous lightness, elegance and dance agility.

After the teams and duets had also been awarded, all those present were able to end the evening on the dance floor.

Krumping (dance workshop for young people)

Mira: The dance workshop was a great experience. The relaxed and attentive way in which the workshop was led ensured that you immediately felt comfortable and could quickly get involved in the new dance style. It was very interesting to get to know a new way of movement and a whole new side of your own body. Connect with the ground. With the beat.

At noon there was a break including a delicious buffet and at the end of the workshop we were allowed to internalize what we had learned again in a joint round and if we wanted to dance. I really enjoyed it.

Nowhere is a place – According to Van Van Dance Company from France

Etchi: It was interesting and also instructive because the dancer talked and showed how she discovered her dance style ‘Krump’ by trying out other dance styles and visiting different countries.

Waacking (dance workshop for young people)

Nele: Many have travelled from somewhere in Berlin or even from Wroclaw to take part in the Waacking Dance Workshop for young people today. After a short round of names, our workshop leader Mounia Nassanger told us about the background and origins of the dance style of waacking or whacking. Mounia turned up the music and whenever she stopped, we should pose. Gradually, everyone dared to go into the poses with more expression and then we all learned these together. It was much harder than expected to memorize them all and play them at an ever-faster pace.

We learned the famous rotating arm movements and also this we practiced faster and faster until everyone needed a break. After the lunch break, we devoted ourselves to individual small choreographies. For the fast, Mounia still had further steps in stock, so we ended up seeing a real little performance. In the end, the music was turned up again, the light darkened and everyone danced to the music with the newly learned dance steps. I, who had never heard of Whacking before, learned so much and found it very interesting to get an insight into this particular dance direction.

Beautifully different – Ceren Oran & Moving Borders from Germany

Valeria: The performance “Schön anders” has presented the group feeling and the different in such a beautiful and understandable way. The dancers brought all these feelings of belonging over so well and they also showed the process of finding themselves, as their own individual, without telling a single action or story. The piece was fun and especially attractive for children.

STUCK - Mounia Nassangar from France

Valeria: I was very carried away by the piece ‘Stuck’. It had so much expression and power that you could feel immediately. My attention was on every single movement and every single person dancing on stage brought their own kind and story. The mood was tense, loaded and at the same time brought fun while watching, and desire to move yourself, into the audience.

The Experiment – Company The Farm & Tanzkomplizen from Berlin

Valeria: It was designed like a real experiment and we, the audience, were the witnesses of the event. Interactively, the space we were in became a stage and we could observe how the dancers developed as artificial intelligence and yet as a human being. Everyone was curious and excited, there was an inner excitement, because everything seemed so real fake.