Michaela Schlagenwerth
Full force ahead
At the dance festival PURPLE, the Offensive Tanz für junges Audience Berlin starts in January.
Professional dance productions for children and teenagers? A rarity in Berlin for a long time. For some time now, however, something has been happening and this change is to be made sustainable: For a wide range and increased visibility, the offensive dance for young audiences takes place. Funded by the excellence program TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund, four partners in Berlin are jointly establishing a comprehensive, well-thought-out offer. Michaela Schlagenwerth, dance journalist and cultural agent in schools, talked to Canan Erek about the offensive. As artistic director of PURPLE - International Dance Festival for Young Audiences, she represents one of the four project partners, including TANZKOMPLIZEN, Theater o.N. and Theater Strahl.
Virve Sutinen found clear words about dance, children and young people when she took over the direction of the festival Tanz im August five years ago. Of course, a festival of this size must also present international productions for younger spectators. So far, it has become nothing. The money is not enough for your own curator. At Tanz im August, there are now family-friendly pieces for this purpose. Not a bad idea, but productions that are explicitly aimed at children and adolescents are still something else. The situation is absurd: There are more choreographers living in Berlin than anywhere else in Germany. But professional productions for young audiences – with the exception of a few solitaires – have recently been virtually absent from the city. Now a lot is changing, and at a very pleasing pace.
In 2017, two actors set out in parallel. The choreographer and dancer Canan Erek founded PURPLE, a dance festival for young audiences. It shows Berlin and international productions. The association TanzZeit – Zeit für Tanz in Schulen developed its own production line at the same time as its project TANZKOMPLIZEN. Both knew they were closing a huge supply gap. Finally contemporary dance pieces for children and teenagers! Danced by professional dancers and developed by professional choreographers! A self-sufficient – actually. But that was not the case. ‘For the first edition of the festival,’ says Canan Erek, ‘we still had to fight for our audience’. TanzZeit was already twelve years old. But to enable children and young people to dance themselves is something completely different than to see dance together with them. When watching dance, the spectators, regardless of age, are mainly thrown back on themselves, on their own (sensual) perception and their own associations. This is what makes dance special and great, but it is a great challenge for teachers with their especially cognitive approaches.
Meanwhile, Canan Erek and the DANCE COMPLIANCES no longer have to worry about visitors. The third edition of PURPLE, which runs in January in the Uferstudios and four other venues (Jugendtheaterwerkstatt Spandau, TANZKOMPLIZEN@Schillertheater-Werkstatt, TanzTangente, Theater Strahl), is already sold out weeks before. A while ago, PURPLE and TANZKOMPLIZEN networked with two long-established theatres, Theater Strahl and Theater o.N., both of which want to establish and expand a dance division. Together, the four partners have currently received funding from TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund for their offensive dance for young audiences in Berlin. For 2020 and 2021, a total of six dance productions are financed, some of which will also tour nationally and internationally. New teaching formats are being developed for children and young people, but also for teachers and educators. Three symposia will explore, among other things, how dance can become attractive beyond the ‘cultural centre’. TANZKOMPLIZEN cooperate with Ahmed Soura and Bouchra Ouizgen. The Theater o.N. wants to collaborate with Clebio Oliveira and Isabelle Schad, and the Theater Strahl with the Dutch choreographer Josephine van Reenen.
The decision of the TANZPAKT jury sends a clear signal for the state of Berlin: There is a need here! Now one can only hope that this signal also arrives. So far, the PURPLE festival and the TANZKOMPLIZEN have to juggle financially from year to year. A consolidation is pending. Now, with the four interconnected partners, all the more so. PURPLE will be opened in January by the Cie Philippe Saire from Lausanne, which uses ‘Hocus Pocus’ to override gravity for children aged 7 and over – and perhaps does a few other miracles.
This article originally appeared in the 01/02 issue of trb tanzraumberlin magazine.
