Alliance of International Production Houses

This year’s Fokus Tanz deals with the deconstruction and rewriting of white-dominated dance history. Stage productions, residencies, a dance battle and workshops by international and local artists in this focus are precise inscriptions that address dance as a deeply political, collaborative and cultural medium. They celebrate the disruption of dominant narratives, examine and transform dance techniques of different styles, and create resistant spaces that enable new narratives.

Mamela Nyamza will open the Fokus Tanz programme with “Hatched Ensemble”, a choreography for the big stage, in which she and ten ballet dancers create a visually powerful universe of new dance history. With “Ich nehm Dich alles weg – Ein Schlagerballett” Joana Tischkau creates an aesthetic ‘Germanness’ independent of whiteness and heteronormativity – inspired by perhaps the most influential German choreographer Pina Bausch and the nation-building character of her work. In doing so, Tischkau critically questions German ‘high culture’ and the narrative of home. “Bounce” by Sons of Wind celebrates the collective power and resilience of hip hop dance and embodies the essence of hip hop culture. Mounia Nassangar presents “Stuck”, a work in which five whacking dancers defy internal and external pressures and celebrate their autonomy. A style that has its roots in the LGBTQ disco scene of 1970s Los Angeles and reflects the experience of oppression and the resulting expression of resistance. In “Magic Maids”, Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera address the intertwining of European witch-hunts with global networks of care work and the exploitation of the female colonised body, and call for visibility of structures that despise women. The Nights in Fokus Tanz invite you to a vogue night with Meow Mondayz and a party with DJ sets by Mounia Nassangar and Sons of Wind, among others.