4th February
I spent the morning at the Neues Museum and then walked towards the Brandenburg Gate. It had been forty years since I had been in Berlin previously as a young dancer in the Cunningham Company. My most sustained memory from this period of time were the number of troops and security forces stationed everywhere in the city so it was a wonderful opportunity to re-experience the city, unified and at peace, even if it was so cold!
In the evening I made my way to the welcoming ceremony at the Uferstudios.
The purpose of the gathering in Berlin was to mark two important occasions, the celebration of the end of Tanzplan Deutschland 2005-2010 and its many achievements and the launch of Dance Techniques 2010. Tanzplan began with an original grant of 12.5 million Euro over five years from Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation to implement its plan to bring greater recognition of dance as an art form by both the general public and those implementing cultural policy in the country. By going out and seeking partnerships with cities across Germany the original 12.5 million became 21 million Euro. The projects linked artists, producers and organizations with their cities. Each city had a great deal of latitude in the kind of dance plan it developed. Collectively they focussed on a broad variety of developmental activities, including the establishment of new choreographic centres (for example in Hamburg), new tertiary dance programs involving professional artists and those interested in pursuing dance as a knowledge based activity, a dance biennale for dance students which will continue to be funded by the Ministry of Education beyond 2010, residencies, support for touring networks, the establishment of new studios for dance practice, research and performance (for example the Uferstudios GmbH and Eden, established in the Pankow district in Berlin) and an extraordinary number of community arts projects involving some thousands of young people.
The making of the book ”Dance Techniques 2010” was another outcome of Tanzplan. Publication is in book form, DVD and website. This huge undertaking, published by Henschel, is available in both English and German. The launch was held on the evening of the 4thFebruary with introductions to the various people involved in its publication including the editors Ingo Diehl and Friederike Lampert as well as those who had contributed to the analysis of the various techniques included in the work including Anouk van Dijk and Jennifer Muller amongst many others.
The book is an attempt to capture the diversity of contemporary dance techniques practiced currently. The breadth is impressive covering some of the most recent techniques developed such as Countertechnique and reaching back in time to some of the formative techniques such as Jooss-Leeder technique thus covering a considerable span historically. The study not only contextualises the work historically it importantly allows each of the teacher/scholars selected to reflect on their personal experiences and practice of a technique, thereby circumnavigating the potentially contentious notion of anyone being “the” expert on Cunningham or Limon technique. Each section follows a similar format in which the research teams answer a comprehensive set of questions designed to analyse the technical values, movement characteristics and various methodologies developed and employed. Each section is supplemented with teaching plans, interviews, and recordings of classes.
5th February
A full day of workshops was scheduled each led by the primary artists/teach/scholars who discussed or demonstrated their particular section of the book including Lance Gries on Release and Alignment oriented techniques, Daniel Roberts on Cunningham technique, Anouk van Dijk on Countertechnique and Barbara Passow who gave a fascinating workshop on Jooss-Leeder technique, with its roots deep in German history and for myself a greater understanding of a co-incidence in my own dance background as a young teacher of dance in London. I had been invited to take up a contract at Dartington College in the south of England. Dartington boasted a large purpose built dance studio. It was breathtakingly beautiful with one wall of the studio made completely of glass. Outside the soft and verdant Devon landscape rolled down towards a 16th Century jousting court surrounded by Tudor roses. However I had been teaching for some time before I understood that this was the same studio that Jooss had taught in when he fled from Germany to England.
A full day of workshops was scheduled each led by the primary artists/teach/scholars who discussed or demonstrated their particular section of the book including Lance Gries on Release and Alignment oriented techniques, Daniel Roberts on Cunningham technique, Anouk van Dijk on Countertechnique and Barbara Passow who gave a fascinating workshop on Jooss-Leeder technique, with its roots deep in German history and for myself a greater understanding of a co-incidence in my own dance background as a young teacher of dance in London. I had been invited to take up a contract at Dartington College in the south of England. Dartington boasted a large purpose built dance studio. It was breathtakingly beautiful with one wall of the studio made completely of glass. Outside the soft and verdant Devon landscape rolled down towards a 16th Century jousting court surrounded by Tudor roses. However I had been teaching for some time before I understood that this was the same studio that Jooss had taught in when he fled from Germany to England.
In the evening there were a number of presentations representing just a small number of the initiatives undertaken between 2005 and 2010 across Germany as part of Tanzplan celebrated in the various Uferstudios. What is so impressive about Tanzplan as a guest has been to understand the proportion of activities that will continue beyond 2010 as a legacy of Tanzplan. Many of the co-funded projects, given the term, Tanzplan Local, will continue beyond 2010 with the support of local and regional funding. I attended a lecture performance, Tanzlabor_21 with artists from Independent Dance, Frankfurt (photo), showings of newly created work from K3 – Zentrum fur Choreographie (Tanzplan Hamburg) and a showing presented by artists in residence from fabrik Potsdam.
And there are new plans! The same night saw the launch of the online database Digitaler Atlas Dance, an ambitious project with the Academy of Arts Berlin, covering the history of dance from 1900 with a particular focus on German dance history. It will act as a repository for various dance documentation and access will be provided to view full-length dance works at this site.
At six pm there was a dinner held in one of the large performance areas at the Uferstudios and I must thank my special hosts on that occasion Ingo Diehl, Fiona Edwards and Nick Woods. I hope it is not too long before we have the opportunity to meet again.
6th February
I went to visit various dance spaces around Berlin including Dock 11 and the Eden studios. The highlight however was my visit to the Radial studios in Holzmarkstrasse. I had been told that Sasha Waltz was still on tour but in fact the company was in residence and on a lunch break. With incredible courtesy Sasha herself showed me the studios in which the company are housed overlooking the river and the exquisite set for her new work designed by a Japanese artist that the company is currently completing. It was one of the high points of my trip.
Many thanks to all those who made it possible – the Goethe Institute, to Katja and to Friederike and especially Ingo without whom I could not have managed.
