Forum - Day 1

Programme
June 18, 09.30 - 16.00 h
For Accredited Professionals

The accreditation badge gives you access to the programme, however, admission is subject to capacity and operates on a first come, first served basis. We therefore encourage you to arrive in good time.

For all workshops, we kindly ask everyone to register in advance no later than the day before, as places are limited. To register, please contact: benjamin@tanztriennale.de

09.30 - 11.00 h
Session 1 | Collective Impact - Welcome to the Tanztriennale Forum
Theatersaal

What does it mean to come together – across dance cultures, across differences, toward collective discovery and collaboration? What is needed to strengthen the dance field? And what role can dance play in contributing to more connected, open-hearted, humane societies? We begin the Forum with these interconnected questions and welcome everyone into a shared entry point for four days of reflection, discussion and exchange. Hosted by the Artistic Direction of the Tanztriennale, they will bridge the formats of the last year leading up to the Forum, sharing key insights and questions that arose, offering impulses for the following sessions. They will be joined by guest contributors to stimulate moving and thinking on key themes.

Physical entry by Virginia (Aura) Lewerissa (dance artist specializing in Krump)

Impulse speakers: Eylül Fidan Akinci (Dance Programmer, STUK House for Dance), Sangeeta Isvaran (performer, social artist and activist, founder of Wind Dancers Trust – Katradi)

Hosted by Gwen Hsin-Yi Chang and Monica Gillette (Co-artistic directors of the Tanztriennale)

11.00 - 11.30 h
Coffee Break

11.30 - 13.30 h
Session 2 | Transforming Ensembles
Theatersaal

As dance ensembles navigate an expanding landscape of movement vocabularies — from established repertoire to a wide variety of choreographic approaches — the demands on training and professional development are shifting. This panel explores how ensembles can hold both legacy and new languages, developing the cultural awareness and adaptability needed to work across different movement traditions and training approaches. Simultaneously, leadership within ensembles continues to evolve with greater awareness around empowering dancers, supporting their artistic voices, and fostering more collaborative and healthy working environments. This discussion brings together artistic directors of leading companies to reflect and exchange on how they balance artistic experimentation and excellence with responsibility and human sustainability.

Guest speakers: Rémy Fichet (Ballett Director Leipziger Ballett), Muhammed Kaltuk (Choreographer, Designated Director of the dance department at Musiktheater im Revier), Maud Le Pladec (Choreographer, Artistic Director, CCN Ballet de Lorraine), Kristine Slettevold (Artistic Director Cullberg)

Moderator: Christopher Bannerman (Visiting Professor The Place, London)

11.30 - 13.30 h
Session 3 | Accountability, Ownership and Artistic Freedom - Is what is mine yours?
Tanzsaal EG

Dance has always travelled between bodies and communities, across borders and traditions. When movement practices and expressions move from one context to the next, concerns emerge around authenticity, influence, and appropriation. Who owns a dance form? Who has the right to dance what, or create with which vocabularies, stories, and heritage? How to stay accountable while defending one's artistic freedom? Whose privilege is it to experiment with hybridity, or to innovate from within the tradition? And finally, how to negotiate the desire to bring more visibility and space for dance cultures other than dominant forms, with the value of remaining specific and irreducible to cultural consumption? In this conversation we will dive into diverse choreographic practices that navigate these questions. Let's unpack the multiplicity and mobility of dance forms while understanding the responsibilities of dance makers, institutions, and audiences.

Guest speakers: Tony Mills (Artistic director, Dance Base), JC Hernandez (multidisciplinary artist, Educate to Recreate), Joy Alpuerto Ritter (Dancer and Choreographer), Mohamed Toukabri (Dancer and Choreographer)

Moderator: Eylül Fidan Akinci (Dance Programmer, STUK House for Dance)

11.30 - 13.30 h
Session 4 | Platform rethinking - Are platforms dead?
Tanzsaal West OG

In the performing arts, a "platform" is an official, curated space where work is shown to programmers, reputations are built, and the field defines its standards. This model made sense when information was hard to find, professional networks were geographically concentrated, and international exposure was rare. But those conditions have largely changed — so has the platform kept up, or is it still running on outdated assumptions? This session looks at the role platforms have in the dance field, not to judge whether platforms are good or bad, but to ask what they actually do — for programmers, for artists, for the circulation of work — and whether they do it well, and fairly, and for whom they take place.

Guest speakers: Ratri Anindyajati (Artistic director, Indonesian International Dance Festival), Pedro Barreiro (Artistic director, O Espaço do Tempo and Portuguese Performing Arts Platform), Saeed Hani (Artist and artistic director, Hani Dance / Movement Art International Dance Festival), Lisa Letnansky (Jury Swiss Dance Days, future co-director of Tanzhaus Zürich), Gintare Masteikaitė (Artistic director, Lithuania Dance Information Center and organiser of 2026 Baltic Dance Platform)

Moderator: Niklaus Bein (Deputy director and dramaturg, K3 - Centre for Choreography | Tanzplan Hamburg)

13.30 - 14.30 h
Lunch Break

14.30 - 16.00 h
Session 5 | What We Have Built and What We Stand to Lose – Dance, Public Policy, Infrastructure
Theatersaal

As budget cuts deepen and political conditions intensify, the dance sector in Europe faces an accelerating contradiction: growing artistic innovation and societal engagement on one side, shrinking resources and institutional precarity on the other. This session brings together practitioners and advocates to map the current landscape, share examples and strategies for advocacy and alliance building and ask hard questions about what it will take to protect the gains of recent years — artistically, socially, and structurally, while continuing to advocate for better conditions for dance.

Guest speakers: Eva Broberg (Managing Director, European Dance Development Network), Suzy Block (Artist Circle), Biljana Tanurovska – Kjulavkova (Lokomotiva, Nomad Dance Academy)

Moderator: Dr. Kerstin Evert (Artistic Director, K3 - Center for Choreography I Tanzplan Hamburg)

14.30 - 16.00 h
Session 6 | Invisible Crisis in the dance field – mental health and the interconnected pressures on dancers and leadership
Tanzsaal EG

The dance field faces a largely unspoken crisis: mental health challenges that affect dancers across ensembles and the free scene alike, shaped not only by individual circumstances but by the organisational cultures and leadership structures surrounding them. This discussion brings together specialists from dance science, dance education, psychology, and leadership to examine these pressures with analytical rigour and human-centred care.

How do working conditions, communication practices, and management styles contribute to, or protect against, psychological distress among dancers? What does thoughtful leadership look like in practice, and how can transparency and trust become tools of prevention rather than an afterthought? Speakers will address the interdependencies between individual wellbeing, institutional responsibility, and systemic change. The aim is not only to name the mental health challenges but also to collectively imagine a more sustainable, humane future for the dance field.

Guest speakers: Paula Archangelo-Cakir (Psychologist, BSc; Manager, MBA; Board Director – International Association for Dance Medicine & Science IADMS), Stephanie Mattiussi (Head of dance science and health, London Contemporary Dance School), Iván Perez (Artistic director, Dance Theatre Heidelberg), Prof. Andreas Starr (Univ.Prof. Andreas Starr (Director Institute of Dance Arts (IDA), Professor für Tanztechnik in Verbindung mit Dance Science, Bruckner University in Linz, Austria)

Moderator: Dr. Anja Hauschild (Dance medicine physician and consultant, BG Klinikum Hamburg / BG Rehazentrum HafenCity)

In Cooperation with the 2. Hamburger Tanzmedizin-Symposium", organized and hosted by the BG Klinikum Hamburg.

14.30 - 16.00 h
Session 7 | Artistic Encounters with Schools: Perspectives and Areas of Tension in Dance for Young Audiences
Tanzsaal West OG

The explore dance network for young audiences brings mobile pop-up productions directly to schools and stages, opening up new artistic spaces for young people. Dance in schools fosters valuable encounters, but at the same time, different perspectives collide, which can also lead to conflicts, resistance, and structural challenges. This discussion focuses on how increasing societal polarization and political tensions are concretely reflected in school life and artistic processes. Topics such as diversity, physicality, and open forms of expression are increasingly areas of negotiation that affect both students and artists. Drawing on artistic and international perspectives, we discuss how artists and organizers deal with pressure, criticism, and discrimination, and how to respond. The focus is on strategies, alliances, and safer spaces needed to sustain artistic work in schools despite rising tensions and to secure dance as an enduring space for exchange and dialogue with young people.

Guest speakers: Laurent Meheust (Director Le Gymnase CDCN), Eddie Nixon (Artistic Director The Place), Yotam Peled (Choreographer), Regina Rossi (Choreographer)

Moderator: Dan Thy Nguyen (sociologist, Director Fluctoplasma Festival)

Designed in cooperation with explore dance