Forum - Day 4

Programme
June 21, 11.00 - 15.00 h (Accredited Professionals & Public)

The accreditation badge gives all professionals 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.

As interested public you can buy tickets for the events of the Forum on June 20 and 21. The individual sessions are directly linked to the according page in the online shop.

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

11.00 - 12.30 h
Session 20 | How Do We Move in a World Shaped by Conflict?
Theatersaal

We are living in a world shaped by war-conflict — by its violence, its grief, its political fractures, and its long afterlives. In response, dance creations and participatory artistic practices can offer support: to move through emotions, question and confront political positions, share testimonies, generate practices of resilience, and to create spaces of gathering and joyful resistance.

This session brings together artists whose practices engage directly with these realities, Agnietė Lisičkinaitė and Igor Shugaleev, the duo behind “Clap & Slap”, draw upon personal experiences of protest, national responsibility and how the body holds and processes what language struggles to describe. Fábio Januário's work “Musseque” extends from growing up during the outbreak of the Angolan civil war in 1975 and the Kuduro dance that emerged from it. Polina Bulat brings her experience working with female war veterans in Ukraine, sharing performing arts practices as a means of processing the physical and psychological effects of war. Sina Saberi, whose work is shaped by the long-term social and political consequences of post-revolutionary Iran, will share his research practice asking how pain – individual and collective – imprints itself on the body, and how bodies might remember, respond, and resist oppressive structures.

Through their practices, not only do we gain new understanding of the regions they come from, but also greater awareness of the multifaceted ways dance and artistic practice can support people dealing with conflict.

Guest speakers: Polina Bulat (dance agent and manager), Fábio (Krayze) Januário (choreographer and dancer), Agnietė Lisičkinaitė (choreographer and performer), Igor Shugaleev (choreographer and performer), Sina Saberi (choreographer, dancer and cultural manager)

11.00 - 12.30 h
Session 21 | Dance Journalism: Whose Voices, Whose Cultures?
Tanzsaal EG

Dance journalism plays a vital role in communicating dance to audiences and shaping how dance forms, cultures, dancers and choreographers are valued and remembered. But the landscape is shifting: changes in media, budgets, and generations of readers and writers are transforming how dance is reported and recorded. This panel brings together freelance journalists, practitioners and dance artists to ask what is changing, what is at stake, and what is needed, specifically when it comes to writing about hip hop and club dance cultures that have often been overlooked or misrepresented in dance criticism. The conversation will explore questions of access, representation, and cultural understanding and how writers build the knowledge to write about hip hop and club dance cultures that are shaping artistry and contemporary dance works across Europe. With an eye on generational and cultural gaps, this is an open conversation about what dance journalism can and should look like — and for whom it is written.

Guest speakers: Mawuto Dotou (communication designer, Educate to Recreate), Torben Ibs (Freelance journalist, member of the board of TANZ.media e.V.), Yaël Koutouan (journalist/curator), Yeliz Pazar (dancer, choreographer, co-founder of nutrospektif), Rico Stehfest (Freelance journalist, member of the board of TANZ.media e.V.) 

Moderator: Luise März (Dramaturg and Dance Curator of Kampnagel)

In collaboration with TANZ.media

13:00-14:30
Session 22 | Dance, Hope & Healing
Tanzsaal EG

Drawing on physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of healing, the guest artists will share how movement-based, participatory practices cultivate hope — through the body, through collective presence, and through the making of meaning. From circle rituals and co-creation to improvisation, choreography, and ritual, this session foregrounds artistic practice as a pathway to metabolize grief, restore connection, and imagine a way forward.

How does the body become a site of resilience? What does hope feel like in motion? We ask what it means to make or perform work with healing as an intention, how artists hold space for both personal and collective wounds, and where hope enters as a conscious, even defiant, creative act.

Guest Speakers: Mia Habib (dancer and choreographer, Designated Director Carte Blanche – The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance), Sangeeta Isvaran (performer, social artist, activist, founder of Wind Dancers Trust – Katradi), Virginia (Aura) Lewerissa (dance artist specializing in Krump)

13.00 - 14.30 h
Physical Workshop | Kuduro for all
Theatersaal

Kuduro emerged in the late 1980s, initially as a dance style, later evolving into a music genre — an African House style that blends electronic elements with traditional folklore. It was practiced by the poorest communities in Luanda, using the limited resources they had available. The music is distinctive for its use of breaks and funk influences, widely used in the 1980s to create melodies, while incorporating loops and movements that ultimately reflect a large part of the population.

The name of the dance refers to a peculiar movement in which the dancers appear to have “hard buttocks,” simulating an aggressive and restless way of dancing, similar to Van Damme’s fighting moves.

Led by: Fábio (Krayze) Januário

14.00 - 15.00 h
Film | Malika Djardi: Martyre – I Swear on My Mother’s Life
Alabamakino

"Martyre – I Swear on My Mother’s Life" is a documentary and choreographic project that follows Marie-Bernadette, 74, who lives with Alzheimer's in a care home and has almost completely lost her ability to speak. Yet her body begins to speak: through gestures, through movements — in dances that emerge after her diagnosis, despite never having practiced dance before. Her daughter, a choreographer, follows this unexpected expression and turns it into the starting point of a cinematic search. What begins as quiet movement within the care home pushes outward: into corridors, onto streets, into cafés and public spaces, her body reclaiming environments where it seemingly no longer belongs.