Brave Moves. Courageous Joy.
The Tanztriennale is a new initiative of the Kulturstiftung des Bundese dedicated to dance. It is a long-term, recurring event and stands for a clear position: dance should be made visible, strengthened, and recognized as a socially relevant practice in all its diversity of aesthetics, styles, knowledge and dance cultures.
Dance on stage, in public space, in conversation, in daily life. The first edition of the Tanztriennale explored dance in all its potential - as an art form, as social force, as catalyst for new thinking. Across cultures, communities and generations, the Tanztriennale invited dance professionals and the general public to come together to watch, participate, reflect, discuss and dance!
The range of artists invited for this first edition span from internationally renowned companies to Hamburg’s local dance scene. In addition, the Tanztriennale extended into the public space with artistic interventions and a City Parade. The city itself became a stage. Throughout the entire week, events took place both during the day and in the evening at various venues - Hamburg became an international hotspot for dance.
There was also a multi-day Forum, designed both for dance professionals and the general public. The Forum was held over four days with a variety of discursive and physical formats, including panel discussions, facilitated exchanges and dance workshops.
Since June 2025, monthly events have already been taking place to anchor the Tanztriennale in the city and within the dance community. All Moves invited all Hamburg residents - with and without prior dance experience - to discover new forms of movement each month. Moving Meetings brought together dance professionals of all genres, dance cultures, and backgrounds on a monthly basis. As part of the residency format Counter Balance, newly initiated by the Tanztriennale, four artistic tandems worked on their projects at various locations across Germany between March and June 2026.
The Tanztriennale is a shared space where different dance cultures meet, exchange, and learn from one another. Dance belongs to everyone - every body, every background, every story.
In October 2024, Gwen Hsin-Yi Chang and Monica Gillette were selected as Artistic Directors of the Tanztriennale. Their vision is to bring together diverse artistic practices, perspectives, and contexts, to make them visible, to explore their social role, and to create a space for encounter.
Their message is simple and consistent: Courage is a practice. Joy is a driving force. Both grow when people dance together:
Brave Moves. Courageous Joy.
Background
The Tanztriennale is an initiative of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes under the Artistic Direction of Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska. The new cultural beacon was developed in 2023 following discussions with numerous representatives of the dance scene. It follows the Tanzkongress, which took place at various locations across Germany between 2006 and 2022, and was primarily aimed at a professional audience.
The Tanztriennale focuses on bringing together different dance styles, making current trends in contemporary dance visible, reaching a broad audience, and fostering professional exchange. To enable the development of a sustainable structure, the new format is to be anchored in one location. Hamburg was selected as the host city for the first edition in 2026 through a nationwide call issued by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. The organizing body is the newly founded association Tanztriennale Hamburg e. V.
