Festival

>>> Download the Tanznacht Berlin 2020 publication here

The Tanznacht Berlin 2020 festival was originally envisaged as a melting pot of disciplines, artists, audiences, and communities. But due to the Covid 19 pandemic and social distancing rules, we had to rethink this idea, based on the physical closeness of different formats as well as people.

In response to this crisis situation, we changed our plans during the months of lockdown. As a local festival, we feel responsible for the community of Berlin dance artists, especially in the current crisis situation. This has made it far more difficult for them to produce, premiere and take works on tour, exacerbating their already precarious circumstances.

For this reason, we decided to reformulate our proposal in the most flexible way possible. That meant giving all the invited artists the choice to either postpone their appearance or to devise alternative ways of presenting their works on the originally planned dates, with restrictions in place. Taking into account the respective individual circumstances we discussed alternatives, making the conscious decision to partly abandon our curatorial concept.

From this highly dynamic process, which was unknown to everyone involved, a two-part festival programme has emerged – and we are very happy about this. The first part will take place in September 2020 and the second – hopefully – in July 2021.

In order to counter the disparity of contemporary circumstances, we have decided to publish a catalogue that presents the festival as planned and unites all participating artists, projects and collaborations within the original curatorial framework. The publication is conceived as an imaginary visit to a festival of proximity that is divided in a double sense, making displacement across different times and spaces tangible – individually and yet together.

We wish you good navigation!

Jacopo Lanteri, Julian Weber and the Tanznacht team