HOCHSCHULÜBERGREIFENDES ZENTRUM TANZ Berlin
The close connection between academic education and artistic practice characterizes the three study programs at HZT Berlin (Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin). The programs offer an experimental approach to study and nurture a critical reflection of art and art practice. Focus is placed on creatively and critically addressing what dance, performance and choreography are, and can be, as artforms in today’s social and cultural environments.
HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST Frankfurt am Main
The objective of the BAtanz is the education and individual advancement of creative, expressive dance personalities who have a broad spectrum in ballet technique but also in the contemporary field and can implement their qualities in a sovereign way. They have developed abilities to creatively support artistic work processes and are able to reflect on themselves and the artform of dance in an interdisciplinary, historical and societal context.
FOLKWANG UNIVERSITÄT DER KÜNSTE Essen
The Folkwang Universität der Künste has been educating international dancers since 1927. Many important personalities are connected to this university, among them some that are world famous, such as the Folkwang co-founder Kurt Jooss or his student Pina Bausch. This dance education program sees itself as interdisciplinary, tied to traditions and active in many directions. Working with guest choreographers plays an important role.
BALLETT-AKADEMIE DER HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND THEATER München
The Ballett-Akademie der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München belongs to the leading educational institutions for stage dance. The spectrum of instruction ranges from the lower levels with eight-year old apprentices, the BA programme for dance on up to the Junior Company in cooperation with the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Heinz Bosl-Stiftung. The foundation of the educational program is the Russian Vaganova method, augmented by other pedagogic approaches and modern dance technique. As early as possible, the young dancers gain experience on stage at many appearances. Since 2010, the Ballett-Akademie has been under the direction of Prof. Jan Broeckx, an internationally revered guest dancer, ballet master and dance teacher.
AKADEMIE DES TANZES DER STAATLICHEN HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST Mannheim
The academy is one of the educational institutions for dancers in Germany that has the richest tradition. Its roots reach back into the glorious time of ballet in Mannheim in the 18th century under the Prince elector Carl Theodor. The classic European ballet tradition is the basis for instruction and the point of departure for the classical repertoire as well as for all contemporary dance styles and improvisation. We see our role as a pedagogic team in working with students on the basis of trust while cultivating mutual respect. In order to assure this, international guest teachers are invited on a regular basis, paired with workshops, lectures and master classes with neo-classic and contemporary choreographers. Students are also integrated into a specifically oriented and diverse repertoire in order to receive stage practice. The educational program’s motivation and impulse must be to go beyond one’s own limits and open up new artistic horizons.
Agnès Noltenius
Prof. Agnès Nolteniuswas born in Freiburg im Breisgau and has a German and French nationality. She trained for eight years at the Paris Opera Ballet School before beginning her career as a dancer with the Ballet du Rhin in Strasbourg, where she interpreted the great roles of the classical repertoire as first soloist and performed alongside dance legends such as Rudolf Nureyev and Maia Plissetskaia. After meeting William Forsythe, she joined the ensemble of the Ballett Frankfurt in 1989, to which she remained loyal for over 13 years. Holder of the French State Diploma in Dance Pedagogy, Noltenius is regularly invited as a guest teacher of classical ballet, repertoire and expert in William Forsythe’s Improvisation Technologies at universities and companies worldwide. She has been William Forsythe‘s choreographic assistant for several years and has been given responsibility for the realisation of some of his most significant pieces – in 2003 she published DETAIL-FORSYTHE. Since October 2019, she has been director and professor of dance at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim.
Classical Training
The classical training is suitable for all levels and for students with different backgrounds. The focus is on the relationship to space, work and coordination of the torso and arms.
Henrietta Horn
Henrietta Horn is a choreographer, dancer and teacher. From 1999-2008 she was – together with Pina Bausch – artistic director of the Folkwang Tanzstudio. Since then she has worked as a freelance choreographer, solo dancer and teacher worldwide, including London, Damascus, Yaoundé, La Paz and Taipei.
She has received several awards for her reconstructions of Mary Wigman’s works. In 2021, Henrietta Horn was appointed Professor of Contemporary Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen.
Constanze Schellow
Dr. Constanze Schellow is Juniorprofessor for Cultures of Knowledge and Transmission at the Centre for Contemporary Dance at the University for Music and Dance Cologne. She enjoys working in interdisciplinary formats dealing with their*stories of body-based and -related cultures and economies of knowledges and practices – dance being one of them. Constanze is interested in the networks of relations between dance and other social activities.In 2016 her work has been awarded with the Dance Studies Award NRW. Recently her research project funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung focused on concepts and practices of ‘theory’ in contemporary dance educations in Western Europe. As a dramaturge Constanze collaborated with e.g. Eva Meyer-Keller, Simone Aughterlony and Doris Uhlich.
Vera Sander
Vera Sander is Professor of Contemporary Dance at the ZZT/HfMT Cologne and has played a key role in its development as director, teacher, editor and organizer. Choreographer, dancer or lecturer at Tanzforum Köln, Dansgroep Krisztina de Chatel, Itzik Galili, Semperoper Dresden, DV8, Adventures in Motion Pictures, verasanderartconnects, a.o.. Director and/or choreographer of the 5th Biennale Tanzausbildung, the Atlas-Workshops (DAAD project to promote cultural dialog with the Islamic world), in Signifying Ghosts (German Federal Cultural Foundation in TURN – Fund for Cooperation between Germany and African countries), the DAAD-funded Erasmus+ project RELAY. Current artistic works Presence through Absence deal with the phenomenon of absence.
Julie Shanahan
Julie Shanahan was born in Adelaide Australia in 1962. In 1981 she graduated from the Centre for the Performance Arts. 1981-1984 she performed with the One extra Dance Company in Sydney. 1984 she joined Rheinhild Hoffmann’s Bremen Dance Theatre till 1986 and moved with the company in 1986-1988 to the Schauspielhaus Bochum. In 1988 she joined Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as a dancer and remains to the present day as a dancer and rehearsal director. She also works as a restager of Pina Bausch’s Repertoire for the Pina Bausch Foundation. She has also made creations in recent years with Tim Etchells, Alan Lucien Øyen and Rainer Behr. In 2021 she worked as an actor for Robert Wilson in his piece „I was sitting on my patio this guy appeared I thought I was hallucinating“. In 2022 Julie Shanahan performed „L’Etang“ directed by Giséle Vienne.
