Essay N°1

Nine Observations on the current Status of Dance in Germany by Ann-Elisabeth Wolff

The Tanzplattform Deutschland is the forum for contemporary dance in Germany and is intended to take stock of the newest currents and innovative tendencies of dance in Germany today.

The Tanzplattform remains more than just a dance festival. It continues to live in the spirit of Jaque Chaurand, who founded the contest »Les Ballets pur demain« in Bagnolet/Paris in 1968. Over the years the contest has become the most significant choreographic competition in the world. Since 1988 it has been organised biannually as »Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis«. Dance Platforms have been formed in more than 20 countries and the Tanzplattform Deutschland is among the most significant.

The French jury, some 300 producers and journalists, as well as representatives of Goethe Institutes throughout the world are all coming to the city of Leipzig to scrutinise the productions and see who they could win for guest performances. The »mythic resonance of Bagnolet« continues to be an important factor, even though the Platforms will no longer contain the national selection rounds for »Les Rencontres...« as of 2002.

Program selection was made in collaboration with the co-producers and we followed the work of some 75 choreographers for one and-a-half years. For the first time, applications could also be made for work commissioned by and for the Platform itself. There were 65 applicants for these commissions, making a grand total of 130. Can general trends be seen in that? Here are nine observations that contribute to an assessment after.

1. In Berlin they experiment and in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen they dance. This widespread stereotype of the two main independent dance regions in Germany could be confirmed, and it proved as well to be in need of revision, drawing upon the admittedly relatively few choreographic efforts in other cities, and also drawing upon the field research that we made in the new states in the east of Germany.

2. Choreographic research takes place mostly in smaller circumstances. The search for new movement forms is strongly influenced by personalities; this can be seen most clearly in solos, sometimes in duets and trios. The dancer’s own body more readily offers the opportunity for expedient experiments than does research with an ensemble. Financial pressures are clearly critical for a small group, but these financial pressures are not the only, or the decisive cause.

3. This goes hand in hand with thematic material, and in this area there is a dominance of sensibilities and perceptions within the singular individual. The self is formulated as being embedded in a society that exists as given, and which calls forth neither provocation nor rebellion. Social and political questions are not the concerns of this dance, and communication regarding the contemporary history of our world doesn’t take place in larger measure. That everything is overloaded with the message and that lightness and humour are lacking, these are not new findings regarding German dance.

4. Conceptual art in dance, the laboratory-like examination of one’s own self in researching unusual choreographic potentials, this is more strongly applied in individual fields of experimentation. One’s own laboratory is equated with the theatre; theatre however, has other laws and principles at its disposal, and it is subject to other laws. Conceptual art seldom finds its way to the stage and, lacking greater pieces, threatens to wither. The demands of the self, and the blockades associated with this, prevent the artist from meeting the demands necessary for theatre, playing in larger spaces for larger audiences. The gap between these two is increasing.

5. There is more dancing in Germany’s independent sector again. The two most significant training and education facilities in Germany are the Folkwang Hochschule Essen, and the Palucca Schule Dresden. Both facilities convey languages of form that are of great importance and which have proved their worth in practice. Many choreographers, however, lack further development in these traditions. The truly innovative influence comes from training facilities in other countries, where numerous German choreographers have learned their skills and crafts, and where they take further training.

6. The public-financed theatres strongly nurture relatively conventional forms – leaving aside pure ballet – even in their supposedly modern dance. The sets of these productions are often fairly elaborate and expensive, and both the stories told and the situations portrayed in them leave little room for the imagination. Some artists who, in themselves, are indeed oriented to contemporary history, but who are bound to traditional narrative and story-telling techniques include Daniela Kurz in Nürnberg, Daniel Goldin in Münster, Irina Pauls in Heidelberg, and Mario Schröder in Kiel.

7. In the new states in eastern Germany, much is arising at the edge of the secure public-financed theatre structures, such as at the Theater in der Fabrik (tif) in Dresden, the Theaterhaus Jena, or beside the chief choreographers of operahouses. Artists establishing themselves in independent structures have often done dance studies at state ballet schools. Cities like Leipzig and Dresden accommodate a potpourri of projects that deliberately settle into spaces outside the established structures of West Germany as well as the extensive production spaces of Berlin. These artists are characterised by a multiplicity of networks, and choreographies are often developed with little means, somewhere between work commissions for smaller public-financed theatres, and teaching at ballet schools. These works often portray very concrete living conditions and work situations. This is not to be understood simply as a lack of artistic abstraction, but rather as an indication of a great need to bring real life onto the stage.

8. The use of modern media has become more professional. Productions often have videos of such quality that it’s difficult for dance to stand up against them. Observers succumb to the events on the screen and are then more critical of the choreographer than they would be without such an opportunity of comparison. There are still many doublings, following the fashionable mode, superfluous decorations that dilute the statement of dance instead of supporting it.

9. Where does contemporary dance stand today? A new direction is easier to surmise than to determine. The search for new ways of dealing with the body appears to be exhausted, both »throwing it into the battle« (Hoghe) as well as interrogating it in minute detail. The inclusion of theatrical elements, the fine arts and media was a way that has been worn out. Perhaps it is the silence that characterises some of the best productions of the last year and a half; the silence, the atmosphere, the light – and the dance. Yes, there is more dance in Germany today than two years ago. Those artists who give hope for a generation after VA Wölfl, Sasha Waltz, and Jo Fabian can be seen on stage in Leipzig.