The team from the German Dance Film Institute Bremen is recording the event at the Aalto Theater Essen / Germany.

The German Dance Association invites you to a glittering dance gala on
Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Aalto Theater in Essen.
This year’s program showcases the great diversity of dance:
Guests include the Berlin State Ballet, the MiR Dance Company Gelsenkirchen, the choreographer and dancer Thomas A. Bradley, and the Urban Dance Department & friends.

As part of the dance gala, the German Dance Prize 2026 will be awarded to choreographer Christian Spuck. Honors will also be bestowed upon dance scholar Prof. Dr. Gabriele Brandstetter and Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo (posthumously).

Visitors can expect an exciting and diverse gala program:

WATER is a powerful opening act in which the Urban Dance Department & Friends bring the essence of urban dance to the stage. Featuring 13 local and international dancers, Souhail Jalti’s choreography blends hip hop, popping, and breakdancing with contemporary urban expression.

The world premiere of NOT BUTOH SOLO by choreographer and dancer Thomas A. Bradley is both a reference to Gabriele Brandstetter and Tadashi Endo and a reflection on the artist’s enduring fascination with Japanese Butoh.

The Berlin State Ballet presents three pieces by choreographer and this year’s prize winner, Christian Spuck: With Beethoven, Spuck captures the mood of the second movement, “Adagio un poco mosso,” of Piano Concerto No. 5.

Nocturne, with its fusion of classical and contemporary elements, particularly represents Christian Spuck’s choreographic style. Christian Spuck premiered the ballet Romeo and Juliet in Zurich in 2012. His interpretation of the balcony scene, the balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, is among the most moving moments of the piece.

The MiR Dance Company Gelsenkirchen presents excerpts from the captivating two-part work Hasard & Boléro by Sita Ostheimer, featuring music by Yehezkel Raz and Maurice Ravel, and an excerpt from Millennials by choreographer Marcos Morau. “Millennials” explores how, in the era of the digital revolution, the internet and social networks have fundamentally changed society.

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The dance gala will be opened with a welcoming address by Wolfram Weimer, Minister of State for Culture at the Federal Chancellery.

The evening will be hosted by Vivian Perkovic – known, among other things, from the 3sat magazine Kulturzeit.

The dance gala will be offered with interpretation into German Sign Language (DGS).

“Orange Is Not Alone” is about people, about feelings, about differences. It’s about colors, about encounters, about togetherness. In this dance theater piece, eight dancers with and without disabilities move on stage. They move in spaces. They move in, they move within, they move together. They move out, they move into another space.

Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. Sometimes chaos, sometimes a storm. Together somewhere in a party cellar. Dancing together, like they’re really going wild. They hold each other, they belong together. They are very close, they are connected. They play, they take each other seriously. Not still like a statue, not boring. Everyone is important, no one is excluded. Everyone sits in the corner. Blue like friendship, pink like soft and chewing gum, green like longing, yellow like an open window, purple like a paint box, black like the night. Skin like a person, feeling and transparent. Orange wants to be seen, Orange belongs in the group. Maybe we’ll go out onto the balcony and watch a rainbow scatter. Maybe we’ll find a space—for me, for you, for us. Maybe we’ll find it here.

Neele Buchholz (born 1991 in Bremen) is a freelance dancer and actress with Down syndrome. She has performed on stage more than 300 times both in Germany and abroad (including “T4. Ophelia’s Garden,” directed by David Stöhr) and has appeared in film productions (including “Eldorado KaDeWe,” directed by Julia von Heinz). She began her career in 2013 as a permanent dancer with tanzbar bremen e.V. Since 2022, she has worked full-time as a freelance artist. The themes of equality and love often play an important role in her artistic work.

Tomas Bünger studied classical and modern stage dance and was a long-time member of the Bremen Dance Theatre. He subsequently completed an inclusive dance teacher training program in New York and was a guest lecturer at the University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. He worked regularly in Bangladesh for many years with the support of the Goethe-Institut and was an artistic resident in Togo, Romania, and India. He received various teaching appointments. The focus of his choreographic work is the human being as dancer and their relationship to the world.

The ensemble of “Orange Is Not Alone” was selected following a casting call by Neele and Tom in a joint audition.

Co-production: Schwankhalle. Funded by the Performing Arts Fund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Senator for Culture Bremen, the Waldemar Koch Foundation, and Sparkasse Bremen.

Are you between training at an academy and a professional career? Or a professional dancer in Bremen? Then this is your chance! Immerse yourself in the working methods of two international companies. The choreographers and dancers from Of Curious Nature and Zappalà Danza will pass on their tools and moves directly to you – skills that otherwise only company members know. Inspiring guest teachers and an insider panel on how to get off to a successful start in the dance world complete the program.

FINAL SHOWING:
Sunday is the day: Clear the stage! Show what you’ve got and what you’ve created in the workshops. Free entry for all dance enthusiasts. Feel the vibes of the prospective professionals!

DO YOU LOVE DANCE, BUT NOT AS A PROFESSIONAL?
We have something for you too! Find out how dance works as a creative form of expression and how your body becomes an artistic tool. The dancers from Of Curious Nature will show you the basics of their intense movement techniques – skills for your own style!

The German Dance Film Institute team is documenting the Final-Showing

Visiting the Hanseatic city is always worthwhile!

But what steptext dance project and StattReisen Bremen have now come up with is completely new!

The participants embark on a completely new form of city exploration, in which the international ensemble Of Curious Nature turns a city tour into an event through dance interventions.

The intense dance performances presented by the seven dancers of the Bremen-based company Of Curious Nature at selected locations are unique. The art connects with the city and revitalises the urban space in a unique way.

The route includes places that even Bremen residents are unlikely to have visited often: the roof terrace of ecos works spaces, the Bremen Cotton Exchange, the sculpture garden at the Bürgerschaft and the new university forum at Domshof.

The dancers from Of Curious Nature create poetic images that connect bodies and urban space and give rise to visions of a city centre of the future. In a special atmosphere, visual axes are artistically designed and create new perspectives with lasting impressions of the city centre.

The German Dance Film Institute team is documenting this event.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

‘Baile’ aims to dissolve the boundaries between audience and performers and get everyone dancing. The basis of the coming together is Baile Funk, a dance that originated in the favelas of Brazil. The dancer Magali Sander Fett has learnt this dance style through research with Yago Morais and Héricles Garcia from Brazil, who are experienced in Baile Funk, and now wants to bring the dance to Bremen together with them.

The dance style is an expression of the attempt to find a collective, self-determined identity in the language of movement. Baile invites people to dance and at the same time asks: How can performers and audiences come together on stage and work together on a piece with different backgrounds and experiences? The choreographies of Baile Funk, the passinhos, form the basis for everyone: the dancers and the DJ explore the choreographic and musical structure of the dance. They complement and transform it with their own movement and sound vocabulary. ‘Baile’ becomes a ball for everyone, with or without dance experience.

The German Dance Film Institute team will document the performance.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

“The TanzKollektivBremen is drawn to Paula Modersohn-Becker, or more precisely to her self-portraits. For this encounter with the works of the Worpswede artist, the dance collective is inviting reinforcements: Laura Alcalà Freudenthal from Barcelona is choreographing the dancers Magali Sander Fett and Neus Ledesma Vidal, inspired by the life and work of Paula Modersohn-Becker.

I am I, and I hope to become more and more I.

This is what Paula Modersohn-Becker wrote in a letter to Rainer Maria Rilke in 1906. She trusts in her art and constantly looks at herself anew through her art.

Alcalà Freudenthal turns the stage into a canvas that the dancers work on with their movements. This constantly creates new perspectives on her (own) work. Two bodies, incessant shaking, flowers and skin. Everything is always new.

Isn’t it true that we only become something when we move?

‘Flesh and Flowers’ is being created as part of TanzKollektivBremen’s residency at the Centre for Art during the 2024/25 season. Funded by the Senator for Culture.”

The team from the German Dance Film Institute documents the performance.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

At a festive dance gala on 12 October 2024, the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland presented the German Dance Award 2024 – the most prestigious award for dance in Germany.

Prolonged applause accompanied the awards for Dieter Heitkamp (honour for lifetime achievement) and explore dance – Netzwerk Tanz für junges Publikum (honour for outstanding development in dance) and for Sasha Waltz, who was awarded the German Dance Award 2024.
The award ceremony and the dance gala impressively presented the emotional and unifying power of dance, accompanied by WDR presenter Siham El-Maimouni.

Highlights included the opening of the evening by the Aalto Ballett Essen on its home stage with an excerpt from the ballet ‘Carmen’, an excerpt from the dance theatre ‘Chotto Desh’ by the Akram Khan Company, a pas de deux from ‘In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated’ by William Forsythe of the Staatsballett Berlin and an excerpt from ‘Radical Cheerleading’ by choreographer Zufit Simon. The dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests delighted the audience with an excerpt from ‘In C’, a choreography by Sasha Waltz.

The laudators had touching words for the award winner and the honourees. Nele Hertling, who was honoured with the German Dance Award in 2018, on Sasha Waltz: “In addition to developing new pieces, performing in Berlin and giving numerous guest performances, Sasha Waltz is active on many levels and takes responsibility for her social environment (…). In addition to her artistic work, the development of innovative, interdisciplinary forms of performance and creation is a focal point of her work. (…) With its artistic work, the company Sasha Waltz & Guests stands for a democratic, open and diverse society with joint work in the encounter with the audience and an open discussion.”

Theatre scholar Gerald Siegmund emphasised that the lifetime achievement award for Dieter Heitkamp honours “(…) a restless artist, an innovative pedagogue, a cunning strategist and a tireless fighter for the cause of dance. (…) In the course of his “almost fifty years of commitment to dance in Germany and beyond, he has fearlessly made a great deal out of almost nothing. As an artist, as a teacher and as a mentor for future generations of dancers.”

Cultural politician Helge Lindh (Member of the German Bundestag) emphasised that explore dance is organised artistically and democratically, which is what makes the network so magical. The presence of society and young people is recognised and the power of development is taken into account. explore dance provides a wonderful service to democracy, which is why this network should be celebrated.

The team of the German Dance Film Institute documents the award ceremony gala.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

“My name is Oskar Spatz. I’m a dancer, I’ve been dancing since 2007. My shoe size is 40/41. I weigh 70 kilos and my favourite food is rice with mince. I usually dance with my colleagues. But today I’m alone on stage. I’m looking forward to spending this evening with you. Because togetherness is warmth.”

Oskar Spatz turns his life upside down – together with Tim Gerhards. This special evening of dance is about successes and setbacks, about art, being human and his private life.

Oskar himself once decided to become a dancer. At the time, he didn’t know exactly what that meant. But he knew that he wanted it. He almost always knows what he wants.

Even now he has made a decision: He’s going on stage alone. In an hour-long solo show, he demonstrates what self-determination means – and what it’s like to live and work in a community. He invites everyone to be his guests.” Press release
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The team of the German Dance Film Institute documents the performance.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)