Alle Termine | Filmvortrag | Dreharbeiten
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.
With the support of the regional association TanzSzene Bremen, we are resuming our well-established format, the TANZSALON.
As before, it will take place on the 10th of every month at 8:00 pm at TAFI – regardless of which day of the week the 10th falls on.
Many of you have told us how much you missed the TANZSALON as a place of encounter and exchange within Bremen’s dance scene. Since the last time, quite a lot has happened – at TAFI, but surely also with you: new productions, new films, new guests.
We warmly invite you to celebrate the first TANZSALON after the long break with us. The evening’s theme will be TAFI’s latest documentary: “Vulnerably Beautiful. Dance between Elegance and Risk – A Study by Goethe University Frankfurt.”
The film accompanies a medical study on physical strain in professional dance. Prof. Dr. Dr. Eileen Wanke of Goethe University Frankfurt, head of the research project, will introduce the topic.
Drinks will be provided – just bring yourselves, and feel free to bring along new people and friends.
Friday, October 10 at 8:00 pm
Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut Bremen
Am Wall 201 / Forum am Wall
Entrance Ostertorstraße, next to the bakery
Translation by ChatGPT
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VULNERABLY BEAUTIFUL. Dance between elegance and risk Dokumentarfilm zu einer Studie der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. |
Video-Produktion | Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut Bremen | Bremen | D | 10.07.2025 |
With Vulnerably Beautiful – Dance between Elegance and Risk, the German Dance Film Institute Bremen presents its latest documentary – an impressive portrait of a medical study of professional dance in the field of tension between artistic dedication and physical strain.
The film is accompanied by a comprehensive research project conducted by the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt under the direction of Prof. Dr Dr Eileen Wanke. Using modern methods of movement analysis (kinematic examination of movement sequences), movement patterns of professional dancers were analysed during training and rehearsals. The focus: the influence of different floors on the body, determined by identical movement sequences with and without pointe shoes on two different types of floor.
The film was shot at the Staatstheater Oldenburg and the Theater Kiel – two theatres with renowned classical companies known for their excellent dance quality.
>The film not only conveys scientific findings, but also personal perspectives. In addition to dancers and Heather Jürgensen, 1st ballet master and deputy ballet director of Ballett Kiel, Prof Dr Dr Eileen Wanke herself has her say in a detailed interview. She explains the background to the study and categorises the results from a medical perspective. In addition, Wolfgang Heuer from Unfallkasse NRW’s stage technology department reports on safety aspects and prevention in stage operations.
Vulnerably beautiful invites you to see dance not only as an art form, but also as a high-performance physical discipline with all its risks and challenges.
The two international ensembles Of Curious Nature and Zappalà Danza launch the first joint workshop program for emerging dance talents.
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
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Alexandra Beriault with Cinematic Spaces from the University of the Arts Bremen as a guest |
Veranstaltung | Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut | Bremen - Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut | D | 28.06.2025 |
On Wednesday, June 18th, the Hochschule für Künste class Cinematic Spaces visited the Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut, where we were greeted by the institute’s director, Heide-Marie Härtel. As she guided us through the premises, we were introduced to several facets of the institute—one major highlight being the opportunity to see where many original dance films are digitized for the archive. The digitization studio features a fully customized system that accommodates a range of analog moving-image formats. Multiple dance films (from various time periods) play simultaneously on a collection of stacked CRT television monitors, and the entire experience of seeing such a system at work feels akin to stepping into a multi-channel video installation—dedicated solely to dance film.
Throughout the tour, our class was given glimpses into several examples from the institute’s extensive archive of dance videos, as well as other films that document a history of collaborative projects between the Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut and numerous international partners. Several of the dance works shown incorporated elements of the visual arts, including video, sound, sculpture, and multimedia installation. In essence, we were invited to consider dance and the stage as another possibility for what a “cinematic space” could embody.
Alex Beriault
How is artificial intelligence changing the way we work with film, AV media and archives? What opportunities and challenges arise for research, archiving and mediation? The public working session of the Film AV & Media DACH working group, which is taking place as part of BiblioCon in Bremen, is dedicated to these questions.
Under the title ‘AI in Film and Media’, experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland will come together to discuss the latest developments. The programme includes contributions from the Film Institute Hanover, the FID Media (formerly FID Film, Media and Communication Science / MediaRep) and the AV-Portal of the TIB Hanover – supplemented by insights into local institutions and projects.
A special highlight of the programme is a visit to the German Dance Film Institute Bremen, the world’s largest archive for dance film. The tour will provide an insight into the combination of decades of archive practice with new digital and AI-supported perspectives.
The session is open to the public and invites all interested parties – for information, discussion and networking at the interface of media studies, practice and technology.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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)
Can a body over 50 still dance? And if so, how? This guest lecture deals with this question.
Susan Barnett, dancer and dance teacher from Bremen, was invited to give this lecture. Barnett comes from Wales, has danced internationally – including with the Ballet Municipal de Santiago and in Hans Kresnik’s ensemble – and has been a freelance dancer for many years. With a Master’s degree in Dance Science and a wide range of projects between stage art, dance education and community dance, she deals intensively with the topics of body, age and expression.
In professional dance in particular, age often seems to be a criterion for exclusion. While mature artists and (fewer) female artists are still on stage in film and theatre, professional dancers often disappear from the limelight at an early age. What are the reasons for this? Is it an outdated ideal of eternal youth, agility and peak physical performance?
But dance can do more. Mobility, joie de vivre, expression – all of this can be maintained and even enhanced into old age.
This guest lecture ‘Age on Stage’ therefore focussed not only on the question of health benefits, but above all on artistic perspectives:
Is getting older on the dance stage really a taboo?
What new forms of expression emerge when the body emphasises qualities other than bounce and speed?
And how can images of age be shifted in art?
‘Age on Stage’ is an invitation to rethink dance: not as a privilege of youth, but as a lifelong form of movement and expression.
As part of the event ‘Dance – Excursions into the inner world of dance’, we welcome Prof. Dr Dr Eileen Wanke from the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt as a special guest.
Prof. Wanke is leading a research project to analyse movement patterns in professional stage dance. State-of-the-art kinematic methods are used to scientifically analyse stresses and risks for dancers – work that opens up new perspectives on prevention and health promotion in dance.
Where does art end, where does medicine begin? In her lecture ‘From dance to dance medicine’, Prof. Dr Dr Eileen M. Wanke sheds light on the development of dance from an elementary human form of movement to a profession with special physical requirements – and the emergence of dance medicine as an independent interdisciplinary field.
Using historical examples, Prof Wanke shows how dance has always been used to maintain health. At the same time, she outlines the specific stresses and risks that professional dancers are exposed to as part of their training and profession.
The focus is on the question: How can medical knowledge help to prevent injuries, maintain performance and ensure the long-term health of dancers?
A lecture with film contribution between dance art and science – understandable, practical and with a view to current research results.
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ProdÁrt – Festival Diversity in Action |
Dreharbeiten | ProdÁrt | Bremen - Zentrum für Kunst im Tabakquartier | D | 10.-11.05.2025 |
For all those who want to celebrate together the vision of a world in which all people – with and without disabilities – are equal.
To achieve and demand equality, every year on 5 May there is a day of protest for the equality of people with disabilities. Year after year, people take to the streets for this – there is still a long way to go.
On the occasion of the European Day of Protest for Equality for People with Disabilities.
The team of the German Dance Film Institute documents the festival.
How does dance change when it is centred on a single person? And what social impulses are contained in this form? Heide-Marie Härtel, founder and director of the German Dance Film Institute Bremen, opens her five-part lecture on the topic of ‘100 years of solo dance’ with these questions. The seminar is a cooperation with the Dance and Theatre in Social Work course at the University of Arts in Ottersberg under the direction of Prof. Leonardo Cruz.
Heide-Marie Härtel uses selected film clips from the archive to provide insights into the works of outstanding solo dancers.
An inspiring look back and forward – in the spirit of dance as both an individual and social act.
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Dance Medical Researchv. An interview with Prof Dr Dr Eileen Wanke |
Dreharbeiten | Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut Bremen | Bremen | D | 09.04.2025 |
What happens to the joints of dancers who perform at the highest level every day? A research project at the Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt, led by Prof. Dr Dr Eileen Wanke, is investigating this question.
The study focuses on the use of state-of-the-art motion capture technology: movement data was precisely recorded on dancers from the Oldenburg State Theatre during training and rehearsals. This technology makes it possible to visualise stresses on joints and muscles that are neither visible nor measurable to the naked eye.
The study also investigates how different dance floors affect the body. To do this, the dancers perform identical movement sequences on two different types of floor – with and without pointe shoes.
The German Dance Film Institute Bremen accompanied the project on film and spoke to Prof Dr Dr Eileen Wanke about the background, aims and initial findings. Her interview forms the core of a new film that shows that dance and science can complement each other productively – for the health of artists on and off stage.
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Ferdy II von KOÏNZI-DANCE |
Dreharbeiten | KOÏNZI-DANCE | Hamburg. Poolhaus Blankenese | D | 23.03.2025 |
From Gombrowicz’s diary: “You torment me with the question “What did you want to say with FERDYDURKE” I answer: ‘Be more sensual, less intellectual, try to dance with this book rather than approach its skeleton. Let it seduce you rather than ask why, ask if it is enticing, enchanting, passionate and courageous. May it lead you into reality, [...]…Pssst …. I’ve already said too much’!‘
With this in mind, Nele Lipp and her dancers Anna Grover, Nicole Gießler, Christa Krings and singer Corinna Meyer-Esche created the Ferdyfilm in the form of two ’Complete Fragments”. The second “fragment” was created with the help of the German Dance Film Institute Bremen.
Heather Jurgensen, Acting Ballet Director of the Kiel Ballet, was recently invited to the German Dancfilm Institute Bremen. As part of a scientific film project, he talks to Heide-Marie Härtel about current differences in professional employment and about the approach to physical stress.
This interview is part of the research project of the Goethe-University Frankfurt on determining the risks of musculoskeletal occupations for dancer. Heather Jurgensen includes not only their contributions to the studio, but also enriched by their own experiences from the period as a long-term soloist at the Hamburg Ballet under the direction of John Neumeier.
She describes their personal approach with precautionary strategies and gives an overview of possible viable solutions to hair loss.
Excerpt from that interview finds itself in new documentary Vulnerably beautiful- Dance between Elegance and Risk, connecting the science and ruled Tanzpraxis in a fascinating way.
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Baile. Dance performance by Magali Sander Fett with the TanzkollektivBremen |
Dreharbeiten | TanzKollektivBremen | Bremen - Zentrum für Kunst im Tabakquartier | D | 14.03.2025 |
‘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)
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Federal Cross of Merit for Heide-Marie Härtel. Honoured for her life’s work in the field of dance and dance film |
Tafi-Info | Senatskanzlei des Landes Bremen | Bremen - Rathaus | D | 07.03.2025 |
On 7 March 2025, Heide-Marie Härtel, founder and long-standing artistic director of the German Dance Film Institute Bremen, was awarded the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mayor Dr Andreas Bovenschulte presented her with the award in the Senate Hall of Bremen City Hall, honouring her outstanding services to the preservation and dissemination of the cultural heritage of dance.
Heide-Marie Härtel studied classical and modern dance in Cologne and was employed as a dancer at the Bremen Theatre from 1971. Since the late 1970s, she has dedicated herself to the documentation and mediation of dance film. In 1989, together with Susanne Schlichter, she founded the German Dance Film Institute Bremen. With over 40,000 media, it is now one of the most important archives for dance film in Europe.
In his laudatory speech, Mayor Bovenschulte emphasised:
“Over the past 35 years, Heide-Marie Härtel has made a significant contribution to preserving and passing on the cultural heritage of dance through her many years of work in the field of dance film. With tireless dedication and a special feeling for the importance of dance, she has provided important impulses that reach far beyond national borders.”
In addition to her work as a producer and director, Heide-Marie Härtel initiated European projects to network dance archives and was involved in the umbrella organisation Tanz Deutschland. She has already received the 2021 German Dance Award for her life’s work. The team of the German Dance Film Institute warmly congratulates Heide-Marie Härtel on this well-deserved award.
The right floor plays a decisive role in rehearsals and performances in professional dance: it not only influences the feeling of movement, but also the physical strain and the risk of injury.
Wolfgang Heuer, Deputy Head of the ‘Stages and Studios’ department at Unfallkasse NRW (DGUV), is contributing his expertise to the dance medicine research project under the direction of Prof Dr Dr Eileen Wanke. The focus is on the question of how different floor coverings affect the joints and the entire musculoskeletal system of dancers.
For the statutory accident insurance, such findings are of great importance: they provide an important basis for recommendations to theatres and training centres in order to make rehearsal and performance conditions as safe as possible.
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THE MEMORY OF DANCE. Archive trips with Patricio Bunster |
Video-Produktion | Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut Bremen | Bremen. Dresden | D | 10.12.2024 |
Dance can be a form of optimism that leads to the realisation that even in the greatest catastrophes, you can see everything differently.’ – Patricio Bunster.
After fleeing Chile in 1973, the dancer and choreographer Patricio Bunster (1924-2006) found new opportunities for development in the GDR. What influences shaped him and what traces can still be found at his places of work in Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock and Chile? How did modern dance develop there? What did he leave behind and how is he and his work remembered today?
On Open Day in October 2024, the Palucca University dedicated a panel discussion to Patricio Bunster with former students and companions, including Prof Dr Peter Jarchow, Prof Dr Ralf Stabel, Antje Ladstätter, Regina Schettler and Raymond Hilbert. In addition, an exhibition in the rooms of the Archiv-Villa provided insights into Bunter’s life and artistic work.
The short documentary “The Memory of Dance. Archive Journeys with Patricio Bunster” accompanies and portrays the exhibition and the panel discussion on the 100th birthday of the Chilean choreographer and dancer Patricio Bunster at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden. The exhibition was curated by the Leipzig Dance Archive, the Archive of the Palucca University of Dance Dresden and the Saxon Academy of Arts and realised in cooperation with the University of Leipzig and the Palucca University of Dance Dresden.
The film was produced by the German Dance Film Institute Bremen.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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Research on the artistic work of Prof. Wanda Golonka, HfS Ernst Busch in the archive of the German Dance Film Institute Bremen |
Zu Gast im TAFI | Bremen | D | 06.-08.12.2024 |
To mark the departure of Prof. Dr Wanda Golonka from her teaching position in the Master’s degree programme in Choreography at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT), students and staff of the HZT are collaborating with the German Dance Film Institute Bremen.
The focus is on Wanda Golonka’s film collection, which she has donated to the institute’s archive for digitisation and long-term preservation. The viewing and processing of this film material serves to create a contribution that honours Wanda Golonka’s artistic and pedagogical work at the HZT.
The German Dance Film Institute is pleased to support this collaboration with its archive and expertise.
But dance is fleeting. What remains are recordings. This is where the German Dance Film Institute Bremen comes into play: under the direction of Heide-Marie Härtel, herself once a soloist under Hans Kresnik, Europe’s largest dance film archive has been created since the 1980s. Over 40,000 film and video documents are stored directly above the Bremen City Library – many of them works by John Neumeier, recorded in TV quality.
The series of events also presents the archive itself. Heide-Marie Härtel will provide personal insights: as a former dancer and as an archivist who preserves dance for future generations.
Three events are planned at the German Dance Film Institute Bremen, which can also be followed online via Zoom.
Dance lives on. In movement, in memory – and in film.
Dr. Monika Thiele