Age on Stage – old iron? Not at all! Dance has no expiry date. Guest lecture by Susan Barnett

Im Rahmen des Seminars "Tanz-Exkursionen in die Innenwelt des Tanzes" von Dr. Monika Thiele, Seniorenstudium, Akademie für Weiterbildung, Universität Bremen

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 Is it an outdated ideal of eternal youth, agility and peak physical performance?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.