Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT) - Pilot Project Tanzplan Berlin
Current Activities
The HZT was included in Berlin’s university contracts for 2010-2013, which will secure most of its funding in this period, and from 2010/11 it will receiving 1.15 million euros every year from the Education Offensive Masterplan to create new student places. After testing its courses on a group of students, the HZT is now operating normally with an annual intake of new students. The three courses will reach full capacity with more than 70 students by the end of 2012. (May, 2011)
Project description
The Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT) - Pilot Project Tanzplan Berlin received start-up-financing to create the first (and long awaited) contemporary educational institute for dance and choreography in Germany’s capitol. Members of the city’s independent dance scene and institutions of higher education were working hand-in-hand to implement the plans they have conceived together. Headed by the Berlin Senate, the partners in the project include the Universität der Künste (UdK), the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” (HfS) and various members of the city’s dance scene, represented by TanzRaumBerlin.
A 4-year pilot phase for research and testing created the basis for the new institute. The goal was to implement bachelor’s degree programmes in dance, choreography, and dance education, as well as the first master’s degree programme in Solo Dance Authorship.
The programmes were conceived and tested in several phases, so that they can be offered as bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes through the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin.
The Joint Commission is the decision-making body at the HZT. Commission members are Professors Peter Kock and Rhys Martin (both UdK), Ingo Reulecke and Dr. Alex Arteaga (both HfS ), and Dr. Kattrin Deufert and Nik Haffner (both proposed by the TanzRaumBerlin network). Deputy members are Dr. Christiane Berger (HfS), Constanze Klementz (UdK) and Executive Director Eva-Maria Hoerster. The student positions are currently vacant. The Joint Commission elects the Directorate, whose members are Prof. Nik Haffner, Eva-Maria Hoerster and Prof. Ingo Reulecke.
The Joint Commission is advised by two bodies appointed the by Senate, namely the International Advisory Committee (IAC) and the Committee of Experts (CoE). The IAC is made up of Dr. Ric Allsopp, Dartington College of Arts (Great Britain); Dr. Anita Donaldson, Dean, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; William Forsythe, choreographer (Dresden and Frankfurt); Prof. Dr. Gabriele Klein, dance expert, University of Hamburg; and Scott deLahunta, dance researcher, author and consultant (the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the USA). The CoE is made up of Prof. Dr. Gabriele Brandstetter (Freie Universität Berlin), Prof. Rhys Martin (UdK), Helge Musial (HfS), and Thilo Wittenbecher and Martin Nachbar (both TanzRaumBerlin network).
In 2006 the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin was founded as a pilot project of the Tanzplan Berlin to create new qualified university degree programmes in the field of contemporary dance. Since April 2010, at the end of the four-year pilot phase the HZT Berlin is continued under the auspices of the University of the Arts Berlin and the School for Dramatic Arts "Ernst Busch" in cooperation with the TanzRaumBerlin Network.
After a successful renovation of the ex-BVG industrial halls - which was made possible by a contribution from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie - and more than two years of interim artistic use, the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin and the Uferstudios are moving in the 14 newly designed studios in October 2010. Thus the Uferstrasse 23 will become an important university educational site and – in combination with the information contact point of the Tanzbüro Berlin and the studios used by artists and the Tanzfabrik Berlin – a new communicative interface for contemporary dance in Berlin.
(current as of October 2010)
Contribution by Elisabeth Nehring in
"Jahresheft Tanzplan Deutschland 2006/07" (March 2007)
It can’t be denied the Berlin pilot project occupies a special place among all the Tanzplan-vor-Ort (Dance Plan on Location) initiatives. The idea and implementation of a "Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz" (Cooperative Dance Education Centre) as a base for new, state-accredited contemporary dance training is like a journey without a fixed destination, in which everything must first be discovered and literally be reinvented: content and external structures, cooperation between various partners, the coordination of curricula and the concrete places in which the project can finally be implemented. Every step needs to be researched, negotiated, and tried out. There are no examples and no models to follow – that’s what makes this process so unique and nerve-wrackingly complex.
During the pilot project, Tanzplan Berlin will initially create two training courses that will do justice to the changing professional image of dancers and choreographers. Dancers are no longer just performers of a choreographic idea, but have long been a central part of the creative process, so the courses of study aim to promote independent, creative "Dancer-Choreographers". The course will also be closely linked with the professional field, entailing multifaceted collaboration with choreographers and artists working in other disciplines in the city and cooperation with festivals and performance centres. Training will not take place in remote academic spaces, but will be centred on artistic practice, so it will need flexible and unrestrictive structures in which permanent creative processes can further develop and change. What place could be better for this project than Berlin, the city with Germany’s largest population of choreographers and most vital artistic output?!
Long before the German Federal Cultural Foundation announced the names of the cities selected for the “Tanzplan vor Ort” project in January 2006, giving the starting signal for the pilot project in the capital, extraordinary things were already happening in Berlin’s heterogeneous dance scene. On the initiative of the TanzRaum Berlin network, which is made up of various professional Berlin institutions and event organizers, and with support from the Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur (The Berlin Senate Department of Science, Research and Culture), the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) (UdK), the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ (Ernst Busch University of Drama) (HfS), and representatives from independent dance companies all combined. Together they not only identified deficits in German dance training, but also drafted a concept for a "Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz" (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), instrumentally supported by the then Staatssekretärin für Kultur (State Secretary for Culture) Barbara Kisseler, and supervised by Claudia Feest, who was specially appointed by the Senat as the project coordinator.
The Hochschulübergreifende Zentrum Tanz (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), which is supported by both colleges of the arts, the UdK and the HfS, has officially existed since June 2006 and is institutionally connected with TanzRaum Berlin GmbH as cooperation partner. This forms the basis for the pilot project. Representatives from TanzRaum Berlin are responsible for developing the Bachelor course in "Contemporary Dance, Context, and Choreography", which the first students will start in the summer semester of 2007. Prof. Rhys Martin from the musical studies course at the UDK developed concepts and ideas in coordination with TanzRaum for a Masters course "Solo/Dance/Authorship", which is expected to start in the winter semester of 2007. Future integration or cooperation with other courses of study, such as an MA in Dance Science, an MA in Choreography and an MA in Dance Education are also concrete parts of the concept.
The projected integration with practice is also reflected in the planned location of the training centre. A former factory in Berlin Mitte will house not just the centre itself, but also workspaces for choreographers, rehearsal studios, and training and seminar spaces. The plan is for institutions such as the “Tanzfabrik”, “Tanzbüro”, “Tanzwerkstatt” and the “Mimecentrum” to then successively move in to form a central information and documentation centre – a workspace for contemporary dance, production, training and organisation gathered together in one structure.
In 2006 the research phase for the pilot project was carried out, funded by Tanzplan Deutschland with 260,000 Euros. Symposia were held on possible forms of organisation and education to examine the issues of the necessary content, in which new forms of teaching could be trialed and curricula for flexibly-structured courses be drawn up. In keeping with the idea that not just one single person from the world of the arts should be the inspiration and guiding light at the top rank of the hierarchy of the Hochschulübergeifendes Zentrum (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), an executive team consisting of three people was established, comprising Eva Maria Hoerster, Ingo Reulecke and Boris Charmatz. An international advisory board and a commission of external experts will work on the development of the curricula of BAs and MAs in a consultancy function. Tanzplan Deutschland will provide 772,700 Euros funding for the pilot project by 2009. The matching of this funding by the participating universities and colleges and the Land Berlin (state authority) means that about 2.2 million Euros will be available for this project.
The Bachelor course in "Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography" will rely on independent artistic work supervised by mentors and on a wide range of seminars from the outset. A modular system of content has also been developed for this course of studies that ranges from "Dramaturgies of Knowledge" and "Experimental Pedagogy" through "Physical Realities" up to "Own Work". More than the systematic acquisition of specialized knowledge or formal virtuosity, students should dedicate themselves to interdisciplinary kinetic, choreographic and conceptional education and to its critical and creative processing.
There will also be links to the content of the Masters in "Solo/Dance/Authorship", which is designed for experienced dancers and performers. They will be enabled to further develop an entirely individual and interdisciplinary access to dance and choreography and evolve their own artistic signatures, their authorship, in a two-year further training and research phase. Non-hierarchical mentoring methods, intensive workshops led by experienced artists plus synergies with other artistic disciplines such as music, film, performance or the visual arts will be at the centre of this course of studies.
Both courses of studies will only develop their own profiles in practice, a factor that is rooted in the concept of the pilot project. Teachers and students will document their experiences. This will not however be enough, so the entire pilot project will also be under scientific monitoring and its processes and results will be documented and archived – not only for the purposes of self-analysis but also for self-reassurance and as ‘food’ for a discourse among interested experts.
Which content and structures will be regarded as valid at the end of the pilot project in 2009 and will provide the basis for the setting up of a new institute remains to be seen. Initial response has proven that the concept is the right one. There was an unexpected level of demand in response to the call for applications to admissions to the BA course for the summer semester of 2007, with 181 applications. Seventeen of these applicants set out on their journey in April and who knows what treasures they will return with.
Current Activities
The HZT was included in Berlin’s university contracts for 2010-2013, which will secure most of its funding in this period, and from 2010/11 it will receiving 1.15 million euros every year from the Education Offensive Masterplan to create new student places. After testing its courses on a group of students, the HZT is now operating normally with an annual intake of new students. The three courses will reach full capacity with more than 70 students by the end of 2012. (May, 2011)
Project description
The Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT) - Pilot Project Tanzplan Berlin received start-up-financing to create the first (and long awaited) contemporary educational institute for dance and choreography in Germany’s capitol. Members of the city’s independent dance scene and institutions of higher education were working hand-in-hand to implement the plans they have conceived together. Headed by the Berlin Senate, the partners in the project include the Universität der Künste (UdK), the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” (HfS) and various members of the city’s dance scene, represented by TanzRaumBerlin.
A 4-year pilot phase for research and testing created the basis for the new institute. The goal was to implement bachelor’s degree programmes in dance, choreography, and dance education, as well as the first master’s degree programme in Solo Dance Authorship.
The programmes were conceived and tested in several phases, so that they can be offered as bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes through the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin.
The Joint Commission is the decision-making body at the HZT. Commission members are Professors Peter Kock and Rhys Martin (both UdK), Ingo Reulecke and Dr. Alex Arteaga (both HfS ), and Dr. Kattrin Deufert and Nik Haffner (both proposed by the TanzRaumBerlin network). Deputy members are Dr. Christiane Berger (HfS), Constanze Klementz (UdK) and Executive Director Eva-Maria Hoerster. The student positions are currently vacant. The Joint Commission elects the Directorate, whose members are Prof. Nik Haffner, Eva-Maria Hoerster and Prof. Ingo Reulecke.
The Joint Commission is advised by two bodies appointed the by Senate, namely the International Advisory Committee (IAC) and the Committee of Experts (CoE). The IAC is made up of Dr. Ric Allsopp, Dartington College of Arts (Great Britain); Dr. Anita Donaldson, Dean, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; William Forsythe, choreographer (Dresden and Frankfurt); Prof. Dr. Gabriele Klein, dance expert, University of Hamburg; and Scott deLahunta, dance researcher, author and consultant (the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the USA). The CoE is made up of Prof. Dr. Gabriele Brandstetter (Freie Universität Berlin), Prof. Rhys Martin (UdK), Helge Musial (HfS), and Thilo Wittenbecher and Martin Nachbar (both TanzRaumBerlin network).
In 2006 the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin was founded as a pilot project of the Tanzplan Berlin to create new qualified university degree programmes in the field of contemporary dance. Since April 2010, at the end of the four-year pilot phase the HZT Berlin is continued under the auspices of the University of the Arts Berlin and the School for Dramatic Arts "Ernst Busch" in cooperation with the TanzRaumBerlin Network.
After a successful renovation of the ex-BVG industrial halls - which was made possible by a contribution from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie - and more than two years of interim artistic use, the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin and the Uferstudios are moving in the 14 newly designed studios in October 2010. Thus the Uferstrasse 23 will become an important university educational site and – in combination with the information contact point of the Tanzbüro Berlin and the studios used by artists and the Tanzfabrik Berlin – a new communicative interface for contemporary dance in Berlin.
(current as of October 2010)
Contribution by Elisabeth Nehring in
"Jahresheft Tanzplan Deutschland 2006/07" (March 2007)
It can’t be denied the Berlin pilot project occupies a special place among all the Tanzplan-vor-Ort (Dance Plan on Location) initiatives. The idea and implementation of a "Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz" (Cooperative Dance Education Centre) as a base for new, state-accredited contemporary dance training is like a journey without a fixed destination, in which everything must first be discovered and literally be reinvented: content and external structures, cooperation between various partners, the coordination of curricula and the concrete places in which the project can finally be implemented. Every step needs to be researched, negotiated, and tried out. There are no examples and no models to follow – that’s what makes this process so unique and nerve-wrackingly complex.
During the pilot project, Tanzplan Berlin will initially create two training courses that will do justice to the changing professional image of dancers and choreographers. Dancers are no longer just performers of a choreographic idea, but have long been a central part of the creative process, so the courses of study aim to promote independent, creative "Dancer-Choreographers". The course will also be closely linked with the professional field, entailing multifaceted collaboration with choreographers and artists working in other disciplines in the city and cooperation with festivals and performance centres. Training will not take place in remote academic spaces, but will be centred on artistic practice, so it will need flexible and unrestrictive structures in which permanent creative processes can further develop and change. What place could be better for this project than Berlin, the city with Germany’s largest population of choreographers and most vital artistic output?!
Long before the German Federal Cultural Foundation announced the names of the cities selected for the “Tanzplan vor Ort” project in January 2006, giving the starting signal for the pilot project in the capital, extraordinary things were already happening in Berlin’s heterogeneous dance scene. On the initiative of the TanzRaum Berlin network, which is made up of various professional Berlin institutions and event organizers, and with support from the Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur (The Berlin Senate Department of Science, Research and Culture), the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) (UdK), the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’ (Ernst Busch University of Drama) (HfS), and representatives from independent dance companies all combined. Together they not only identified deficits in German dance training, but also drafted a concept for a "Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz" (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), instrumentally supported by the then Staatssekretärin für Kultur (State Secretary for Culture) Barbara Kisseler, and supervised by Claudia Feest, who was specially appointed by the Senat as the project coordinator.
The Hochschulübergreifende Zentrum Tanz (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), which is supported by both colleges of the arts, the UdK and the HfS, has officially existed since June 2006 and is institutionally connected with TanzRaum Berlin GmbH as cooperation partner. This forms the basis for the pilot project. Representatives from TanzRaum Berlin are responsible for developing the Bachelor course in "Contemporary Dance, Context, and Choreography", which the first students will start in the summer semester of 2007. Prof. Rhys Martin from the musical studies course at the UDK developed concepts and ideas in coordination with TanzRaum for a Masters course "Solo/Dance/Authorship", which is expected to start in the winter semester of 2007. Future integration or cooperation with other courses of study, such as an MA in Dance Science, an MA in Choreography and an MA in Dance Education are also concrete parts of the concept.
The projected integration with practice is also reflected in the planned location of the training centre. A former factory in Berlin Mitte will house not just the centre itself, but also workspaces for choreographers, rehearsal studios, and training and seminar spaces. The plan is for institutions such as the “Tanzfabrik”, “Tanzbüro”, “Tanzwerkstatt” and the “Mimecentrum” to then successively move in to form a central information and documentation centre – a workspace for contemporary dance, production, training and organisation gathered together in one structure.
In 2006 the research phase for the pilot project was carried out, funded by Tanzplan Deutschland with 260,000 Euros. Symposia were held on possible forms of organisation and education to examine the issues of the necessary content, in which new forms of teaching could be trialed and curricula for flexibly-structured courses be drawn up. In keeping with the idea that not just one single person from the world of the arts should be the inspiration and guiding light at the top rank of the hierarchy of the Hochschulübergeifendes Zentrum (Cooperative Dance Education Centre), an executive team consisting of three people was established, comprising Eva Maria Hoerster, Ingo Reulecke and Boris Charmatz. An international advisory board and a commission of external experts will work on the development of the curricula of BAs and MAs in a consultancy function. Tanzplan Deutschland will provide 772,700 Euros funding for the pilot project by 2009. The matching of this funding by the participating universities and colleges and the Land Berlin (state authority) means that about 2.2 million Euros will be available for this project.
The Bachelor course in "Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography" will rely on independent artistic work supervised by mentors and on a wide range of seminars from the outset. A modular system of content has also been developed for this course of studies that ranges from "Dramaturgies of Knowledge" and "Experimental Pedagogy" through "Physical Realities" up to "Own Work". More than the systematic acquisition of specialized knowledge or formal virtuosity, students should dedicate themselves to interdisciplinary kinetic, choreographic and conceptional education and to its critical and creative processing.
There will also be links to the content of the Masters in "Solo/Dance/Authorship", which is designed for experienced dancers and performers. They will be enabled to further develop an entirely individual and interdisciplinary access to dance and choreography and evolve their own artistic signatures, their authorship, in a two-year further training and research phase. Non-hierarchical mentoring methods, intensive workshops led by experienced artists plus synergies with other artistic disciplines such as music, film, performance or the visual arts will be at the centre of this course of studies.
Both courses of studies will only develop their own profiles in practice, a factor that is rooted in the concept of the pilot project. Teachers and students will document their experiences. This will not however be enough, so the entire pilot project will also be under scientific monitoring and its processes and results will be documented and archived – not only for the purposes of self-analysis but also for self-reassurance and as ‘food’ for a discourse among interested experts.
Which content and structures will be regarded as valid at the end of the pilot project in 2009 and will provide the basis for the setting up of a new institute remains to be seen. Initial response has proven that the concept is the right one. There was an unexpected level of demand in response to the call for applications to admissions to the BA course for the summer semester of 2007, with 181 applications. Seventeen of these applicants set out on their journey in April and who knows what treasures they will return with.
Tanzplan Deutschland
[ Contact ]
Judith Brückmann
Uferstudios
Uferstraße 23
13357 Berlin
Phone: 49 (0)30.3185-2902
www.hzt-berlin.de
[ Partners ]
Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch"
TanzRaumBerlin GmbH
Universität der Künste Berlin
[ Supporters ]
Land Berlin / Senatskanzlei - Kulturelle Angelegenheiten
| PRINT PAGE |
Judith Brückmann
Uferstudios
Uferstraße 23
13357 Berlin
Phone: 49 (0)30.3185-2902
www.hzt-berlin.de
[ Partners ]
Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch"
TanzRaumBerlin GmbH
Universität der Künste Berlin
[ Supporters ]
Land Berlin / Senatskanzlei - Kulturelle Angelegenheiten