Dance

SOLOEDITION'26
January 30, 2026 | 8:00 PM
January 31, 2026 | 3:00 PM & 8:00 PM

As part of the SOLOEDITION format, students from the final year of the BA Dance program at the Centre for Contemporary Dance/Cologne University of Music and Dance offer insights into their artistic practice. Focused on deepening and advancing their own dance artistry and closely aligned with their respective profiles (Performative Practice or Dance Mediation), the students develop performative solo pieces. They are guided by mentors from the fields of choreography, dance, dramaturgy, or performance, chosen by the students according to their individual interests and focus areas.

With Solo works by: Maria Arenas Romero, Clara Böhm, Paula Castelli, Kevkev, Nadine Kribbe, Lena Luisa Röthlisberger, Jona Bo Schlotbohm

Mentoring: Jemima Rose Dean, Chin-Shun Liao, Kira Metzler, S. Rudat, Diana Salles, Sigué Sayouba, Deva Schubert

Artistic Direction: Vera Sander, Rehearsal Coordination: Kojiro Imada, Technical Direction: Marco Wehrspann

Venue:
ZZT Studio Theater
Turmstraße 3-5, 50733 Cologne

Admission free, Registration required.

Registration

The Federal Competition Biennale Tanzausbildung is the central platform for emerging dance talent in Germany and the most important project of the Dance Education Conference (AK|T). As part of the 10th Biennale Tanzausbildung, the graduating class of the BA Dance / CCD will present "Dead Slow Ahead" by Annamari Keskinen and Ryan Mason / Thar Be Dragons on 2 February in Berlin.

As part of the 10th Biennale Tanzausbildung 2026 in Berlin, the graduating classes of Germany’s state-recognized dance education institutions, together with invited guest institutions from abroad, will present their latest artistic works. The dance evenings at Theater an der Parkaue mark the opening of a biennale dedicated to exchange between artists, institutions, and generations—a celebration of young dance that places movement, encounter, and community at its center.

The Federal Competition Biennale Tanzausbildung is the central platform for emerging dance talent in Germany and the most important project of the Dance Education Conference (AK|T). The 10th Biennale Tanzausbildung 2026 in Berlin marks the anniversary edition and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). The host institution is the State Ballet School Berlin, in cooperation with Theater an der Parkaue.

Workshops and workshop projects led by Komoco, Pau Aran, Marguerite Donlon, Rémy Fichet, Liane Simmel, Nicholas Palmquist, and Marzena Sobanska, working meetings of the Dance Education Conference, and a symposium form the internal biennale program for students, teachers, workshop leaders, and guests.

On February 2nd, the graduating class of the BA Dance / CCD will present "Dead Slow Ahead" by Annamari Keskinen and Ryan Mason / Thar Be Dragons.

Dead Slow Ahead is a choreographic inquiry into slowness. The title refers to the nautical command to proceed at the minimum speed necessary to maintain course. The body is understood as a measure of temporality—carried, stretched, sensed—in contrast to acceleration and overexposure. The work asks what becomes legible when pace is reduced: how attention condenses, how perception shifts, and how care might be practiced without haste. Clear in its intention yet open in form, Dead Slow Ahead approaches slowness not as retreat, but as a different mode of steering.

In slowness, details condense through the body: the body is shaped by temporality and, in turn, shapes the perception of time. Temporal texture comes to the fore—contours sharpen, thresholds become visible; the gaze learns to wait. Calm, friction, tenderness, and doubt coexist, depending on where attention is directed. The work lingers at the intersection between the audience’s gaze and the performers’ lived temporality. Through sonic presence and sustained concentration, it invites a decelerated experience of reality.

Choreography: Annamari Keskinen & Ryan Mason / Thar Be Dragons
Dance: María Arenas Romero, Clara Böhm, Paula Castelli, Kevkev, Nadine Kribbe, Lena Luisa Röthlisberger, Jona Bo Schlotbohm

The performance is open to the public.

10th Biennale Tanzausbildung 2026 Berlin
2 & 3 February 2026 | 7:00 pm

THEATER AN DER PARKAUE
Junges Staatstheater Berlin
Parkaue 29, 10367 Berlin

Further information and tickets

Christina Mertzani is an internationally active choreographer, dancer, and educator in contemporary dance, trained at the Athens State School of Dance. Over the past 20 years, she has taught, choreographed, and worked on numerous projects worldwide—including at universities, theaters, and festivals across Europe and Asia. Christina has presented her own work in more than 30 countries and collaborated with many renowned artists and ensembles. In addition, she served for many years as Co-Director of the One Small Step International Contemporary Dance Festival in Corfu and has taught, among other institutions, at the Anton Bruckner University. We are very pleased to welcome her as our new Professor of Contemporary Dance at CCD as of the winter semester.

A warm welcome, Christina!

From March 11–15, 2026, Tanzplattform Deutschland will present the 13 most remarkable dance productions of the past two years in Dresden. Among them are two CCD alumni: Elsa Artmann with “Langes Wochenende” and Katharina Senzenberger with “Lovedance.”

We are very pleased to see two productions by former CCD students represented at Tanzplattform Deutschland next year!

“Lovedance” by Katharina Senzenberger explores love from a queer perspective. As a counterpart to the love song, the team around Katharina Senzenberger sets out in search of a lovedance that approaches love as a moment of exhilaration. In doing so, the dance performance invites reflection on possibilities of togetherness and imagines new forms of being with one another. The choreography draws from a collective archive of affective dance forms and romantic gestures—such as the Viennese waltz and pas de deux from the entertainment industry—which are embodied and questioned by the performers.

For freelance lovers, every date is a work meeting. “Langes Wochenende” by Elsa Artmann is dedicated to professional and personal relationships. “We are concerned with how we romantically charge our work and the relationships that take place within it, especially when working under precarious conditions, and how we align our personal relationships with the logics of work, particularly where these forms begin to break down. We want to talk about collegial tenderness as a relational utopia—its beauty, its promise, its resilience, and its failure. Drawing on intimacy techniques from lap dance, we examine the corporealities of professionalized closeness and their intrusions into the private sphere.”

The dramaturgy for both pieces was developed by Valerie Wehrens, who is also connected to CCD as an alumna of the MA Dance Studies program and a former research associate. Congratulations, Elsa, Katho & Valerie!

Accreditation is now open.

Further information on Tanzplattform Deutschland

Deutschlandstipendium awarded to Paulina Brunner, Nadine Kribbe, and Bo Preuß 

Once again this year, the ZZT is pleased to honor committed and outstanding students who have been awarded a Deutschlandstipendium.
The scholarship supports students who demonstrate exceptional academic performance, take on social responsibility, or have overcome personal challenges on their educational path.

The Deutschlandstipendium amounts to €3,600 per year, paid in monthly installments of €300. It is funded equally by private sponsors and the German federal government.

We warmly congratulate Paulina Brunner (BA Dance), Nadine Kribbe (BA Dance), and Bo Preuß (MA Mediation in Dance) and wish them continued success and inspiration on their artistic and dance-related journey and work!

 

DAAD Prize for Outstanding Achievments of International Students Awarded to Paula Castelli

We are very pleased that this year Paula Castelli (BA Dance) has been honored with the DAAD Prize for Outstanding Achievements of International Students. The €1,000 prize is awarded annually at German universities to recognize students who distinguish themselves through exceptional academic performance as well as social or intercultural engagement.

The DAAD Prize aims to give a face and a story to the many international students studying at German universities.

We warmly congratulate Paula Castelli on this well-deserved recognition!

Dance Studies Research Fellowship 2025 awarded to Sinjini Chatterjee and Einav Katan-Schmid

We are delighted to announce that the Gender Equality Commission of the HfMT and the Centre for Contemporary Dance (CCD), in collaboration with the German Dance Archive Cologne, have awarded not just one but two research fellowships this year, each worth €3,000. This first-time double award reflects our strong commitment to fostering a particularly diverse research landscape and acknowledges the outstanding quality of the submitted projects.
The Dance Studies Research Fellowship supports research-based, interdisciplinary projects that work with holdings from the German Dance Archive Cologne. The aim is to connect historical sources with current questions and to promote research approaches that engage with diversity, gender perspectives, body politics, and cultural memory through movement.
The funding program is initiated and supported by the Gender Equality Commission. It provides visibility for diverse research perspectives and strengthens sustainable collaboration with the Dance Archive Cologne.

This year’s fellows are Sinjini Chatterjee and Einav Katan-Schmid:
Sinjini Chatterjee investigates the role of classical Indian dancers in German-Indian cultural diplomacy during the Cold War, focusing on emerging notions of femininity, nationality, and cultural identity in transnational exchange.
Einav Katan-Schmid explores the political and transformative power of touch in dance. Her project Touching Gestures of Relational Care links contemporary Israeli choreographies with archival research on gestures of resistance and care in 20th-century dance.

Both fellows will share and discuss their practice-related research within the Dance Studies Research Fellowship program at CCD - through events involving students, the German Dance Archive, and various publics. In addition to deepening content-related inquiries, the fellowships are also intended to foster exchange between theory and practice.

The selection of the projects was based on their academic quality and relevance—with an awareness of the complex contexts in which research and researchers operate today.

We are happy to share one of the key outcomes of the artistic research project "RELAY - Thinking Artistic Material in Music and Dance" with you: the RELAY ARTicle on Research Catalogue!

RELAY is a three year is a three-year artistic research project made possible by the ERASMUS+ program "Cooperation Partnerships". It focuses on artistic-pedagogical developments in the fields of choreography, dance, music and composition. You'll find more information about the project here.

The RELAY ARTicle shares artistic practices, pedagogical activities, documents and documentations of the process, writings, scores, methods, practical tools as well as  recollections by and about the practitioners involved in the project.

Throughout the project, we developed insights, practices, and tools around five key topics: relaying, multitude of perspectives, transformational practices, sustainability and  learning. Our findings and reflections on the principles and methods of RELAY can be explored on the page. The non-linear structure invites you to explore the material in various ways and discover multi-dimensional connections.

The ToolCloud provides access to tools, scores, and practices and invites you to use and adapt them in your own work.

Dive right in and explore!