Dance

In July, the BA Dance and MA Mediation in Dance graduating cohorts invite you to their final presentations.

From the BA Dance programme, Clara Böhm, María Arenas Romero, Paula Castelli, Nadine Kribbe, Kevkev, Jona Bo Schlotbohm and Lena Röthlisberger will present their final projects.

In the MA Mediation in Dance programme, Viola Cantù, Renato Sbardelotto and Lucia Nordhoff will complete their studies in 2026 and present their work in public presentations and workshop settings.

The presentations will take place from 15 - 21 July at the CCD studio theatre and can be attended by prior registration.

Dates:

Wednesday, 15 July
16:00 Lena Röthlisberger – "The Smell of Picking Cherries"
19:00 Clara Böhm – "Saatfrüchte sollen nicht vermahlen werden"

Thursday, 16 July
16:00 Paula Castelli – "HEMBRA - Ecos bajo la piel / Echoes beneath the skin"
19:00 Nadine Kribbe – "i.A. Kribbe"

Friday, 17 July
19:00 Jona Bo Schlotbohm – "BrainGame"

Monday, 20 July
16:00 Kevkev – "lack of depth"
19:00 Renato Sbardelotto – "Dance as a Shared Experience in School - Engaging Young Audiences through GORJEIO: eine Integrationsmaßnahme für Papageien"

Tuesday, 21 July
16:00 Viola Cantù – "My Body Is the City"
19:00 Lucia Nordhoff – "ASKING FOR FAILURE – A research about failure with games & tasks"

Note: The presentation by María Arenas Romero (Under His Eye, working title) will take place at a later date. The new date will be announced. Admission is subject to prior registration due to limited capacity.

Registration

Venue:
ZZT Studio Theatre, Turmstraße 3–5, Cologne

From June 8-11, Prof. Wencke Kriemer de Matos, Prof. Vera Sander and Laura Lang-De Negri visited the Duncan Centre Conservatory in Prague and the SVSGUGL Arts Gymnasium in Ljubljana. Through two workshops and an information session at each institution, they introduced the BA Dance programme and CCD, engaging with pupils, students and faculty members in discussions on educational pathways, artistic practice and European perspectives in contemporary dance.

Following outreach visits to partner institutions in Italy and Portugal last year, this year's activities took the team to the Czech Republic and Slovenia. The visits provided an opportunity to learn more about the educational profiles of both institutions and to explore possibilities for future collaborations, exchange formats and stronger European networking.

Many thanks to our hosts for the inspiring encounters, valuable insights and warm hospitality!

BA Dance

Prospective student visits to the BA Dance programme will be offered during the following periods in the winter semester 2026/27:

• 16–20 November 2026

• 30 November–4 December 2026

These visits are intended for prospective students with prior dance training. Participants will spend a full week at the programme, taking part in the regular study activities of the second-year BA Dance cohort and gaining first-hand insight into the programme and the working methods at the Center for Contemporary Dance (CCD).

In addition, there will be opportunities to meet with the head of the study programme and current BA students, ask questions about the programme, and learn more about studying at CCD.

To apply, please submit a brief description of your training background and current level in contemporary dance and ballet. Four places are available for each visit period.

MA Mediation in Dance

Prospective student visits to the MA Mediation in Dance programme will be offered on the following dates:

• 13 November 2026

• 9 December 2026

• 6 January 2027

These visits offer a full day of participation in and observation of selected seminars within the programme. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet with the head of the study programme and current MA students, ask questions, and learn more about the programme.

If you are interested in attending a prospective student visit, please contact the CCD Coordination Office.

Clara Böhm Selected for the Billinger & Schulz SUMMER ACADEMY 2026

We are delighted that BA Dance student Clara Böhm has been selected to participate in the Billinger & Schulz SUMMER ACADEMY 2026. The one-week mentoring programme will take place from 20–26 July 2026 at Produktionshaus NAXOS in Frankfurt am Main and is aimed at emerging dance artists transitioning from higher education into the independent dance scene.

Through an intensive exchange format, participants receive artistic mentoring, insights into project development and funding structures, and opportunities for shared aesthetic experimentation and networking.

Hannah Emami, Maren Nöding and Carlotta Ortinger Participate in Dance Journalism Training Platform in Munich

From 8–13 July, Hannah Emami, Maren Nöding and Carlotta Ortinger – two current students and one alumna of the MA Dance Studies programme – will take part in a professional training platform for dance journalism in Munich.

The project is hosted by tanznetz and Access to Dance in cooperation with Think Big!, the International Festival for Dance, Music Theatre and Performance for Young Audiences. Hannah, Maren and Carlotta will report on the festival across a range of formats and media, supported by experts in fields including film and social media.

The programme is part of the larger initiative Strengthening the Contemporary Dance Scene through Emerging Dance Journalism, funded by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund, in which Bewegungsmelder participates as a partner initiative from North Rhine-Westphalia. Over a period of three years, TANZPAKT funding enables students to develop and test journalistic formats at a total of nine festivals, supported by experienced journalists, editors and digital media experts. The resulting contributions are published on both tanznetz and the Bavarian dance platform Access to Dance.

Benze C. Werner’s LP Invited to Tanzquartier Wien

We are delighted that Benze C. Werner’s performance LP (Long Play) has been invited to the 2026 edition of S_P_I_T_ – Queer Performance Festival Vienna at Tanzquartier Wien. Presented as part of the festival programme, LP is a polyphonic collage of lesbian history, personal longing and original songs, bringing together archival materials, live performance and music. Through an exploration of voice, intimacy and embodied memory, the work opens up multiple emotional and sensory points of access for audiences. The performance will be shown at Tanzquartier Wien from 25–27 June 2026 as part of a festival dedicated to the theme of “Queer Time.”

Our cooperation project with the online magazine tanznetz and nrw landesbuero tanz is entering the next round: from April, a new generation of MA Dance Studies students will be reporting regularly on dance premieres in and from NRW. Just before the summer break, tanznetz published new reviews by Hannah Emami and Maren Nöding, covering recent premieres including works by Daniel Ernesto Müller at FFT Düsseldorf and the tanzhaus nrw Youth Company in Düsseldorf:

Ahnungsloser Tod „Alles anders“ von Daniel Ernesto Müller am FFT Düsseldorf by Maren Nöding

Die Crux mit den Übergängen „Der Sandmann“ und „Shift.er.s“ im Theater Krefeld und Mönchengladbach by Hannah Emami

Der Wunsch nach Sichtbarkeit „Tracks“ der Jugendkompanie tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf by Maren Nöding

You can find all Bewegungsmelder articles here. 

We are delighted to now offer an overview of all events at the Centre for Contemporary Dance, available both as a PDF and as a printed fold-out brochure!

Here you can access the overview for the summer semester 2026: PDF

With “Circus Dance Practices #1”, the CCD, in collaboration with the CircusDanceFestival, launches a multi-week artistic research project at the intersection of circus and dance starting on May 18. Together with students from the BA Dance programme, internationally active French juggler and performer Guillaume Martinet (Compagnie DeFracto) explores the relationship between body and object, as well as between technical precision and playful experimentation. On May 23 & May 30, the performers will offer an insight into the collaborative working process as part of the CircusDanceFestival.

In the “CAMPUS SESSION”, eight students from the Centre for Contemporary Dance offer a performative insight into their collaborative working phase with invited juggler Guillaume Martinet of Compagnie DeFracto. This open session provides a window into the artistic research process of the new series Circus Dance Practices: Experimenting, Exploring, Researching within the framework of the festival’s campus projects.

This year’s edition, “Circus Dance Practices #1”, operates at the intersection of contemporary dance and juggling. The practical research focuses on developing specific movement material, rhythmic structures, and the relationship between bodies and objects.

A collaboration between the BA Dance programme at the Centre for Contemporary Dance (ZZT) of the University of Music and Dance Cologne and the CircusDanceFestival. Facilitator: Guillaume Martinet / Defracto. Concept and idea: Tim Behren, Vera Sander.

Dates

• "Campus session - Circus Dance Practices #1" students CCD & Guillaume Martinet / Defracto (FR)
• Saturday 23.5., 3:00 pm 
• Location: Amphitheater Rundbühne, An der Schanz 6, 50735 Cologne, Open Air

• "Into the City - Circus Dance Practices #1" students CCD & Guillaume Martinet / Defracto (FR)
• Saturday 30.5., 3:00 pm
• Location: Rheinpromenade Köln-Deutz (see here https://maps.app.goo.gl/xhKiss59nqU2waxB8)

Further information

In the guided tour “Between Bodies”, the Kolumba Museum, in collaboration with the master’s programmes in Mediation in Dance and Dance Studies, warmly invites visitors to physically experience the museum’s unique architecture, its spaces, and the artworks on display. How do our bodies visit art? Or does art visit our bodies? With these questions in mind, we will collectively explore new perspectives on selected artworks.

For the current annual exhibition “make the secrets productive!” – Art in Times of Irrationality, Marie Könenberg, Mareike Lyssy, Vanessa Melde, and Kathrin Schilbach from the MA programmes in Mediation in Dance and Dance Studies have developed the format “Between Bodies. A moving encounter with art.” Once a month, visitors are invited to physically experience the unique architecture of Kolumba, its spaces, and its artworks.

How do our bodies visit art? Or does art visit our bodies? With these questions in mind, we collectively explore new perspectives on selected artworks. The staircase becomes a stage, the image of a sleeping artist invites us to rest, and the spaces between the artworks come into focus. No specific physical prerequisites are required—only a willingness to move through a museum in a different way than we are used to.

Dates

• May 2, 10:45 a.m.
• June 20, 10:45 a.m.
• July 4, 5:30 p.m.
• July 18, 10.45 a.m.

Location: Kolumba Museum
Kolumbastraße 4
50667 Cologne

€15 (€12)
For registered individual visitors, maximum group size: 8 participants. Dates for groups by arrangement. Booking: 0221 933 193 32 or ticket@kolumba.de.

In times of crisis, the question of how artistic practice inscribes itself into social realities becomes particularly present. How do resistance, physical knowledge and artistic practice relate to each other and what resources are used? How are we, individually and as a group, resistant and what comes next?

The thematic week "What's the Big Deal About Resistance? - Community and Resistance in Dance and Performance" from April 13 - 17 explores the interweaving of physical and artistic practices with everyday areas of life and the possibilities of strengthening belonging and community. Workshops, performances, interventions and lectures with teachers, students and guests invite you to reflect on concepts of communal living, acting and dancing.

With Thais di Marco, Sahar Damoni, Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Melih Kirac, Sinjini Chatterjee and others.

To the program

To the registration

SOLOEDITION'26 on Tour

This year's edition of SOLOEDITION will be on tour in April, stopping at three additional locations:

April 18, 2026 | 8:00 PM, Fabrik Heeder Krefeld | as part of the "First & Further Steps" festival

April 26, 2026 | 6:00 PM, Tanzgenerator Bonn, Theater Hall | as part of the 9th International Bonn Dance Solo Festival

April 29 & 30, 2026 | 7:00 PM, Tanzfaktur Cologne

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, Chien-Shun Liao, Kira Metzler, S. Rudat, Diana Salles, Sigué Sayouba, Deva Schubert

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

THE ORESTEIA – Collaboration between the BA Dance program & Schauspiel Köln

Close collaboration with the professional field is a central component of the BA Dance curriculum. The current collaboration with Schauspiel Köln involves ten BA Dance students into the production The Oresteia.

Australian director Adena Jacobs brings THE ORESTEIA to the stage in a version that focuses on the crimes committed against Iphigenia and Clytemnestra. What remains of the rage after the murder of daughter and mother? What of the anger that cannot be appeased by Athena’s command, “you shall not be angry, women”? Jacobs works within and around the neglected interstices of antiquity, combining drama with dance and video art to create a feminist Gesamtkunstwerk.

Director Adena Jacobs
Set and Costume Design Eugyeene Teh
Composition and Sound Design Max Lyandvert
Video Art Mario Simon and Eugyeene Teh
Choreography Melanie Lane
Lighting Design Jan Steinfatt
Sound Joschka Tschirley and Oliver Bersin
Dramaturgy Alexander Kerlin and Aaron Orzech

Clytemnestra Anja Laïs
Electra Sarah Sandeh
Chorus Julia Schubert
Agamemnon Thomas Dannemann
Cassandra Claude De Demo
Orestes Steffen Siegmund

Erinyes (BA Dance students) Evelyn Veronika Fortmeier, Matilda Behrends, Diana Alves de Oliveira, Marlene Gerber, Mara Eileen Grimm, Anouk Krämer, Katharina Lorber , Marret Schlette-Kissling, Lilly Zintl und Luise Maya Menges

Performance Dates
Saturday, March 7, 2026, 7:30 pm – Premiere
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 14, 2026, 7:30 pm – followed by an audience discussion
Sunday, March 15, 2026, 6:00 pm
Friday, March 20, 2026, 7:30 pm
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 25, 2026, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, May 6, 2026, 7:30 pm
Saturday, May 16, 7:30 pm
Thursday, May 21, 7:30 pm

Further information and tickets

We are delighted that from this summer semester onwards, moving introductions will take place regularly as part of various event formats at the Cologne University of Music and Dance! Ada Sternberg, a student from the Master of Mediation in Dance , will now be supported by Beatrice Cordier (also MA Mediation in Dance), Vivienne Frey and Johanna Folz (Music Education). The moving introduction takes place before the performance and is inspired by it. It is open to anyone who wants to move and get in the mood for the evening with all their senses. No previous knowledge is required!

Dates:

• "The Breasts of Tiresias and Gianni Schicchi" April 24, 2026 Start of performance: 7:00 PM Physical Introduction: 6:00-6:30 PM, Room 114
• Mahler "Lied von der Erde" on May 6, 2026 Start of performance: 7:30 PMPhysical Introduction: 6:30-7:00 PM, Room 114
• Orchestra concert on May 23, 2026 Start of performance: 19:30 Physical Introduction: 6:30-7:00 PM, Room 114

Venue: Main building HfMT, Unter Krahnenbäumen 87, 50668 Cologne

Registration at reservierungen@hfmt-koeln.de, keyword: moving introduction + date

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!