Anton Biebl
Dear Friends of the Dance Festival,
From very early on, Munich has recognized the importance of international contemporary dance. With this edition of DANCE, we are looking back at thirty-six years of festival history, and that means DANCE is one of the oldest dance festivals in Germany. Now when we are about to experience the 18th edition of this biennial festival, this success story is also a credit to the directors of the festival and their teams.
In 2012 Nina Hümpel took over as artistic director of DANCE; the current edition of the festival is the sixth edition, and also the last edition, she has been responsible for. She has left her groundbreaking mark on DANCE and has been groundbreaking in drawing the public's attention to contemporary dance. She brilliantly succeeded, over and over again, in providing impulses, in cultivating continuity, building reliable networks, and thrilling audiences. At the same time, she risked trying something new with young artists from all over the world. And she also steered the festival with a huge amount of energy and discretion through the years of the pandemic. I would like to extend my thanks to Nina Hümpel and her team!
The festival is financed by the City of Munich. This year the city council allotted a special budget to allow DANCE, after the pandemic restrictions, to once again be a live event. My thanks go to the city council, too.
You can look forward to international novelties from the contemporary dance scene and to the special atmosphere of the festival!
Anton Biebl
Director of the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich
Nina Hümpel
Dear Readers,
Please set aside a lot of time this year for the festival, for we are returning at full power! After the digital edition 2021 we will be presenting this year a concentrated dance program – with stage productions, special formats, happenings in public spaces, and discussion events on every day of the festival.
The festival will open with The Pretty Things by Catherine Gaudet from Montreal, a work that lies between meditation and revolt, and Rabbit Hole by Moritz Ostruschnjak from Munich, the world premiere of a piece that draws us from grotesque, deconstructed scenes into an impressive maelstrom of dance. Breathing artistically in bright colored track pants and with fiery colored bob-haircut wigs, Marie Chouinard's eleven dancers bring their European premiere of « M » to Münchner Kammperspiele. The French choreographer Mathilde Monnier discovered in Records the lockdown as a source of inspiration. And Richard Siegal and the Ballet of Difference present two praised and successful ballets, Triple and Xerrox Vol. 2, which fans in Munich await with yearning. The company Raimund Hoghe / Luca Giacomo Schulte, with their internationally renowned soloists and choreographers, celebrate in An Evening with Raimund a gracious bow to their deceased maestro.
In addition to the large and well-known productions at venues such as Carl-Orff-Saal, Muffathalle, Münchner Kammerspiele, and Prinzregententheater, it really pays to visit the many other venues. There we will present the current political focal points Eastern Europe and Taiwan. As it is extremely urgent, we will examine the cultural identities and aesthetic specifics of these regions whose autonomies are currently threatened. Here there are countless young and still unknown choreographers waiting to be discovered, and many of them will enrich the international dance scene in the coming years. At the center of dance and digitality there are three imposing installative productions that have been created in part in collaboration with important visual artists. And in traditional solidarity with the innovative energy in the Montreal dance scene there are, once again, three productions from this city. With the DANCE History Tour, in the meantime an established part of DANCE, and two productions that display references to the grand dance maestros William Forsythe and Raimund Hoghe we will focus anew on the extremely rich history of contemporary dance. Accompanied by three exhibitions, numerous films, a multitude of discussions and conversations, and performances in public spaces, we will experience dance almost everywhere in Munich on eleven days – some of the events are free, without the cost of admission, as an invitation to everyone in this city!
I am looking forward to seeing you at DANCE 2023 in the theaters, museums, cinemas, clubs, and in public spaces.
Yours,
Nina Hümpel
Artistic director DANCE 2023
