Welcome address for the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2026

The state capital Dresden is proud to host the Tanzplattform Deutschland.  

The most important contemporary dance festival in our country is coming to Dresden for the second time. We welcome it with great joy, thereby emphasising the significance of dance in our city. 

As the cradle of modern dance, we are happy to provide a stage for new, inspiring ideas. 

At the same time, we are sending a clear signal for diversity, openness and artistic freedom. 

Dresden is a city of dance. Through and through. 

Here, history and the present meet. Tradition and experimentation. The grand stage and the independent scene. 

From the classical excellence of the ballet at the Semperoper to the international training centre of the Palucca University of Dance Dresden, the city has made a name for itself far beyond its borders. 

This path was shaped in the 20th century by personalities such as Gret Palucca and Mary Wigman. Their ideas about modern dance continue to have an impact today – in studios, on stages and in rehearsal rooms. 

The past year has impressively highlighted this tradition: 200 years of the Semperoper Ballet, 100 years of the Semperoper Balls and 100 years of the Palucca University of Dance.  

Three anniversaries that show how deeply rooted dance is in Dresden and how vibrantly it continues to develop.  

In addition to a training centre, the dance city of Dresden has several permanent dance ensembles and venues for independent contemporary dance. Since 2010, the independent dance scene has been organised under the umbrella of TanzNetz Dresden.  

There are venues and stages in Dresden for all forms of dance: the Semperoper, the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, the Staatsoperette Dresden, the tjg. theater junge generation, the Societaetstheater, the Villa Wigman and the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory Dresden. 

Many of these institutions work closely together.  

The Tanzplattform Deutschland dance festival has also demonstrated how important cooperation is. We are particularly dependent on it in times of scarce resources. I am delighted that Dresden is pursuing a path that will keep the city alive as a centre for dance in the future. 

As you can see, dear guests, dance in Dresden is becoming a shared endeavour. And a shared joy. Many Dresden residents dance themselves – in dance schools or clubs. Most recently, thousands demonstrated their love of dance at the SemperOpenairball on Theaterplatz. 

Dresden is in the starting blocks for five moving and emotional days. You, dear guests, dear audience, are cordially invited to experience the 13 most remarkable German productions of the last two years in Dresden.  

The public supporting programme with communal dancing under the motto ‘Mornings on Fire’ also looks forward to your visit. And in between, there will be plenty of opportunities for networking. Be there. Get involved.  

Dear guests,  

Dance thrives on people. That is why it is a matter close to my heart to say thank you: to the people who have been and continue to be involved in organising the Tanzplattform. To everyone on stage. To everyone working behind the scenes. Thank you for your dedicated work.  

My special thanks go to HELLERAU – the centre for contemporary dance.  

You have ensured that Dresden is once again a meeting place for dance professionals and dance enthusiasts from all over the world. 

I wish all the participating companies and their dancers every success. To you, dear guests from Germany and abroad, I wish you not only great productions but also a warm atmosphere and fruitful exchanges.  

I am delighted to invite you to a reception in the foyer after the opening.  

The spoken word applies.

Dear Ms Schlewitt, 
Dear Mayor Hilbert, 
Honourable Members of Parliament, 
Dear guests, 

Famous poets, magnificent architecture, stirring events – Saxony is a state with a rich cultural history. This diversity is also reflected in dance. That is why I am delighted to welcome you today to the opening of the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2026. As a free state, we are proud that the most important forum for contemporary dance is being held in Dresden again after 14 years. 

The fact that we are here today at the Staatsoperette is thanks to the exemplary cooperation between HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts and the many strong partners in Saxony's cultural landscape – from the Staatsschauspiel to the independent scene at Villa Wigman. 

Today we celebrate an art form that is deeply rooted in our identity. Since 2022, UNESCO has recognised the ‘practice of modern dance in Germany’ as intangible cultural heritage – a recognition that understands dance not as a rigid legacy, but as a vital dialogue. 

This art form has been preserved across generations and, at the same time, courageously reinvented time and again. Dresden in particular became a centre of modern expressive dance in the 20th century thanks to the visionary power of Mary Wigman and Gret Palucca. 

The Free State of Saxony considers itself responsible for protecting this heritage. Supporting the Palucca University of Dance Dresden, Germany's only independent university for dance, and thus promoting and further developing contemporary dance, is therefore very important to us. 

As sponsors, we know that art needs freedom, but freedom also needs a stable foundation. Reliable funding helps to increase visibility of German dance in an international context. 

Despite the current difficult economic situation, we want to secure the structures of contemporary dance in Saxony in the long term. This shall enable dance professionals to work, experiment and persist internationally here in Saxony. 

Dance is considered a universal language that continues where words often reach their limits. The dance platform emphasises that this form of expression connects people in a very unconventional way: the programme is deliberately aimed not only at experts, but also at a curious lay audience.  

I would like to thank the HELLERAU team, the jury and all partners for their energy and tireless commitment. They have succeeded in creating a unique stage for artistic diversity and innovation in contemporary dance in Germany. 

Dear guests, I wish us all an inspiring exchange and curiosity about the diverse narrative styles of contemporary dance. 

Dear dance artists, dear dance enthusiasts 

Today we are launching the 17th edition of Tanzplattform Deutschland, which has been taking place every two years in a different city across Germany since 1994. The Tanzplattform has thus already come a long way and has been a constant for contemporary dance in Germany in its own way – in all its diversity and with all its many actors and dance languages.  

Each of the previous Tanzplattforms followed a fixed structure, accompanied by representatives of the organising platform, and yet each edition was special, bearing the signature of the respective organiser, their team and partners, and was also characterised by the different cities. Above all, however, the Tanzplattforms were shaped by the development of dance, by the dynamic idiosyncrasy of this art form in particular, which is highly specialised and at the same time applied in many areas of life. The Tanzplattform is an opportunity to offer this diversity on various stages over a concentrated period of five days.  

Now we are delighted that it is finally starting and that we can experience these five days of dance together, with all our emotions, perceptions and perhaps also critical assessments, with conversations, encounters and our own movement activities!  

We can only experience these five days of festival, which begin today, for ourselves. I cannot describe here what awaits you, what awaits us. That is precisely what makes art so special: our completely subjective perception of something unknown, and in this case our relationship to this specific art form, which is ephemeral – and our shared exchange about it. This combination is what makes such a platform so appealing. 

But actually, I would like to move beyond the momentum of the event, the experience, and talk about something else: the many paths and trails we have travelled.  

We began with initial preparations and discussions in Dresden in 2023, had a wonderful handover from our colleagues in Freiburg in 2024, and have now arrived in 2026. In between, there have been many paths of planning, involving partners, coordinating with colleagues from the event platform, searching for and installing the project management and jury, financing applications and much more. A festival body is being built that must be flexible itself and is now coming to life before your very eyes.  

But before these paths lie, above all, the widely ramified artistic paths of the participating companies, dancers, choreographers, performers, production managers, technicians – simply all those involved who begin and carry out a work process together, often with many detours and obstacles. We know that ideally the path begins with an artistic idea, with trying out ideas, and sometimes the path also needs detours – that's part of artistic productivity. It's not about a construction kit. At the same time, everything also begins with practical and financial planning, with funding applications, co-production enquiries, studio rentals and much more.  

At the start of this Tanzplattform, I would like to express my great appreciation to you, the artists and teams, for the energy you put into embarking on these initial journeys and all the paths that follow with each new project – without knowing or guaranteeing the outcome. For me, it is about honouring the artistic process itself. 

The jury also travelled far and wide to view over 500 pieces that were submitted. It was not possible to see them all live – we saw some digitally via video, others live on stage. The jury members approached and discussed the many different paths of the artistic works with great curiosity and responsibility. We had very intensive and open discussions, appreciative of the creative artistic work.  

Let us celebrate the creative artistic process with all its ramifications and the courage and energy of all those involved in this process, especially on an occasion such as the Tanzplattform Deutschland.  

I have deliberately not mentioned the many crises we are currently facing politically and socially. I think that these crises are partly reflected in our work and that we deal with them in different ways. And that is precisely why it is important to me to emphasise the core of artistic work itself – the process, the paths travelled in space and time, the mistakes, the fascinations, the coming together with each other and with the audience. Every artistic process is highly sensitive to its environment – and that is precisely why it must succeed in finding its own artistic language. We need a balance between the process, the different paths, the ‘before’ and the result, the presentation and the ‘after’. Only in this way can we maintain creativity. We will need exactly that in the future, perhaps more than ever before.  

That is why I would like to appeal for support for dance in all its aesthetic forms and formats – not to stop funding, to support venues for dance and to seek out new ones. In the end, it pays off – ideologically, economically, but above all socially.
 

Acknowledgements 

We have received tremendous support and funding for the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2026, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude.