tanz-de-ca

Dance is a cultural export hit for both Germany and Canada. Of all art forms, contemporary dance offers the most intersecting points between the two countries.

The Canadian public and critics receive guest performances by German companies with enthusiasm. Canadian companies are frequent guests at German festivals and renowned dance centres. Several German choreographers have developed pieces while on residency in Germany. Berit Jentzsch and other Germans dance in Canadian companies, and Laurie Young, Luc Dunberry and numerous other Canadians dance in Germany. There are also German-Canadian choreographies such as White Trash by Benoît Lachambre and Isabelle Schad.

Germany has a diverse dance scene. 129 companies with 1,500 dancers receive public funding. They give 2,500 performances every year which are seen by a total audience of 1.5 million. In addition to William Forsythe, Pina Bausch, and Sasha Waltz & Guests, the Goethe-Institute brought numerous choreographers to Canada in recent years, including Susanne Linke, Thomas Lehmen, Norbert Servos, Gerhard Maaß, Friederike Plafki, Michael Kellenberger, Jean Laurent Sasportes, and Avi Kaiser, Antje Pfundter, Luc Dunberry, and just recently, Raimund Hoghe in May 2008. Jana Unmüßig will come to Canada in September 2008.

In Canada, the centres of contemporary dance are Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Quebec alone has 50 dance companies, which are partially subsidized. In recent years, several dance artists celebrated triumphs in Germany: Edouard Lock with LaLaLa Human Steps, Ginette Laurin with O Vertigo, the Compagnie Marie Chouinard, the choreographers Benoît Lachambre, Dave St. Pierre, Daniel Leveillé – all of them from Montreal – and Chrystal Pite and Sarah Chase from British Columbia.

Residency programs play a significant role in the exchange between the two countries. Especially important on the German side is the „dance plan” of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Bundeskulturstiftung). The German government provides nine cities with a total of 12.5 million euros through the year 2012, a sum that the cities themselves will match jointly. In addition to the dance institutions affiliated with the „dance plan“, such as the Mousonturm in Frankfurt, the PACT Zollverein in Essen, or the Fabrik in Potsdam, other venues offer residencies for foreign choreographers. In many cases, Canadian artists receive funding for their travels by the Canada Arts Council, the cultural promotion programs in the provinces, or Canada or Quebec’s representations in Berlin.

In 2007, the Goethe-Institute Montreal started to invite one German choreographer every year to develop a new piece that will be presented in Canada the following year. During this residency, there are public rehearsals and workshop discussions to allow experts and the public to follow the making of a new work. In return, the German artists benefit from the outside view of their work and the stimulation it provides. In December 2007, during the first residency of the Goethe-Institute Montreal, Antje Pfundtner jointly developed the piece Res(e)t with the composer Sven Kacirek. Pfundtner was followed by Luc Dunberry, who created Mi-un ni d’eux together with the composer Peter Göhler and the video artist Karl Wedemeyer.

This trilingual web portal is meant to be a source of information about current dance trends, guest performances of German companies in Canada and Canadian companies in Germany, as well as residencies. It serves dancers, choreographers, the media, and anyone interested in contemporary dance. Besides providing practical information, the portal also contains two dynamic sections where dance experts from Canada and Germany share their impressions about dance in the other country. You are invited to discover the dance of Canada and Germany!