Sophiensæle Launches Tanztage Berlin 2022 Program in January

Dec. 14, 2021

In the new year, Sophiensæle will once again present Tanztage Berlin, a celebration of contemporary dance in all its approaches, genres and expressions. The festival will run from the January 6th to 22nd, 2022 and will feature a host of online and offline content and performances

This year, Tanztage celebrates its 31st year. It will be hosted in its usual location at Sophiensæle, the former workman’s club turned artistic space. The 2022 edition of Tanztage will mark the show’s special in-person return after its pandemic-induced move to an exclusively online format last year.

‘DOOM’ // Copyright Ethan Folk

For the second time the Tanztage program is under the direction of dramaturge, choreographer and curator Mateusz Szymanówka. It is set to explore the themes and feelings that tie society together but also rip it apart, through dance performance and recorded video. Through these media, Tanztage aims to examine traditions, their worth and their longevity in the face of catastrophe. The program will particularly focus on dance’s contribution in these make-or-break situations and dissect its power to heal the individual and collective body in times of modern distress, tackling issues like climate change, surveillance and disembodiment.

‘La Cosa Piel’ // Copyright Juan Pablo Camara, Zander Porter

This edition of Tanztage will feature a huge array of choreographers, dancers and creative minds, including HZT Berlin graduate Julia Plawgo, who will present a piece titled ‘Non-Playable Character.’ This piece aims to explore the limits of experience and cognitive dissonance of life in this digital age. The choreographed performance showcases a hybrid body, part-AI and part-human, as it navigates and optimizes itself based on its surroundings. This performance will be shown as a double bill alongside ‘La Cosa Piel’ by Juan Pablo Camara, a choreographer and performer from Argentina. The solo performance of Shiori Tada, ‘A strategy for the Fragile,’ will also be shown as a double bill alongside ‘Dandelion II’ by Rita Mazza. In ‘Dandelion II,’ Mazza uses a combination of dance and sign language to create a unique form of visual poetry.

‘Debris in a skin tight Corset’ // Copyright Guillaume Baeriswyl + Cynthia Mai Ammann

In addition to double-billed events, aspects of the program will be shown independently. Ana Lessing Menjibar’s dance performance titled ‘Perpetual Archive’ will be presented as a solo piece and ‘DOOM,’ a three-hour performative installation of drone/doom metal concert developed by Layton Lachman, will also be showcased during the Tanztage program.

All in all, Tanztage 2022 promises a vibrant and full program that will take place on numerous platforms and via multiple media. Its varied set should make for a triumphant return to in-person events, after its purely digital presence last year.