Dance Dialogues Africa was designed to provide several points of access for artists at various levels of development and to promote a shared sense of responsibility across the network of partners. By engaging a variety of formats (guest performances, workshops and residencies, staff exchanges, seminars and contextualising activities), it sought to link production structures between the partners in a sustainable way and to build lasting connections amongst artists and producers.

Running from February 2012 to June 2014, the project was composed of:

• Artistic exchange between European and African artists through guest performances in Africa and Germany and workshops and labs to share techniques, styles and experiences.
• Co-productions at the 5 African partner dance centres.
• Invitations of young artists to create new work benefitting from mentorship by an established colleague.
• Seminars offering advanced training in management skills.

Finally, a touring festival including the co-produced works travelled to the 5 partner dance houses in Germany, accompanied by activities and documentation giving insight into the process and context of creation.

Key outcomes

• Creation of a functioning network for future projects involving African dance centres.
• 12 new works were co-produced with the 5 African partners and toured in European and African venues and festivals.
• Development of a successful 2-way skills exchange model between European and African artists and partner organisations.

Partners & Funders

Supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Dance Dialogues Africa was led by Tanzhaus NRW and involved 2 other German EDN partners: HELLERAU-European Centre for the Arts (Dresden) and K3 Zentrum für Choreographie - Kampnagel Hamburg. Other German partners were DansArt Tanznetworks (Bielefeld , DE) and Theater im Pumpenhaus (Münster, DE).

African partners included CulturArte (Maputo, MZ), Donko Seko (Bamako, ML), Ness El Fen (Tunis, TN), Studios Kabako (Kisangani, CD), and Vuyani Dance (Johannesburg, ZA).