Guiding principles
Tanzhaus NRW is at the same time a performance venue with around 200 changing annual events on 2 stages, as well as a production centre for professional artists and an academy with an average of 350 courses and workshops per week and a centre for dance with and for children and youths, the Young Tanzhaus.
Since the season 2014/15, when Bettina Masuch became artistic director of the Tanzhaus NRW, 3 Factory Artists started to work in the house: Alexandra Waierstall, Jan Martens and Sebastian Matthias. The next generation since 2017 are Claire Cunningham, Ligia Lewis and Choy Ka Fai.
Another artistic focal points are the festivals so called Dance Days. These festivals create among other a tangible fusion of cultural and aesthetic forms of expression in the training studio as well as on stage.
Together with a large number of partners engaged in the cultural sector, Tanzhaus NRW is doing since more than 10 years also pioneer work to familiarize children, youths and young adults with dance art by allowing the young spectator or dancer to experience dance either in the classroom or on stage. Today the whole range of activities is called Young Tanzhaus.
History
Tanzhaus NRW evolved from Die Werkstatt, which in the middle of the 1970s began to give a continuously growing mixed-age audience an understanding of contemporary dance in its aesthetic and cultural diversity. Tanzhaus NRW has succeeded in joining under one roof different areas of dance that usually occupy different spaces and structures: it is at the same time theatre and school of dance, production site for free choreographers from North Rhine Westphalia and Europe and internationally respected lively role model for promoting dance at all levels.
Find the full history of Tanzhaus NRW on its website.
Building and facilities
Since 1998 the Tanzhaus NRW is situated into a former tram depot on a 4.000 m² surface. In 2000, architect Jochen Boskamp and Tanzhaus NRW were given the award for “exemplary buildings in North Rhine Westphalia”. Tanzhaus NRW has 2 stages with 320 seats in the big stage and a smaller 90-seat, plus 8 training studios and rehearsal rooms used for production development and advanced training of professional dancers and choreographers.
