Being 20 years old is a strange age. Young enough to remain curious. Old enough to have stories. For take-off: Junger Tanz Düsseldorf, this is a good moment to gather: Meeting people again, getting to know new people, exchanging memories, and hatching plans for the future.
We look back at twenty years of dance for young people in Düsseldorf. Looking at projects, performances, cooperations, and encounters. But most of all looking at all the children and youths who have made take-off what it is with their questions, movements, and perspectives. Without them, this network would not exist.
At the same time, we are as interested in the future as we are in the past. What concerns young people today? What could dance be – as an art form, a meeting point, as a possibility of perceiving oneself as well as the world? And what would we like to develop together in the upcoming next twenty years?
In a world stuffed with explanations, we celebrate an art form that does not need to be explained all the time. That thinks with bodies and poses questions without verbalising them. That brings people together without all of them coming to the same conclusion. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why we love dance for a young audience: It takes children and youths seriously. Not because it explains everything to them, but because it has confidence in them that they will see, feel, and decide for themselves.
Because of all this, we will host a big celebration from November 13th until November 22nd. Junges Schauspiel, FFT, Tonhalle, and junges tanzhaus invite you to guest performances, workshops, expert conferences, and talks. Young ensembles, advisory boards, orchestras and companies shape the festival and make visible what has characterised take-off for the last twenty years: Dance does not emerge for young people, but with them.
