What is it that holds a city together? How do we encounter one another—in restaurants, bars, on pavements, in the town square, in waiting rooms? Who takes up space, who is pushed aside; who is fast, loud, quiet, (too) slow?
This season, we explore encounters through the lens of dance and choreography: dance in training and rehearsal, on the dance floor, in the living room, as a solo or in a group, in the studio or on stage. Which encounters between people are possible – and which ones do we still need to invent in order for them to become real? Between fiction and reality, new spaces of closeness, negotiation and dialogue begin to emerge. How can dance create spaces for exchange and togetherness? We understand encounter as a political act and as a lived, embodied experience – as negotiation and the sharing of perspectives.
As part of Tanzt euch zusammen! – Choreographies of Encounter, we invite you to three editions, each curated by different international artists. Each edition opens up new artistic approaches to the question of encounter.
The series opened in September 2025 with Which Bodies by French-Algerian dancer and choreographer Saïdo Lehlouh. How do bodies meet in urban space? Which bodies are seen—and which are overlooked? Who benefits from existing structures, and who is excluded? Together with young artists working across dance, photography and text, Lehlouh developed artistic connections between tanzhaus nrw and its surrounding urban environment, extending towards Worringer Platz – connections that continue to resonate. His practice, situated between hip-hop and club styles, improvisation and collective processes, set impulses for shared movement and brought moments of joy and encounter into the immediate urban space around tanzhaus nrw, where hardness and distance often prevail.
With Winin’ & Liming, choreographer and movement director Malik Nashad Sharpe—working across art, fashion and music—curates the second edition. For Sharpe, dance is a way of imagining futures in which differences within a group are not erased but acknowledged and held. In this sense, even in dark and unsettling moments, dance can generate a kind of almost mythological hope. Together with an interdisciplinary group of artists, social workers and community practitioners from Düsseldorf and across NRW, Sharpe explores dance as a survival practice: as a response to loss, as an expression of resistance, as holding—and being held.
The third edition is curated by choreographer and performer Chiara Bersani, who recently captivated large audiences with her performance at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. She will soon return to Düsseldorf. Save the date: on October 31st 2026, join us for a special queer-crip Halloween gathering curated by Bersani.
Friends and neighbours, dancers and non-dancers, stage lovers and course participants: welcome to dances that bring and hold us together.
