We want you
Be part of it
Open call for the pop-up performance "HOT" in Düsseldorf school playgrounds
Bring dance to your school: a pop-up performance in Düsseldorf school playgrounds
HOT by Julie Botet & Max Gomard
Wed 18.11. German premiere + Thu 19.11. + Fri 20.11.2026
- Time: in the mornings, by arrangement with the school
- Duration: 30 mins.
- Talk: 30 mins.
- Workshop (optional): 60 mins.
- Age: Recommended from Year 7 onwards
The performance
In a postapocalyptic world, Julie Botet and Max Gomard land on mined territory – as if all life has vanished. With rhythmic movements, jumps and vibrations, they both try to restart the world again. They dance against the void, searching for a new beginning.
Between abrupt movements, moments of silence, and vibrating beats, a powerful soundtrack of hip-hop, ragga, and techno comes up. From destruction grows a glowing dancefloor – full of joy, energy, and HOT.
Venue
- School’s playground
- In case of rain: entrance hall, sports hall or assembly hall
Technical requirements
- Performance area required: approx. 16 x 18 metres
- Schuko power socket near the venue
- Car park for the team
- Lockable room to be used as a cloakroom
- Music will be played in the school playground; the team will bring their own cables and sound system
- For workshops (optional), one room without seating is required per class
Sample timeline
- 08:00 Arrival and set-up by team
- 11:00 – 11:30 HOT
- 11:30 – 12:00 Talk
- 12:15 – 13:15 Optional workshop(s)
Costs
- 200 € per performance, including workshop(s)
- For up to 100 pupils, at least one class
-
Pop-up performances at Düsseldorf schools, no public ticket sales
Interested educators may invite the piece to their school. To do this, please get in touch. The following steps are helpful when making an enquiry:
- Check the listed requirements and select a preferred date
- Send photos of the potential venue
- Clarify any outstanding questions by email or telephone
- Arrange an on-site visit if necessary
Contact
School Reference junges tanzhaus & take-off: Junger Tanz Düsseldorf
Maresa Grote-Sinn
Email: mgrote-sinn@tanzhaus-nrw.de
Telephone: +49 (0)211 17270-04
Once all questions have been answered, the appointment can be confirmed in writing.
Open Call: Wie noch nie (Like Never Before) – Short Dance Pieces with Blind Dramaturgy
The Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance at tanzhaus nrw invites you to develop a new short dance work. Three selected projects will be presented together in a public showcase at tanzhaus nrw on 18 October 2026.
At the heart of this open call is the development of blind dramaturgies. We are looking for artistic processes in which creative decisions are guided by how blind and visually impaired people experience a performance: through sound, touch, movement through space, language, vibration, proximity, rhythm and other sensory modes of perception.
The starting point is the perspectives of blind and visually impaired artists—not as a topic or subject of representation, but as the foundation of artistic practice. We are seeking proposals that develop original choreographic methods and approaches to dance-making rooted in these perspectives.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for proposals for new dance works that have not yet been created.
The work should:
- be a new creation (not an existing performance);
- have a final duration of 9–13 minutes;
- be presented at the showcase on 18 October 2026;
- be created for blind and visually impaired audiences, and optionally also for sighted audiences.
Project framework
Duration of the performance: 9–13 minutes
Maximum group size: 3 people
At least one member of the group must be a blind or visually impaired artist. Applications must be submitted by someone who has participated in at least one workshop of the Creative Audio Description Lab at tanzhaus nrw.
Showcase: 18 October 2026, 2:00 pm
Required availability:
17 October 2026 (all day) – Technical set-up and dress rehearsal (tbc)
18 October 2026 (all day) – Performance
What we offer
Three selected groups will receive:
- €1,200 gross per person for rehearsals, dress rehearsal and performance;
- €350 gross production budget per group;
- €450 gross accessibility budget, shared between the three selected groups;
- 10 hours of rehearsal space in a step-free studio at tanzhaus nrw between 12–16 October 2026, subject to availability;
- Dramaturgical feedback from Fia Neises and/or Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, depending on availability and the needs of the project;
- Limited technical equipment and technical support from the tanzhaus nrw team.
Please note that no additional funding is available for travel or accommodation.
Application
Please find the application questions below. Each question includes a maximum word count. The guiding questions are intended to support your thinking—they are prompts rather than requirements.
Please submit your application as an accessible PDF to: Lucie Ortmann (she/her) dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de, Subject line: Application Short Works_Your Title
Application deadline: Monday, 17 August 2026 (23:59 CET)
1. Project title
What is the title of your work?
2. Project description
Approx. 100 words
Describe your idea for the dance work.
What situation, question, experience, atmosphere or artistic enquiry is at its centre? What would you like to explore or make perceptible?
3. Theme and motivation
100–250 words
What topic or question would you like to investigate? Why have you chosen this theme? What personal, social, artistic or political questions bring you to this work?
4. Working process / Methodology
100–250 words
Describe how you plan to develop the work. This section is particularly important for the selection panel. Please explain: How will blind and visually impaired perspectives shape the development of the work? How will these perspectives influence your rehearsal methods and artistic decision-making?
5. Use of the production and accessibility budgets
Maximum 50 words
Please give a brief outline of how you intend to use the €350 production budget, for example for research materials, costume, props, technical equipment or travel. Please also describe any accessibility measures you are planning and what funding you would need to realise them. Based on this information, the selection panel will decide how the overall accessibility budget will be allocated between the three selected groups.
6. Technical and spatial requirements
Approx. 50–100 words
What technical or spatial requirements does your project have?
7. About the collaborators
Maximum 300 words
For each collaborator, please include:
- their role in the project;
- whether they are the main contact person (if applicable);
- their pronouns;
- how they would like their name and pronouns to appear in the credits;
- the questions, interests or curiosities they bring to the collaboration;
- what they hope to explore, test or discover through this process.
Please do not submit traditional biographies. Instead, we are interested in what motivates this particular collaboration.
8. Collaboration
30–50 words
How did you come together as a group? Why do you want to work together in this particular constellation?
Selection Panel
The projects will be selected by Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, who lead the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance at tanzhaus nrw. Applicants will be informed of the outcome in late August or early September 2026.
Selection Criteria
- Projects will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- developing new ways of organising choreographic practice rather than reproducing existing ones;
- proposing clear working methods that do not begin from visual perception and instead centre blind and visually impaired ways of experiencing performance;
- approaching perception as non-hierarchical;
- pursuing a coherent and distinctive artistic logic;
- being feasible within the given time, space and technical framework.
- About the project
Like Never Before – Short Dance Pieces with Blind Dramaturgy is part of Community of Reception, a project by tanzhaus nrw in collaboration with Fia/Sophia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke. Community of Reception is a programme for members of the blind and visually impaired community in North Rhine-Westphalia to encounter, experience and artistically explore audio description for contemporary dance.
Reimagining Parties: Open Call for Blind and Visually Impaired Participants
Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance
Reimagining Parties: Exploring parties from blind and visually impaired perspectives with DJs, MCs and a dance workshop
Led by Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
What is this project about?
Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, co-directors of the Creative Audio Description Lab for Dance, invite you to imagine new ways of dancing, gathering and celebrating from blind and visually impaired perspectives.
Together, we will explore how hosting, MC-ing, DJ-ing and creative audio description can come together to create a dance floor that is welcoming, accessible and vibrant without relying on visual orientation. As part of the project, we will collaborate with three invited MCs. The term MC stands for Master of Ceremonies. At a party, an MC hosts the event, creates atmosphere and interacts with the crowd, helping shape the energy of the space.
Together, we will explore how MC-ing and audio description can merge on the dance floor. What should be described—and how? Flirtatiously? Poetically? Directly? In rhythm with the music? What does a dance party sound like when the space, the people and their movements are described live and celebrated? How do we know where the DJ or MC is? Maybe they're wearing enormous bell earrings! Most importantly, what would make a dance party genuinely accessible for you?
Throughout the lab we will develop ideas together, experiment, exchange feedback, think beyond familiar structures and keep inventing new possibilities through playful exploration.
The invited MCs
The three guest MCs are ZANIAH (Sahra Abbassi), Soraya Nsingi and Mieze McCripple.
Each comes from a different artistic background and brings their own approach to voice, presence, language and audience interaction. ZANIAH (DJ, MC and Ballroom host) combines musical dramaturgy, hosting and Ballroom culture into an artistic practice centred on community and participation. Soraya Nsingi (host and spoken word artist) works across performance, facilitation and community hosting, exploring how language can create encounters, orientation and shared experiences. Mieze McCripple (MC, host and drag performer) combines politically engaged spoken word, humour and empowerment to develop event formats that strengthen community and enable cultural participation. Together with them—and with you—we will continue developing MC-ing as both an artistic and an inclusive practice.
Public sharing
The ideas developed during the lab will feed directly into Dance like nobody’s watching – remixed, a public party at tanzhaus nrw on: Saturday, 12 September 2026 3:00–6:00 pm
This will be the first opportunity to test and celebrate the ideas we have developed together.
The following day we will meet again for a relaxed two-hour session to reflect on what happened, exchange feedback and think about future directions for the research.
After all, artistic research never truly ends – every ending opens up a new question.
Schedule
1. Two-day Lab: Reimagining Dance Parties
(For participants and the three invited MCs only)
- Saturday, 22 August 2026 | 11:00 am–5:00 pm
- Sunday, 23 August 2026 | 11:00 am–5:00 pm
2. Dance Workshop
Learning dance moves and party dancing (Open exclusively to blind and visually impaired participants)
- Saturday, 12 September 2026 | 12:00–2:00 pm
3. Public Event Dance like nobody's watching – remixed
- Saturday, 12 September 2026 | 3:00–6:00 pm
4. Reflection & Further Development
(For participants and the three invited MCs only)
- Sunday, 13 September 2026 | 12:00–2:00 pm
Optional: After the reflection session, you are warmly invited to attend the performance:
4 Legs good REMIX by Claire Cunningham, Sunday, 13 September 2026 | 4:00 pm.
The performance includes integrated audio description in English. In this lecture performance, Claire Cunningham explores how her movement practice has developed through working with crutches and through her lived experience of disability, opening up new perspectives on bodies, connection and interdependence.
Who can take part?
This open call is exclusively for blind and visually impaired people. No previous experience of audio description, MC-ing, club culture or dance is required.
What we offer
- Free participation
- An honorarium for all participants
- Three support assistants available throughout the project
- Guided accompaniment between Düsseldorf Central Station and tanzhaus nrw on request
- The lab takes place in a step-free studio at tanzhaus nrw, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf.
A downloadable PDF with directions is available here.
How to register
Please send us:
- Your name and pronouns
- Your email address
- Whether you would like accompaniment to and/or from Düsseldorf Central Station
- Any access requirements you would like us to know about
Please email this information by Monday, 17 August 2026 to: Lucie Ortmann (she/her) dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de
You will then receive either a confirmation of your place or information about the waiting list.
A note on access and inclusion
We particularly encourage applications from Black people, Indigenous people, People of Colour (BIPOC), intersex, agender, trans, non-binary, disabled and multiply marginalised people.
About Community of Reception
This workshop forms part of Community of Reception, a project by tanzhaus nrw in collaboration with Fia/Sophia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke. Community of Reception brings together members of the blind and visually impaired community in North Rhine-Westphalia to explore creative audio description and aesthetic accessibility for contemporary dance.
If you would like to hear about future workshops and events, simply let us know when you register. We look forward to meeting you.
About the facilitators
Fia/Sophia Neises is a freelance white queer visually impaired performer, dramaturg, theatre educator and disability rights activist. Fia works as an inclusive choreographer, dancer and access dramaturg, specialising in artistic accessibility for blind and visually impaired audiences.
Zwoisy Mears-Clarke is a freelance Black queer choreographer, dancer and community organiser. Working alongside blind, visually impaired and sighted artists, Zwoisy has developed dance works for audiences with a wide range of visual experiences since the beginning of their artistic practice.
Fia/Sophia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke have collaborated since 2016.
Through the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance, they work with blind, visually impaired and sighted artists to develop new forms of artistic accessibility and creative audio description.
The lab is a space for sharing knowledge, experimenting together and continuing this research collectively with all participants.
Open Call for Blind and Visually Impaired Participants for a Dance Workshop
Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance: Dance Workshop for the Dancefloor
Led by Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
What is the workshop about?
What makes a great dance party? That moment when you don't just hear the music – you feel it. When your body responds to the beat and movement becomes a way of expressing yourself.
Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, co-leads of the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance, invite you to a dance workshop exploring exactly this connection: listening to music, noticing what it makes you feel, and transforming those feelings into movement.
Together, we will explore a range of dance steps and movement prompts before playing with them, adapting them and allowing the music to guide us. Starting from simple movements, you'll discover your own way of dancing – there is no right or wrong, only finding a groove that feels right for you and the music.
The workshop is accompanied by music from a variety of genres, including Black Techno, House, Electro and Bass. No previous dance experience is required – just curiosity and a willingness to move.
After the workshop, the dancefloor opens in the foyer of tanzhaus nrw for Dance like nobody's watching – remixed. If you would like to stay, we'd love to keep dancing together.
The party has been developed by three MCs in collaboration with blind and visually impaired artists. It explores how MC-ing and creative audio description can come together to create an inclusive dance culture where space, movement and the energy of the dancefloor are described live and celebrated collectively.
When
Saturday, 12 September 2026 12:00–2:00 pm
Optional: The party takes place from 3:00–6:00 pm in the tanzhaus nrw foyer. More information can be found on the event page.
Who is it for?
This open call is for blind and visually impaired participants only. No previous dance experience is necessary.
What we offer
- Free participation
- An honorarium for all participants
- On-site access support, including during the break between the workshop and the party
- Escort support between Düsseldorf Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) and tanzhaus nrw, if required
- The workshop takes place in a step-free studio at tanzhaus nrw, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
How to apply
If you are already taking part in the workshop Reimagining Parties: Researching Party Culture from Blind and Visually Impaired Perspectives with DJs and MCs, you do not need to register separately for this dance workshop.
To register, please email us with:
- Your name and pronouns
- Your email address
- Whether you would like escort support to and/or from Düsseldorf Central Station
- Any additional access requirements
Please send your information by 17 August 2026 to: Lucie Ortmann (she/her) dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de
You will receive an email confirming your place or informing you that you have been placed on the waiting list.
Additional information
We particularly encourage applications from BIPOC, intersex, agender, trans, non-binary, disabled and multiply marginalised people.
This workshop is part of Community of Reception, a project by tanzhaus nrw in collaboration with Fia (Sophia) Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke. The project brings together members of the blind and visually impaired community in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to explore creative audio description and artistic accessibility in contemporary dance.
If you would like to hear about future workshops and events, please let us know when you register. We look forward to welcoming you.
About the workshop instructors
Fia (Sophia) Neises is a freelance white queer visually impaired performer, dramaturg, theatre educator and disability rights activist. Their practice spans choreography, dance and access dramaturgy, with a particular focus on developing artistic accessibility for blind and visually impaired audiences.
Zwoisy Mears-Clarke is a freelance Black queer choreographer, dancer and community organiser. Working alongside blind, visually impaired and sighted artists, Zwoisy has developed dance performances that engage audiences with a wide range of visual experiences from the beginning of their artistic practice.
Fia and Zwoisy have collaborated since 2016. Through the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance, they work with blind, visually impaired and sighted artists to develop new approaches to artistic accessibility and creative audio description. In this workshop, they invite participants to share in this ongoing exploration, exchanging experiences and imagining new possibilities together.
Open Call for a Workshop as Part of Claiming Common Spaces
Call for Submissions: *The Trail of the Lizard* by Ulrike Haß and Laura Strack
Today’s global crises and wars stand in stark contrast to what is, in fact, inconceivable: the human species, entirely dependent on the lives of countless other species, acts as a planetary force. Meanwhile, life—rooted in a foreign, planetary deep time—continues and repeatedly proves itself to be regenerative. The lizard’s severed tail grows back. Taking theater as its starting point, the workshop explores the interplay of global and planetary processes and attempts to find a sense of direction.
In 2026, the Claiming Common Spaces festival will be held under the motto “Shift the Vibe.” Selected performances, meet-and-greet formats, discussions, and parties will offer insight into current artistic practices in the independent performing arts that respond to today’s catastrophic global events with community-building, care-oriented, and regenerative spaces for action.
An accompanying workshop will also offer an opportunity for collective reflection: theater scholars Ulrike Haß and Laura Strack will host an intensive three-day exchange. An open space for reflection invites participants to adopt different perspectives by stepping back from the heated, polarizing daily discourse of opinions.
Participation
The workshop is aimed at theater, dance, and cultural professionals; dramaturgs; performers; and anyone who draws new strength from collective reflection, wishes to share their own questions about the present with others, and enjoys exchanging ideas and finding mutual inspiration with others.
Workshop participants will be provided in advance with a reader containing selected texts that will serve as the starting point for our exploration. The workshop will include collaborative close reading, discussions, and the writing of original contributions for a “mural communal”—a kind of wall newspaper—which will be presented on the last day of the festival to conclude the workshop.
The texts used in the seminar are primarily in German. Other languages are welcome in the discussions; together, we will strive to facilitate multilingual communication as needed.
10.09. 15:00 Workshop kickoff, 18:00 group visit to the festival opening
11.09. 10:30 – 17:00
12.09. 10:30 – 17:00
13.09. 10:30 – 13:00
13.09. 14:00 – 15:30 Closing event at tanzhaus nrw
The workshop takes place at FFT and the closing event at tanzhaus nrw.
Practical Information
Participation in the seminar is free of charge.
Number of participants: max. 20
Participants will receive a daily allowance or a vegan lunch provided by the festival catering service, as well as tickets at the staff rate for the performances of Claiming Common Spaces. If necessary and upon request, we will reimburse travel and lodging expenses.
Application and Deadlines
Interested applicants are asked to submit a brief statement of motivation to info@fft-duesseldorf.de by 15.08.2026.
More information about the program
Claiming Common Spaces VIII is a festival organized by the Alliance of International Production Houses: FFT Düsseldorf, tanzhaus nrw, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, Kampnagel Hamburg, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main, PACT Zollverein Essen. Funded by the Performing Arts Fund with support from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. FFT Düsseldorf and tanzhaus nrw are supported by the City of Düsseldorf and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Profile & Programme 2027
tanzhaus nrw presents and supports a broad diversity of choreographic positions. In the process, the house transcends traditional boundaries between high culture, subcultures and socio-culture. At its centre lies the creative exploration of the human body and its role in present societies. The stage programme shows remarkable and innovative perspectives in contemporary dance. tanzhaus nrw especially advocates artistic-choreographic practice that deals critically with the following topics:
- Gender & Body Policy: Questioning of binary gender concepts, of normative body images and the search for forms of physicality on stage that are critiquing forceful authority
- Decolonisation of dance: Reflection of the Eurocentric dance canon and the acknowledgement of non-Western dance traditions
- Dance & Digital Physicality: New choreographic modes of expression in digital spaces
- Dance, Technology & Posthumanism: Interactions between body, technology, and artificial intelligence
- Urban Dance Cultures: Hip-hop & club styles as well as additional urban dance cultures like krump in the stage context and beyond
- Sustainability & Social Justice: Critical assessments on the topics of biodiversity and solidary practices of community
- Alternative Production Modes: For example, aesthetics of access, working in FLINTA* teams as well as community-based formats
- Participation & Encounter: Inclusion of different actors in the sense of participatory research approaches up to interactive artistic formats
Contact & Application:
dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de