We want you

The WESTWIND Festival is coming to Düsseldorf from 31 May to 6 June 2025. The first information meeting for the children's and youth jury will take place on 30 April 2025 at Junges Schauspiel.

WESTWIND is one of the most renowned theatre festivals for young audiences in Germany. It is hosted by a different NRW theatre every year. This year, the Junges Schauspiel in collaboration with the FFT Düsseldorf and tanzhaus nrw are hosting the festival. Ten outstanding NRW productions can be seen in the competition, as well as international guest performances from Korea, Belgium, Norway and the Czech Republic/Kenya and three plays from the host theatres. The supporting programme has the motto »Arts for Change« and includes workshops, production talks and a large street festival for young and old.

A special element of the festival each year is the children's and youth jury. The juries are given the opportunity to immerse themselves intensively in the festival. Together, they watch the festival productions and evaluate them according to specially developed categories.  We will develop our own criteria and goals for our work in the run-up to the festival. We will discuss the dates together. The grand finale will be the awards ceremony, where we will honour our winners. 

Do you know pupils who are enthusiastic about theatre? Or do you have pupils you would like to give this experience to? From theatre professionals to theatre newcomers, we want to put together a diverse group to form the children's and youth jury. The pupil can send us an email and briefly tell us why they would like to be on the jury and what exactly inspires them about theatre - perhaps there is a memory of a theatre experience that was particularly impressive? We look forward to receiving numerous applications.  A first information meeting will take place on Wednesday, 30 April 2025 from 5 to 7 pm at Junges Schauspiel on Münsterstraße 446 in 40470 Düsseldorf. If you are interested, please contact Lena Hilberger and Ilka Zänger, theatre educators at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.

 

Children's and youth jury for the WESTWIND festival

Info meeting: Wed 30.04.2025
Time: 17:00 - 19:00
Registration children's jury: (interested parties from 8 - 12 years):
Lena Hilberger - lena.hilberger@dhaus.de
Registration youth jury: (interested parties from 13 - 18 years): 
Ilka Zänger - ilka.zaenger@dhaus.de

More information about WESTWIND on the festival website: www.westwind-festival.de
and on our WESTWIND festival page

We are looking for co-production projects and, in individual cases, guest performances that will be staged at tanzhaus nrw in the calendar year 2026. Project proposals can be submitted until Sunday, May 11, 2025. Selected applicants will be notified via e-mail on Wednesday, June 6, 2025.

Contact & Applications:
dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de

 

Conditions

• Co-production sum (20% of the production costs, up to € 10,000)
• Typlically two performances (premiere + 1 to 2 additional shows), covered within the co-production sum
• Residency + open rehearsal and/or final rehearsals (max. 3 weeks of rehearsal time in total, depending on availability. These 3 weeks will generally not occur consecutively).
• Accommodation in the artists' flats, subject to availability and agreement
• Dramaturgical and technical support as well as promotional assistance
• Production and conceptual discussions
• Letter of intent / confirmation of venue for funding applications

 

Application process

Applications must be submitted via e-mail in German or English. The project should be described briefly (max. 3 pages) and precisely. The concept can be presented in written, but also in audio and/or visual form. Submissions must also include short CVs of the participants and information on technical and financial feasibility.
 
 

Required documents

• Project description (max. 3 pages written; audio/visual form also welcome)
• Draft Budget plan
• Brief description of the planned/imagined technical realisation
• Short bios and further information on the artistic work; recordings (selection of max. 3 pieces/projects)

 

Selection criteria are

• Urgency, clarity of concept, and originality of the project and research questions
• Alignment with the profile and programming of tanzhaus nrw and junges tanzhaus
• Details of the artistic team + form of collaboration and cast; who is performing on stage and why?
• Audience engagement: Who is the intended audience, and how will they be addressed?
• Technical and financial feasibility of the project

 

Discourse- or Research-Based, Future-Oriented Formats, Exchange and Networking Projects


In addition to co-productions, this open call also invites submissions for research-driven, discursive, and experimental projects. We are looking for initiatives that tackle the pressing challenges of our time—from the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, severe funding cuts in the independent arts, and societal upheaval, to war and climate crisis.

We seek approaches that explore sustainable, solidarity-based artistic practices, new alliances between artists and institutions, and resilient infrastructures. How can we reimagine our role as cultural and artistic practitioners? What strategies help foster resilient networks? How can we remain impactful in these turbulent times?

 

Possible formats include:

• Discursive or research-based projects
• Exchange and networking initiatives
• Small-scale solidarity formats such as workshop series or labs

Our budget for these formats is limited, but we aim to support one to two small yet impactful projects. Financial support from tanzhaus nrw will be tailored to each selected proposal. We are seeking standalone formats, not extensions of co-production projects, and invite applications from artists experienced in such work. Applications should include the standard documents listed above.

 

Creative Audio Description

For up to three co-productions in 2026, we will offer the opportunity to create an audio description for blind and visually impaired audiences. Audio descriptions at tanzhaus nrw have been developed since December 2024 in collaborative tandems as part of the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance. These tandems explore the aesthetics, potential, and limits of audio description.

In the spirit of an aesthetics of access, the two describers are involved from the rehearsal process onward, rather than simply adding the description afterward. Their artistic approach goes beyond neutral translation of visual information, experimenting with language to offer a sensorial and atmospheric experience for blind and visually impaired audiences via headphones.

Artists interested in incorporating an audio description into their piece should indicate this in their application and include a short written motivation (approx. 250 words) or an audio file (1–2 minutes). The final selection will be made jointly with the describers.

 

Profile & Programme 2026

tanzhaus nrw presents and promotes a wide variety of choreographic positions. The production house transcends the traditional boundaries between high culture, subculture and socioculture. The creative exploration of the human body and its role in contemporary society takes centre stage. The stage program presents remarkable and innovative perspectives on contemporary dance. tanzhaus nrw is particularly committed to artistic-choreographic practices that critically examine the following topics:

• Gender & body politics: Questioning binary gender concepts, normative body images and the search for violence-critical forms of physicality on stage
• Decolonisation of dance: Reflection on Eurocentric dance canons and the recognition of non-Western dance traditions
• Dance & digital physicality: New choreographic forms of expression in digital spaces
• Dance, Technology & Posthumanism: Examining interactions between the body, technology and AI
• Urban Dance Cultures: HipHop & Club Styles, as well as other Urban Dance Cultures such as Krump in and beyond stage contexts
• Sustainability & Social Justice: Critical examination of the topics of biodiversity and solidary-based practices of living
• Alternative Modes of Production: e.g. aesthetics of access, work in FLINTA*-led teams and community-based formats
• Participation & Encounter: Involvement of various actors in the sense of participatory research approaches as well as interactive artistic formats.

 
Contact & Applications:
dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de

Click HERE for all information on the COMEDIA Theatre Cologne call for applications. The informations are only provided in german. Application deadline for the 5 scholarships in 2025 is 01 May 2025.