FÜR IMMER TANZ

30 years Tanz im August

The foundations are laid for a festival archive. | Credit: Claudia Henne
30 years – how did everything work back in 1988 in West Berlin? And in the following years? Research begins in the archive. Archive? No, there is no archive. There was no time, no people, no money – the usual. The history of the festival is stored somewhere – but where exactly? We embark on a scavenger hunt through Berlin – through the Landesarchiv, the Akademie der Künste, MIME Centrum, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, private archives and personal memories. We make phone calls, send emails, rummage through disorganised cardboard boxes, examine programmes, manuscripts, articles, films and collections of photos. Patience is required. Chance finds come to the rescue. We get lucky. The grey cardboard boxes acquired in the meantime fill up and the festival website can be fed. In 2018 the foundations are laid for a festival archive – both analogue and digital.

Concept, research and editing: Claudia Henne
Assistance: Sarah Pützer
Translation: Gegensatz - Translation Collective

With thanks to:

Nele Hertling, founder of TanzWerkstatt and Tanz im August
Ulrike Becker, TanzWerkstatt 1988-2012
Jacalyn Carley, co-founder of tanzfabrik 
Christian Collet, rbb
Marina Dafova, tanz
Heike Diehm, k3 berlin - Kontor für Kultur und Kommunikation
Stephan Dörschel, archive performing arts at AdK
Dieter Hartwig, dance photographer
Elisabeth Knauf, head of production HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Klaus Rabien, dance photographer
Maria-Magdalena Schwaegermann, Hebbel-Theater 1989-2002
Anna Stein, tanzfabrik
Thilo Wittenbecher, MIME-Centrum
Latest Posts

The Hebbel-Theater
by Claudia Henne, 17 April 2018

Dance photographer Klaus Rabien
by Claudia Henne, 17 April 2018

These two articles are the prelude to a series on 30 years of Tanz im August, which will explore the festival's history and events. Further articles will be published from June 12th.
Credit: Dajana Lothert
Claudia Henne grew up in the stuffy atmosphere of the ’50s on the edge of the Iron Curtain in Lower Saxony. After completing an apprenticeship, she “fled” to the USA as an au pair. She moved to West Berlin in 1972, completed high school and then studied German philology and political science at the Freie Universität Berlin. She began working in radio in 1982, followed by 20 years as a regular freelance contributor. Editor, moderator and critic for the cultural programme of the Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) and other ARD institutions. Occasional forays into a range of print media, as well as involvement in various areas of Berlin cultural policy. In 2002 she joined the SFB/rbb cultural programmes for both radio and television as an editor, where she was employed until 2016. Since 2017 she’s been working as a freelance cultural and dance journalist – with as much passion as ever.