SPRUNGBRETT <> DANCE RESEARCH NRW is a joint project initiated by the tanz nrw festival and the NRW KULTURsekretariat to facilitate research residencies. For two weeks, each selected artist or collective has access to the facilities and expertise of these two production centres. This year’s participating collectives will present their research outcomes in open studios during the festival.

Kitted out on stage with a huge silver ghetto blaster, denim jackets, and masses of energy, Renegade returns to the roots of hip hop in Germany. Break legend Niels »Storm« Robitzky and six dancers revive the spectacular moves of breaking of the 1980s, which caused a sensation in inner city pedestrian zones around the country. But where does urban dance stand today and how has the aesthetic evolved? 

In ›Masterpiece‹, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso explores and embodies the tradition of character dances such as the Mexican Mariachi which, from today’s perspective, is characterized as hyper-dramatic, hyper-virtuous and hyper-gendered. The work explores these excesses amidst a tumult of nostalgic and Latin American associations, hijacking the dance from its legitimacy, legacy and traditions to question whether and under what conditions these forms of expression still have a justification today.

Physical and digital environments, organic and virtual bodies, programmed and coincidental events do not exist strictly separated from each other but interact on different levels. Digital spaces challenge what our human bodies can be and perceive, how we can move, change and interact. How can these physical-digital entanglements be used artistically? In short inputs followed by a discussion including dinner, artistic-choreographic approaches will be presented and discussed in view of new, digital stages and platforms.

Together with eight performers, the Asasello Quartet and the orchestra Les Siècles, choreographer Stephanie Thiersch and composer Brigitta Muntendorf have created ›Bilderschlachten‹, a choreographic vision about the end of the world in 2019. The resulting ballet noir rampages unbridled through cultural history and holds up a mirror to the excesses of our civilisation. At PACT during tanz nrw 23, the company will premiere a reworked version of the piece in which the orchestra appears as a holographic image.

In ›ON:Joy‹ choreographers and performers Maria Mercedes Flores Mujica and Constanza Javiera Ruiz, ›ON:Joy‹  explore how emotions affect the body. Feelings like ecstasy, euphoria, intoxication and joy change the body and generate states of intense energy. Bliss, pleasure, vibrancy, serenity, abundance, wonder, merriment, frenzy, relaxation are just some of the many manifestations of joy and pleasure that people want to experience over and over again.