Dance in schools

As a founding member of the Bundesverband Tanz in Schulen e.V., the Tanzplattform Rhein-Main (as the successor to Tanzlabor 21) actively works on the development of standards. The primary aim is to establish contemporary dance art and culture in school education. The art form of dance should be introduced to pupils of all school types and levels in theory and practice and become an integral part of education and personal development. At the end of 2006, together with Wiebke Dröge, we developed our own dance-in-schools concept, which we continue to refine to this day. Under her direction, the first dance project at the Viktoriaschule Darmstadt was successfully completed in 2007 with an 11th grade class. Since 2007, 24 dance artists have worked with groups of pupils – in integrated comprehensive schools (IGS), grammar schools, elementary school, special schools, vocational schools and cultural schools. Our aim is to establish long-term collaborations with individual schools in order to build up an understanding of contemporary dance and its forms of expression. We have been cooperating with the Sonderpädagogische Wallschule (Frankfurt), the IGS Alexej von Jawlensky (Wiesbaden), the Freiligrath-Grundschule (Frankfurt), the IGS Heinrich Kraft (Frankfurt) and the IGS Bernhard Adelung (Darmstadt) for several years now.

Implementation

The project periods depend on the possibilities and programs of the school and are selected in consultation with the dance artists. Usually a two-hour dance class takes place every week. Other projects run for three to four hours or integrate entire project weeks. The entire project period with a working group runs for at least three months until completion, ideally over a school semester.