explore dance – Network Dance for Young Audience

The cross-state network explore dance, which has been in existence since 2018, has set itself the goal of developing a sustainable structure for the production of contemporary dance pieces for young audiences and closing the gap that still exists in the cultural offerings for children and young people in Germany. Through the production, mediation and reception of dance pieces, the area of dance for young audiences will be established and expanded nationwide at a high artistic quality level with a cooperative, culture-promoting concept.

Providing children and young people with access to cultural participation is a fundamental cultural policy task. In the field of dance, however, this has so far mostly been done only through temporary project funding, which does not allow for sustainable continuity of work.

explore dance aims to give all children and young people access to dance as an art form and participation in artistic experience, regardless of their place of residence and social background, and thus to strengthen visibility in the long term: contemporary dance is to be anchored permanently and on an equal footing with other art forms and disciplines as a natural part of the cultural offerings for children and young people.

explore dance will therefore be developed into a nationwide network of dance for young audiences, which will enable children and young people to receive and actively participate in the art form of dance on the basis of an innovative cross-state structure.

In July 2022 and with the start of the second funding phase of TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund, the network expanded to include a fourth partner, HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste. 

Until the end of 2023, explore dance is increasingly dedicated to the expansion of the offer for children and young people through an extensive touring of the emerging mobile pop-up dance productions.

To this end, nine experienced choreographers and teams in all four cities will develop dance pieces that provide access to the art form of dance away from theater stages – for example, in school classrooms, museums, cultural centers or public spaces. Children and young people are actively involved in all phases of the artistic work processes. Festivals with expert meetings bundle the productions and offer space for nationwide and international networking as well as cultural and educational policy dialog.