About Us
What do we do? Tanzbüro Berlin is the central contact point for the Berlin dance scene, offering advice and networking.
Tanzbüro Berlin was founded in 2005 as a central point of contact for the Berlin dance scene. It provides information both for dance artists and dance enthusiasts. We are committed to advising artists, bringing together stakeholders, ideas and resources, supporting the arts and throwing a spotlight on the city’s varied dance landscape.
Tanzbüro Berlin helps Berlin dance artists with an extensive range of free advice, extending from individual conversations to group seminars, general consultation hours and our CPD module tandem.
As a mediator between the dance scene and cultural administration and policy, we communicate with all the city’s dance stakeholders and take action against issues in the arts. In cooperation with partners such as Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V. or the TanzRaumBerlin network, we launch projects and strategies to improve production conditions. In addition, we focus on networking with important national and international institutions to further extend existing potential for dance and to unlock new resources.
Another important concern is to attract broad-ranging attention to the Berlin dance scene, whose roughly 2,500 artists and 1,800 performances every year make it an important part of Berlin’s vibrant cultural landscape. Our website tanzraumberlin.de provides an overview and an initial guide to Berlin’s dance events, maps out their widespread locations and shows who can be seen, where and when in the events calendar. Our bi-monthly magazine tanzraumberlin (published in print and online) and our reviews portal tanzschreiber.de offer deeper insights into current topics, trends and discourses in the scene. The annual dance campaign draws attention to the various schemes found across the city, while the Tanzcard discount card gives holders cut-price entry to numerous dance presentation venues all year round. Last but not least, our mapping dance berlin scheme supports the field of dance education, enabling artists and educators to develop and refine formats designed to simplify and extend access to contemporary dance in Berlin.
History
Tanzbüro Berlin is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe and supported by Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V. It was founded in April 2005 in connection with the strategic merging of various dance institutions to create the TanzRaumBerlin network. This added a full-time institution to the voluntary initiative set up by Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V., reinforcing and professionalising the association’s work. Tanzbüro Berlin works with the TanzRaumBerlin network in the fields of coordination, information and inspiration. Among other things, we have supported or sparked projects such as the Inter-University Centre of Dance (HTZ), Uferstudios for Contemporary Dance, two reforms to the Berlin funding system, the establishment of minimum pay for Berlin’s independent scene and, finally, the Dance Round Table. At the national level, Tanzbüro Berlin played a key role in the implementation of the TANZPAKT municipal, regional and national funding programme, acting as a partner to the group which initiated it.
