Good Practice is a video project by the Ethics Commission of the Dachverband Tanz. In this context, we visit institutions, initiatives and groups that deal with anti-discriminatory structures and reflect dimensions of discrimination in their artistic work and aesthetic practice. A 15-minute video is launched at iregular intervals. After a short introduction to the topic and its legal and political implications, an interview with an everyday expert follows. They come from different institutions and groups in the field of dance. They are filmed at the place where they work, i.e. regularly at a theater.
The goal of the videos is to provide institutions with suggestions for implementing discrimination-sensitive, democratic and employee-friendly structures.
This is the first video in the ‘Good Practice’ series, for which we visited the independent production and performance venue Sophiensæle in Berlin. In this video, we present practical approaches for a discrimination-sensitive working context, such as the design of discrimination-sensitive application processes, relaxed performances, audio description, access riders, BIPoC-only events and the introduction of an anti-discrimination clause.
This video was created with the Sophiensäle management team in place until summer 2023 (Franziska Werner, Dr Joy Kristin Kalu). Since summer 2023, the Sophiensäle have had a new management team with Andrea Niederbuchner and Jens Hillje.
In the second edition of the ‘Good Practice’ series, we look at the compatibility of perfroming arts and care work. For this, we are guests at the Theaterhaus Jena with two interview partners representing the theatre and Bühnenmütter e.V.. The examples given discuss above all the realities and challenges of life for theatre professionals who also perform care work. However, these can be applied to the performing arts as a whole, especially dance.
In two think tanks (23-24 September Hamburg Kampnagel and 7-9 October Berlin Feuerwache), recipients and producers from the independent performing arts community, whose everyday lives are characterised by care work, met with representatives from the fields of festival management, event management and artistic direction. The toolkit builds on the deeper knowledge of the artists/mothers from the research project ‘BEYOND RE:production - Mothering in the performing arts’ (Take That 2022) and uses expertise from the ‘Bühnenmütter’ initiative. Link to download the toolkit here.