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GERMAN DANCE AWARD 2026

Choreographer Christian Spuck receives the German Dance Award 2026.
Butoh dancer Tadashi Endo is posthumously honoured with a lifetime achievement award.
Prof. Dr Gabriele Brandstetter, Professor of Dance Studies, receives the award for outstanding development in dance.

The German Dance Award honours outstanding dance personalities in Germany. In spring, the jury selected the winners for 2026.
The German Dance Award 2026 for Christian Spuck is endowed with €20,000. The award for Prof. Dr Gabriele Brandstetter is associated with a grant of €5,000. Tadashi Endo, who died on 25 May 2025, will be honoured posthumously.
 
The German Dance Award and the honours will be presented on Saturday, 28 February 2026 at the Aalto-Theater Essen.
For the first time, the award ceremony will not take place at the start of the theatre season, but at the beginning of spring. This creates a better organisational situation for the host theatre, for the Dachverband Tanz as organiser and for the invited ensembles, free from the density of premieres at the start of the season.

All information on the award winners and the dance gala can be found at www.deutschertanzpreis.de

 

Projects

Through initiatives and projects, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland advances the nationwide issues of dance and its impact in many areas of society. Here we present our ongoing projects and funding programs.

Join in! Sustainable production toolkit

Sustainability is a process. And the “Sustainable Production” toolkit is a companion for this process. It is aimed at those involved in the (independent) performing arts and the independent music scene: artists, production managers, technicians, event organizers, artistic directors and all those who help shape and take responsibility for artistic processes. The toolkit is not a checklist to be worked through, but a toolbox to help discover possible courses of action. After all, sustainable action does not have to be linked to major investments and structural measures. Many steps towards greater sustainability are quite simple. For example: reusing props, borrowing technology instead of buying it and buying locally instead of from large online retailers.

The toolkit contains more than 200 measures that enable sustainable action in artistic production contexts.

Toolkit „Nachhaltiges produzieren“ des BFDK

Work Areas

The Federal Association for Dance in Germany acts in the long term as a network partner for dance professionals, cultural practitioners, civil society actors, and policymakers. The fields of work include all issues related to the development of dance art and its visibility - from dance education, production and presentation of dance, dance research and dance science to documentation, public relations and presence of dance in the media. Furthermore, the DTD strives for a comprehensive participation of all citizens in the diversity of the art of dance.

 

Voices of dance - the podcast of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland

The third season of the "VOICES OF DANCE" podcast from Dachverband Tanz Deutschland - which is all about dance:digital.

Working with VR, AR or motion capturing has not only arrived on the dance scene since the coronavirus pandemic. Immersive productions are not only to be found in the games or fashion industry. The German Dance Association has been supporting the scene since 2021 with the tanz:digital funding programme.
A programme that aims to strengthen dance artists, dance ensembles and dance institutions in the media presentation of artistic productions.
In this podcast, artists talk about their experiences and challenges of working creatively with new technologies.

FOLLOW OUR PODCAST
You can also find the podcast on all popular podcast platforms

 

WIR SIND AUCH DIE VIELEN!

Wir als Dachverband Tanz Deutschland unterstützen die Kampagne SHIELD & SHINE - denn wir sind auch DIE VIELEN, die gegen Rassismus, Ausgrenzung und Rechtsextremismus aufstehen. Wir rufen alle unsere Mitglieder, Kolleg*innen und unsere Freund*innen in Kultur und Politik auf, sich der Kampagne anzuschließen und lokal Proteste, Diskussionen und Sichtbarkeit zu organisieren.

HOW TO & AKTIONSWOCHEN: Als Handreichung und Unterstützung für regionale und lokale VIELEN Gruppen gibt es ein HOW TO SHIELD & SHINE Pdf mit Anregungen, Tipps und mehr für Aktionen. Weiteres Material, Logos, Dateien und Informationen als Download

Die Aktionen sollen bzw. können sich vor allem auf die folgenden Zeiträumen konzentrieren:

  • 03.06.-09.06.2024 Aktionswoche EUROPA DEN VIELEN
  • 26.08.-01.09.2024 Bundesweite Aktionswoche gegen die Normalisierung von rechtsextremer Politik

Wir planen derzeit auch entsprechende Aktionen und werden Sie über unseren Newsletter und unsere Social Media-Kanäle auf dem Laufenden halten!

German Dance Association

Get to know us!

Dachverband Tanz Deutschland acts as a long-term network partner for dance professionals, cultural practitioners, civil society actors, and politicians at the state, federal, and EU levels. In this context, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland carries out networking, advisory and mediation work for professional dance practitioners, associations and art and educational institutions. On the individual project pages you will find detailed information about the projects and individual events and workshops.

 

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