Review of the Tanzbiennale 2025
On Sunday, the 9th of February 2025, the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg 2025 came to an end with the »Tanzgala Baden-Württemberg« in the Marguerre-Saal and HebelHalle. The sixth edition of Heidelberg's largest dance festival recorded an outstanding overall attendance rate of 94%. In total, more than 7,200 visitors took part in the diverse festival program over the nine festival days. Around 1,000 more than the last festival edition in 2023.
Some insights to Tanzbiennale 2025 in the trailer:
»It was an outstanding success! We did not only present the people of Heidelberg great dance from all over the world, we also got them dancing themselves - for example at the Church Battles in the Heiliggeistkirche, at our festival parties or the numerous workshops. I think Heidelberg has been dancing for 9 days now. The 94% occupancy rate shows once again: Heidelberg is a city of dance!« says Holger Schultze, Director of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, which has been organizing the Tanzbiennale as TANZallianz together with the UnterwegsTheater Heidelberg since 2013. The sixth edition of the festival was the last for Holger Schultze, whose Artistic Direction ends in 2026, at the beginning of which he re-established the dance department at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg.
Jai Gonzales and Bernhard Fauser from UnterwegsTheater are also enthusiastic about the sixth joint festival: »The artists we have seen over the last few days have strengthened our belief in this fleeting and fragile art: in many of the pieces, we see reactions to current problems and experience many different types of cohesion and openness. That's what culture is all about for us - and the enthusiastic reactions of the audience confirm this!«
The Tanzbiennale 2025 kicked off on February 1st and sent the city into a prolonged dance frenzy: in the Heiliggeistkirche, everyone who wanted to could test their dance skills against each other in the »Church Battle«, a street dance competition. Afterwards, the inclusive dance project »touch_taff« by young people with and without disabilities was premiered together in the Zwinger, before the opening day came to a crowning conclusion in the HebelHalle with »Mellowing« by the Dance On Ensemble and the subsequent opening party. In the following days of the festival, the entire spectrum of contemporary dance was presented to the audience in Heidelberg. Top-class guest performances from all over the world could be seen in the seven venues of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg and the UnterwegsTheater. Big names such as Nederlands Dans Theater 2, the Brazilian Companhia de Danças by Lia Rodrigues, Mathilde Monnier, Jone San Martine and the Dance On Ensemble presented their works, which dealt with highly topical themes such as violence against women, queerness and traditional images of women. The festival also offered young choreographers from Baden-Württemberg an inspiring stage on two evenings with its Baden-Württemberg focus, which was expanded once again this year. Visitors were able to get active themselves in a wide variety of workshops and discussion formats, young dance enthusiasts were also catered for in many ways and films from the world of dance were shown in CC1 and the Gloria Kino.
All of this was made possible not least thanks to the generous support of the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation.
Iván Pérez, director of Dance Theatre Heidelberg and, together with Holger Schultze, artistic director of the Dance Biennale on behalf of Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, sums it up: »We have shown far beyond the city limits how powerful dance is - a diverse international program, pieces by world-class companies and choreographers at the forefront of current artistic developments, such as Cherish Menzo, Ayelen Parolin and Astrid Boons. Our focus on dance for young audiences has not only inspired young viewers, but also celebrated artists from Baden-Württemberg. The festival's motto »united by dance« is thus taken into account!«
