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Learn more about dance in Munich! In TTmag dance creators talk about their aesthetics and approach, dance formats and Munich dance topics are put under the microscope! |
 Conversations about formats Johanna Richter + Birgitta Trommler about HIER=JETZT You organized HIER=JETZT for the first time in 2016 and launched the platform. What was your motivation? Birgitta: The motivation for HIER=JETZT was for us the observation that dance was simply not visible in the city. Every choreographer waited for funding, played three performances when it was received, and then it was all over again. We simply wanted to encourage young choreographers to come forward and become visible. Johanna: And then we realized the first platform without any financial help. We only had the space and the passion to change something. With HIER=JETZT you offer choreographers the possibility for try-outs under professional conditions without having to acquire money - how did you feel at the beginnings? Johanna: From our beginnings working artistically we know that you can only get further with artistic ideas if you put them into practice and experience them on stage. Concepts remain theory if you can't try anything out. Birgitta: Birgitta: We immediately sensed how much talent and creative drive exists in the city. And especially how many interesting ideas there are that can be shown with rehearsal space and creative support from our side. After many years of experience in the independent scene, you both worked permanently at municipal and state theaters. You, Birgitta, were director of dance at the Städtische Bühnen Münster and at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and Johanna, you were choreographer-in-residence at the Schauburg in Munich for 13 years. To what extent did that change your view of young dancers and choreographers or of the independent dance scene? Birgitta: Birgitta: Our perspective has not changed, because it is always exciting to observe an artistic development. Not only in the early days of TPM (TANZPROJEKT MÜNCHEN), but also in the theaters where I worked with my own groups, it was important to me to offer young colleagues the opportunity to develop their own work. As with HIER=JETZT, I set something in motion that also went further, beyond the place of the beginning. Johanna: Johanna: During the time of my residency, I realized that only continuity, in which you can develop an ensemble and an artistic signature, allows the work to mature. That's the big problem in the independent scene; there's hardly any chance of growth because there are no stable structures in which artists can flourish. Who in the independent scene can perform a production 60 times in five years, as I was able to do in the residency? Now that we continuously experience choreographers from the independent scene on the platform, we see how much potential there is that can grow. At first, HIER=JETZT was focused on Munich choreographers, but then you opened it up - what happened? Johanna: Johanna: We received a lot of feedback very quickly, even beyond the borders of Munich. Even on the first platforms there were guests from "outside". This has led to the local artists being able to create new networks, and in the meantime they can also show their work beyond Munich. If you look at the programs of the first years of HIER=JETZT, it is noticeable that in the beginning, alongside young choreographers, often more established colleagues also showed short choreographies here. If I see it correctly, over the years the aspect has shifted more towards a platform focused on up-and-coming/newcomers and, in terms of format, towards excerpts and work in progress? Johanna: Johanna: We can no longer offer the performances in which we invited short choreographies, thus proclaiming a so-called "dance day". Our budget is just enough to offer good resources to the participants who come to develop the pieces. This is the unique selling point of HIER=JETZT: To realize ideas and not present something finished. Birgitta: Birgitta: Our platform has the concept of addressing choreographers who want to work on a new piece. This means that it is not about up and coming talents in the "dancer sense". Everyone, no matter what age group, is " newcomer" when it comes to developing a piece and stepping onto a new level. Johanna: Johanna: It's also very stimulating that differently experienced artists meet in this laboratory situation and exchange ideas with each other. Where else can you find that? For the last two years you have been running HIER=JETZT as an online version because of the pandemic, and you also understood this as an act of solidarity with the artists. Does the online version also have potential for the future, or has it changed the tools you use? I think that since the beginning of HIER=JETZT the participants get professional photos and now also film material for their purposes, or was that always the case? Johanna: The participating artists have always received video recordings and photo documentation of their work. Since the "Corona Edition" in 2020 - with which we created the last open spaces, so to speak, in which artists could realize their work in the "lockdown of the arts" - we have intensified the focus on video recording. It is filmed more elaborately, the videos are edited, and then made available to the general public on Internet portals. In 2020 and 2021, the radius of the platform became much larger as a result. Even though we now expect live performances in 2022, we will continue the high quality of the videos. In this way, we are and will remain a permanently present platform also in digital networks ("Vimeo HIER=JETZT"). When you look at the years since 2016, is there anything among the participants that makes you say: something has changed a lot? Birgitta: We are proud of the fact how many of our participants, who started on the platform, now work beyond the borders of Munich and show their productions. Many have tested the approaches with us and then, with the material gained here, have been given the resources to realize a full-length piece. The networks created at HIER=JETZT have also had an effect. Through the annual presence of the platform, we also see how newcomers progress, develop, find a signature. This is of course the benefit of being able to participate in the platform more often and to discuss your work with colleagues again and again. HIER=JETZT 2022 and following - what do you wish for the platform? Johanna: We would wish that we would not have to apply for the budget every year anew, and thus actually only know shortly before the start of the platform how much we have available. Planning security would be extremely important. Not to mention growth. Think about how sustainable it would be to have such a lab format in the city on a continuous basis? How much livelier the scene would be and become then... The public Open Spaces of HIER=JETZT 2022 will take place from April 28 - May 01, 2022 at the schwere reiter: HIER=JETZT 2022 Admission free. No advance sale, free tickets only available at the box office from 30 minutes before the performance starts. The interview with Johanna Richter + Birgitta Trommler was conducted by Simone Lutz, March 2022  Tanztendenz Munich e.V. is sponsored by the Munich Department of Arts and Culture |
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