Artistic Encounters with Schools: Perspectives and Areas of Tension in Dance for Young Audiences

The explore dance network for young audiences brings mobile pop-up productions directly to schools and stages, opening up new artistic spaces for young people. Dance in schools fosters valuable encounters, but at the same time, different perspectives collide, which can also lead to conflicts, resistance, and structural challenges. This discussion focuses on how increasing societal polarization and political tensions are concretely reflected in school life and artistic processes. Topics such as diversity, physicality, and open forms of expression are increasingly areas of negotiation that affect both students and artists. Drawing on artistic and international perspectives, we discuss how artists and organizers deal with pressure, criticism, and discrimination, and how to respond. The focus is on strategies, alliances, and safer spaces needed to sustain artistic work in schools despite rising tensions and to secure dance as an enduring space for exchange and dialogue with young people.

As part of the Tanztriennale 2026 in Hamburg
18 June 2026, 2.30 p.m. – 4 p.m., Wiese eG, Accreditation with the Dance Triennale is required to participate. More information