Changing the Image of Age

It is evident that social change is underway: people in Europe are living longer and the average age of the population is growing generally.^[1] What isn’t changing, however, is the view of older people: preconceived notions of what it means to be old still dominate. “Ageism” is the widespread experience of discrimination that people experience on account of their age. The prevailing view of age is the threat of mental and physical decline. But what values do older people embody?

DANCE ON LOCAL questions clichéd notions of what it means to be old and addresses older people in the different towns and cities in which they live. The project has social and cultural-political aims to change the way people think about old people. DANCE ON is envisaged as a participation project that invites people to take part in cross-generational encounters and dialogues across social thresholds. Participants show the benefit of holding onto their wealth of experience, knowledge and skills. This benefit needs to be made visible.

“Let us rethink age in a more conscious way – in images of age and ageing that also portray the potential of this phase in the human lifespan.“ Joachim Gauck^[2]

DANCE ON Weekly: Choreography Lab

9 April sees the start of a new round of the DANCE ON LOKAL 60+ workshops led by Laura Böttinger. Everyone is welcome, the only requirements are the desire to move and a readiness to try new things. Together we will explore individual approaches to creating choreography, working towards a small presentation in the summer. No previous experience of dance is necessary.

Wear whatever you feel comfortable in.

Dates: 9 / 23 / 30 April, 7 / 21 / 28 May, 4 / 11 / 18 / 25 June, 9 July, 2.45 – 4.15 pm.

Free of charge.

Tanzfabrik Berlin Kreuzberg, 2nd floor, Möckernstraße 68, 10965 Berlin

For more information and to register, please contact Laura Böttinger on 030-81828233 or info@diehl-ritter.de

Lifelines © Dorothea Tuch

DANCE ON LOKAL - Martin Nachbar / DANCE ON ENSEMBLE

Dance amateurs aged over 50 and professional dancers are coming together on an equal footing in a project by and with the choreographer Martin Nachbar: while members of the DANCE ON ENSEMBLE are bringing their many years of dance experience to the project, dance amateurs are doing the same with the specific skills they have acquired in the course of their lives. Together, they will develop an artistic format that picks up on the practices of the DANCE ON dancers and translates them in such a way that interested amateurs can benefit from generating movement material and dancing together.

© Dorothea Tuch

The first formats, which were developed in two workshops at Berlin's Uferstudios in February and April 2017, will now be handled in greater detail during a residency week at the Schloss Bröllin art research location with additional participants from Pasewalk and the surrounding area:

Dates: 3-6 July 2017, Schloss Bröllin, Bröllin 3, 17309 Fahrenwalde

With: Martin Nachbar, Christopher Roman, Brit Rodemund, Jone San Martin and Laura Böttinger

Contact: Laura Böttinger, l.boettinger@diehl-ritter.de, Tel. 030-81 82 82 33

The Schloss Bröllin association is supported by the Ministry for Education, Science and Culture of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Region of Vorpommern-Greifswald

 [1] As forecast by the European Union in The 2015 Ageing Report. Underlying Assumptions and Projection Methodologies. Joint Report prepared by the European Commission and the Economic Policy Committee. European Commission, Brussels 2014, p. 23.

[2] Federal President Joachim Gauck in a speech to mark the opening of the Dialog mit der Zeit exhibition in Berlin on 31 March 2015, online at http://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/Joachim-Gauck/Reden/2015/03/150331-Altersbilder.html