To provide elderly people without dance experience access to contemporary dance, we regularly offer workshops at various locations. Our workshop formats not only encourage physical activity but also foster creativity and social interaction.
In the Choreographic Laboratory 60+, participants explore their own movements and creatively combine them under professional guidance.
The Moving Introduction takes place in the context of a performance by the professional Dance On Ensemble. Just before the performance, participants receive playful movement impulses that offer direct access to the dancers’ movement language. This workshop enables a physical and sensory approach to the stage performance, enriching the experience of the show that follows.
In addition, our talk series and discussions invite reflection on the presence of older dancers on stage, aim to take a stand against age discrimination and offer impulses for equal cultural participation.
Current
Moving Introduction
for Mellowing
8 November 2025
Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi
7:30pm, duration ca. 15 min
Workshop Choreographic Laboratory 40+
8 November 2025
Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi
4-6pm
9 November 2025
Studio Republik, Dubai
2-4pm
Previous workshops
Moving Introduction
To STEIN at Radialsystem Berlin
At the end of July, the Dance On Ensemble will celebrate the world premiere of its new piece STEIN, choreographed by dance icon Lucinda Childs, at Radialsystem Berlin. The performance on Saturday, 26 July, will be complemented by a Moving Introduction, inviting the audience to get physically involved before the show begins.
Through playful impulses, participants immerse themselves directly in the movement language of the professional dancers – intuitively, dynamically and with no prior experience needed. This special format offers a sensual and physical approach to the stage action, enhancing the experience of the upcoming show. Open to all ages – just join in and discover dance in a whole new way!
Moving Introduction on 26 July, 7.30 pm
Duration: approx. 15 minutes
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Choreographic Laboratory 60+
At Kiez Zentrum Villa Lützow
On 06 May, 01 July and 16 September 2024 from 2 to 4 p.m., we welcomed dance enthusiasts 60+ to the Kiez Zentrum Villa Lützow. Together we discovered the diversity of contemporary dance.
The offer is aimed at anyone who is curious to discover unknown movements, dance and be creative with others. No previous knowledge or special physical requirements are necessary – every body is welcome.
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Moving Introduction
At the internationale tanzmesse nrw
On 31 August 2024, the Dance On Ensemble performed MELLOWING (C: Christos Papadopoulos) at the internationale tanzmesse nrw! We were pleased to offer a Moving Introduction beforehand, during which the audience members had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the movement material of MELLOWING and directly experience it for themselves. No previous dance experience were necessary, the offer is open to all interested people and age groups. The Moving Introduction was conducted in German and English by Laura Böttinger.
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S.K.A.T. #9 – DOES DANCE AGE?
Workshop with Ziv Frenkel and Madeline Ritter
When are we old? How can experience and lived knowledge be used creatively? And how can dance contribute to questioning the prevailing idealisation of youth in our culture? The Dance On Initiative has been dealing with the value of age in dance and society for many years. In this S.K.A.T. round, the participants embarked together on a stimulating exchange of ideas that set body and mind in motion and illuminates the different facets of the question “Does dance age?”.
28 June 2023 at Centre Français, Berlin
in the framework of S.K.A.T. (Senior Academy for Dance)
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Workshop weekend & performance
With Laura Böttinger, Miki Orihara and Marco Volta
Miki Orihara and Marco Volta (professional dancers of the Dance On Ensemble) and Laura Böttinger (Artistic Director Dance On Participation) offered three dance workshops on the first weekend of December 2022 at Studio EDEN***** in Berlin Pankow. At the end, Dance On Lab performed their piece Tideland, which premiered in London in June 2022.
The dance workshops and the performance gave a first impression of the range of the Dance On Initiative’s intergenerational engagement programme. In each of the workshops, a small choreography was developed from different dance perspectives.
03 December 2022
Graham Work
Workshop with Miki Orihara in English
This class explored the idea of Martha Graham’s work, learned her choreography and created new choreography.
Invisible Threads
Workshop with Marco Volta
In individual improvisation and dance in pairs, participants experienced the potential of their own bodies and the bodies of others.
Tideland
Performance with dancers of the Dance On Lab
Dance On Lab is a regular dance offer for interested people 60+ who want to develop dance skills and create their own choreography. Their latest piece Tideland premiered in London in June 2022.
04 December 2022
Choreographic Laboratory 60+
Workshop with Laura Böttinger
In this workshop, the focus lied on the development of choreographed and improvised performance material. The emphasis was not on teaching dance technique, but on creating a choreography together. How do I develop my own movement sequences? And how do I find the courage to show and change them? Strategies were developed to stimulate creativity and rediscover the diversity of dance.
Tideland
Performance with dancers of the Dance On Lab
Dance On Lab is a regular dance offer for interested people 60+ who want to develop dance skills and create their own choreography. Their latest piece Tideland premiered in London in June 2022.
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Choreographic Laboratory 60+
At the elderly home La Castellane
The dancer Jone San Martin (Dance On Ensemble) and the Artistic Director of the intergenerational engagement programme Dance On Participation, Laura Böttinger, gave a workshop at the Centre Chorégraphique National in the elderly home La Castellane.
09-11 May 2022, Centre Chorégraphique National, Rillieux-la-Pape
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Sign language and dance
With Jone San Martin, sound designer Mikel R. Nieto and four hearing dancers
We invited deaf people to combine sign language and dance and express themselves through body, voice and sound. No previous dance experience was required – it was all about the joy of movement.
05-06 April 2022, Studio FLÖZ, Berlin
07-08 April 2022, Kiez Zentrum Villa Lützow, Berlin
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Dance at Home
Public online workshops during Corona
During the COVID-19 crisis, Laura Böttinger, Artistic Director of the intergenerational engagement programme Dance On Participation, held public online workshops for elderly people at home. Participants were able to take part in the workshops via video and dance together. Some of the workshops were accompanied by a live musician.
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Choreographic Laboratory 60+
At Onassis Stegi, Athen
On the occasion of the premiere of You should have seen me dancing Waltz by the Dance On Ensemble at the Onassis Stegi Theater in Athens, Laura Böttinger (Artistic Director Dance On Participation) and Christine Kono (Dance On Ensemble) conducted a workshop for the in-house amateur group 65+ Company.
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Choreographic Laboratory 60+
At Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop
In the ten-day Choreographic Laboratory 60+, Laura Böttinger worked together with the project participants at Künstlerhaus Lukas to develop approaches to their own choreographic traces. The participants used research processes in nature as a starting point. Where do I leave traces and are they always comprehensible? What traces do my movements leave on others?
The results of the laboratory were presented to the public and put up for discussion during the Long Night of Art on 17 August 2019 at Künstlerhaus Lukas. In addition to the performative presentation, the team opened its doors and invited interested amateurs to the workshop to get to know the principles of the Choreographic Laboratory 60+.
The workshop scholarship at Künstlerhaus Lukas was funded by the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
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Choreographic Laboratory 60+
In the frame of the Tanzland cooperation with the Lessingtheater Wolfenbüttel
The Choreographic Laboratory 60+ workshop focused on the development of choreographed and improvised performance material with participants over 60, with the aim of developing strategies to stimulate creativity and rediscover the diversity of dance. With Laura Böttinger and Gerda Raudonikis.
10-14 October 2018, Lessingtheater Wolfenbüttel
09-13 October 2019, Lessingtheater Wolfenbüttel
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Dance On Local
With Martin Nachbar and the Dance On Ensemble
Dance amateurs aged over 50 and professional dancers came together on an equal footing in a project by and with the choreographer Martin Nachbar: while members of the Dance On Ensemble were bringing their many years of dance experience to the project, dance amateurs were doing the same with the specific skills they have acquired in the course of their lives. Together, they developed an artistic format that picked up on the practices of the Dance On Ensemble and translates them in such a way that interested amateurs benefited from generating movement material and dancing together.
First formats were already developed in two workshops in February and April 2017 in the Berlin Uferstudios, which were then deepened in July 2017 during a residence week at Schloss Bröllin with other participants from Pasewalk and the surrounding area.
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
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