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Our next general meeting will take place on Monday, 27 January 2025, from 6 to 8.30 pm at Studio 4 of Tanzfabrik/ UFER_STUDIOS

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For your information we share the current list of funding cuts (see below). (10/1/25)

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The current budget cuts threaten the existence, continuity, and future prospects of freelance performing artists and other cultural workers, their infrastructure, and their venues. With the Freelance Dance Ensemble Berlin, we aim to create visibility for the expertise, local and international relevance, and interconnectedness of the dynamic performing arts landscape in Berlin.

Each project application requires time-consuming preparation, which includes the creation of complex time and budget plans and the careful composition of artistic teams. In the last funding round, only around 9% of applications for individual project funding were approved. The conditions and amount of funding do not do justice to the qualitative and creative potential of Berlin's internationally respected contemporary dance/performance art. According to the BFDK system check 2021-23/TanzAgenda24, 92% of dance professionals are solo self-employed and earn €12,231.00 per year at least once over the course of their lives.

We demand a restructuring of Berlin’s funding system in dialogue with the
performing arts community—a forward-looking update that fosters a generative future rather than uninspired cuts that undo the progress of the scene.

● In addition to reversing the cuts, we call for improved working conditions,
including:
● Better (or: adapted) social security provisions
● Simplified labor market access regulations for foreign artists
● Continued payment of wages in the event of illness or accidents at work from
day 1 and access to unemployment insurance adapted to the complex reality
of employment
● Adequately formulated retirement provision, even in the case of changing
employment relationships.
● A commitment from the Berliner Senat to establish sustainable conditions for Berlin-based performing artists and the freelance scene to professionalize
their infrastructures.

The planned cuts and their unilateral implementation—without consulting the people most affected—are, in our eyes, not only a symptom of ignorance towards our already precarious working conditions but also evidence of a lack of understanding of the complex structures that underpin our work. These structures are the foundation for our often interdisciplinary, collaborative, and highly engaged political, social, and performative practices.

We hereby invite Berlin’s cultural senator and other relevant politicians to engage in a dialogue with us to gain a deeper understanding of how we work and what our work requires to thrive.

Being active and self employed in the performing arts today means much more than creating stage works, rehearsing and touring. It also includes artistic research, practices of care, social work, education, political work, grant writing, accounting, continuous learning, teaching, mentoring, management, organizational and production work.

The 100% elimination of funding structures—such as the Diversity Fund, which cultural workers have built over decades—is an act of destruction and disrespect, particularly toward marginalized groups.

However, there are examples of how cultural work can be structured more sustainably. In neighboring countries like France and Belgium, freelance artists have access to the “status d’intermittence,” a system that provides support during periods of unemployment or injury. In an economically strong country like Germany, it is disproportionate that freelance artists work a 40-hour week yet have no prospects of a pension.

Artistic excellence is the result of the dedicated work of many people: competent and highly educated teams that support long creation processes and the continuous financial investment in artistic research and work.

The city of Berlin and its residents deserve a thriving arts scene and artists who are not trapped in precarity.

In light of these funding cuts, we propose initiating a process to formalize our labor, needs, and rights through the development of a union. This would provide a collective voice for an often solitary and fragmented field.

ABOUT Freelance Dance Ensemble Berlin
A loose collective of artists has developed this website to honor their colleagues, highlight the complexity of their work, and fight against the looming budgetary disaster threatening them and their peers.

Initiated by:
Claire Vivianne Sobottke, Jared Gradinger, Silke Bake, Siegmar Zacharias, Sheena McGrandles, Martin Hansen, Jule Flierl & Laurie Young.

Links:

FREELANCE DANCE ENSEMBLE BERLIN – STATEMENT

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQJ5TwXv3JL10pxkIjEob-1Ykcx0b6QuWN2Z_X-CNttzAauw/viewform

Contact: freelancedanceensembleberlin@gmail.com

We are shocked and disappointed by politicians’ current decision to cut Berlin’s cultural budget by 13%. This demonstrates the complete lack of understanding of Berlin’s unique, diverse and inclusive art scene and what it has to offer to the city. All the protests over the last few weeks – the two big demonstrations ZTB contributed in organizing – seemingly failed to make an impact on the politicians. The senator for culture is tacitly looking away, allowing the independent scene to be dismantled.
The uncertainty – the question as to whether or not promised funding will be paid in 2025 – is blocking our work. The situation is dramatic, as never before. Nevertheless, instead of falling into a sense of desperation, let’s continue to gather together, protest and most importantly: stand together in solidarity. We artists demand immediate support from all funded structures, as it is well known, nothing of what Berlin is today could exist without us.

ZTB Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V. Board – Julia Barrette-Laperrière, Armin Hokmi, Martha Hincapié Charry, Günther Wilhelm, Jasmin İhraç

Call for Demonstration / September, 13, 2024, 18-20h / Brandenburger TorZTB Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V.

10-12% cuts on the Berlin level

50% cuts on the Federal level

Berlin Dance needs you!

Poor but sexy won’t do it this time!

The current cuts in the (federal budget) Federal Cultural Fund of up to 50% and the expected cuts at Berlin level of 10-12% will have devastating consequences for the entire independent scene and dance in particular. The situation for self-employed dance professionals is already catastrophic, with an average annual income below the official poverty line. With further cuts, many of us will no longer be able to pursue our profession. This is unacceptable and, to say the least, a huge loss for the city of Berlin, internationally renowned for its diverse and experimental dance scene. This reputation is fading away as the dance landscape is in danger of being dried up by further cuts. We must fight back!

On 13 September 2024, the Dachverband Tanz is organizing an Action Day in front of the Brandenburg Gate to draw attention to the importance of dance in Germany: the diversity and potential of dance should be made visible in the public space and brought into the political conversation.” A performative supporting program will take place from 3 pm and speeches and statements by politicians and cultural workers are planned from 6 pm to 8 pm. This is exactly when we need you! We are planning a demonstration and want to show together that there are many of us who stand for dance in Berlin. Come with your posters if you like, otherwise we will also provide some on site.

#Danceworkiswork #TanzAgenda24 #BerlinTanzHauptstadt

Have a look on our Instagram

Netzwerktreffen Tanzvermittlung – #1 Access Check.

Thursday, 14th of December 2023, 2 – 7 pm, Tagungshaus Alte Feuerwache, Kreuzberg

What is the status quo of access in the field of dance? What are good practices that have made a difference in recent years? What are the biggest barriers and how can we overcome them together? We would like to address these questions by looking at institutional and artistic-mediating practices.

The network meeting builds on our concept for a Berlin dance mediation centre, Access Point Dance/Tanzvermittlungszentrum, in which the terms Vermittlung and Access are strongly linked. The Netzwerktreffen Tanzvermittlung – #1 Access Check is the first of a series of regular network meetings in the field of dance mediation and serves to promote links and exchange.

Keynote guests include: Hannah Aldinger (Access-Work and art mediator), Angela Alves (Dancer and choreographer), Lucia Matzke (Krump dancer and dance mediator), Bahar Meric (Co-Founder of Future Move e.V.), Elisa Ricci (Project manager of Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum), Diana Thielen (Activist dance maker and mediator)

Moderation: Leila Haghighat (Cultural scientist and art mediator)

Registration until 10th of December at: info@access-point-tanz.org

Address Tagungshaus Alte Feuerwache,  Axel-Springer-Str. 40/41, 10969 Berlin, U8 Moritzplatz, U2 Spittelmarkt, U6 Kochstraße, Bus M29 and 248 Lindenstraße/Oranienstraße

ACCESS INFORMATION

The network meeting will be held in German, with English translation available if required. Participation is free of charge. DGS translation is available. The seminar room of the Tagungshaus Feuerwache is accessible for wheelchair users and can be reached with an elevator and a ramp. Wheelchair-accessible bathrooms and toilets with wide doors without doorsteps are available.

Please let us know your access needs when you register.