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