Emerging Change Tanzfestival

Emerging Change Tanzfestival honors Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPoC) dance artists and creates an inclusive space of transformation and celebration for all.  From September 21 to October 19, 2024, Emerging Change features performances, workshops, residencies, community conversations, and celebrations.

Emerging Change Tanzfestival  highlights "Whale Fall: abyss," a captivating solo performance by renowned NYC dance artist mayfield brooks with live cello. This work was born from the sonic dissidence of Black grief and becomes the decomposed dance — the space of grief and regeneration, the lamentation, the ecstasy, the song and the sonic release.

Magnetic performances by Berlin-based artists include "another space / memory," by femBlack Performance Collective, a heart-full work with five dancers, a singer, and a DJ, which interrogates memory as a machine-body that dances beyond itself, marking an unterwegs (on the way) where Black queer bodies are able to let go, "XÊR," a cinematic solo performance by Kurdish queer dance artist Elvan Tekin that investigates the role of the voice in language, identity and the body, and "INTERMISSION," a mesmerizing solo work by Black queer dance artist vAL where dreams can spill out, linger and perhaps mend...

The festival counters structural racism and rejects tokenism within the field of dance. Inspired by adrienne maree brown's book "Emergent Strategy," directors and curators Nara Virgens and Makisig Akin designed the festival to emulate the structural resilience of mycelium as a model of thriving through QTBIPoC interconnectivity and interdependence.