About
Welcome
"DanceKiosk-Hamburg is an annual summer meeting of contemporary dance in Hamburg, which over a period of several weeks presents the diversity of dance and its correlation with other art forms. The festival strives to imbue Hamburg’s independent dance community with an international spirit and to share the knowledge and skills of artists from different art fields and backgrounds. DanceKiosk-Hamburg creates a constantly growing international network between young dancers, experienced choreographers, musicians, performers, visual artists, filmmakers, guest lecturers, scientists, journalists and the public. There are performances, trainings, workshops, discussions, public talks, lectures, parties."
These were some of our initial thoughts about DanceKiosk-Hamburg, which Katrin Nissel and I formulated in one of those endless summer nights in 2004. Katrin is not a dance expert, but – due to her knowledge and passion for art, languages, literature and music – she immediately understood the fundamental idea. When I asked her if she would support me in the conception and realization of the festival, she stepped in. Our kinship and similar aesthetic sensibilities, our mutual appreciation of improvisation and accuracy, our delight in bringing together artists of different nationalities, stood the test during years of intensive cooperation.
For the first edition, in 2005, we faced major challenges: Financial support was minimal, only the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and the Nationale Performance Netz (NPN) offered small contributions. The Hamburger Schauspiel-Studio Frese, Künstlerhaus Vorwerkstift, Tanzinitiative Hamburg and Theater Hamburger Sprechwerk provided their spaces free of charge. We opened that year’s festival in spite of many risks and uncertainties. All guest-artists knew about the difficult financial situation but were enthusiastic about the festival’s idea. They joined us, foregoing high salaries and hotel accommodations.
Cecília Amado – whom I met in the 1990s – joined the DanceKiosk core team in the very beginning. A former actress, she had started a career as press agent in 2005. Today she still acts as my right hand. We were all idealists then, dreaming of promoting Hamburg’s artists, strengthening their international networks, procuring better working conditions and salaries and inviting choreographers and dancers who rarely appeared at the known festivals.
A team was born. But we needed a festival venue. Then still promoted with handouts around St. Pauli by its founder Andreas Lübbers, the Hamburg Sprechwerk became the main venue of DanceKiosk-Hamburg between 2005 and 2014. Certainly also aided by the network of the festival, Hamburg Sprechwerk has become a respected theater, which regularly features the work of the free dance community.
The first edition of DanceKiosk-Hamburg opened with an outdoor party at the Vorwerkstift, Karolinenviertel, an institution which helps young artists with affordable accommodation. There we housed some of our artists and hosted the first of our now legendary Kiosk.Parties.
In 2005, HFBK student Philipp Haffner provided the first graphic depiction of our kiosk vision. Philipp had sketched a kiosk with many different, small human figures passing by. Vision, passion and pioneering spirit were thus what drove our small team which was extended by a group of young dance and performance students, the Kiosk.Helpers, during the festival itself.
In 2006, the festival received a slightly higher financial budget from the Hamburg Ministry of Culture (Kulturbehörde Hamburg), which covered mostly production and material costs. I asked my friend, the graphic designer Frauke Dreyer if she could create a homepage and she contributed with her generous support. Due to the shortage of funds, it was difficult to continuously employ a graphic designer, and thus we have worked with Veronika Grickar, Christo Papanouskas (Assassin Design) and Peter Keller (MenschLabor) throughout the years. All of them provided important contributions to the image of DanceKiosk-Hamburg. Anja Beutler’s, Udo Kilian’s, Bernhard Moosbauer’s, Marcus Renner’s, Olaf Rocksien’s, Felix Salazar’s, Wolfgang Unger’s and Anja Winterhalter’s photos and Barbara Geisler’s, Dorothea Griesbachm’s and Yolanda Gutierrez’s videos captured unforgettable moments of DanceKiosk-Hamburg’s festival editions. However, a festival’s visibility does not depend on design, pictures, and videos alone. Programs, and the translations of texts into English are essential for a dance festival with an international flavor. My good friend Kathrin Pollow often helped with these translations.
Culinary specialties from Brazil, the Caribbean, and France tickled our taste-buds during past editions of DanceKiosk.Hamburg. My sincere thanks to the chefs: Berg, Lilian, Pablo (Brazilian Cuisine), Richard (French Cuisine) and Roxana (Caribbean Cuisine).
Within one year the media had fueled DanceKiosk-Hamburg’s breakthrough with reports, reviews, and interviews. Many dance journalists wrote about the festival. To one of them I want to pay particular tribute: Klaus Witzeling, who passed away in 2013. Klaus was a true friend of DanceKiosk-Hamburg.
The festival team grew and we got assistance in the financial arena: Birgit Benziger helped with account management and taxes. In 2006, Agnieszka Harmanci took over the festival’s finances and furthermore contributed passionately and with a high degree of professionalism to production and marketing of the festival. This enabled us to request more money, and to our delight our applications were often granted.
2007 was the biggest edition of DanceKiosk-Hamburg with performances at Kampnagel, Sprechwerk and in Hamburg/Wilhelmsburg with the project Dance.Kiosk goes Island, initiated by Agnieszka Harmanci and Anja Quickert (Arts & Credits).
In 2010, Manuel Horstmann and Michael Lentner’s dedication and commitment realized my dream of working with a permanent technical team.
The festival was often full of adventures and surprises: I still remember vividly, how my colleague, friend and supporter of DanceKiosk, Claude Jansen and I waited for two artists at Hamburg airport. They never arrived. We laughed about the grotesque situation and replaced the performance with an improvisation by the Kenyan choreographer James Meweu and Johnny Lloyd, who then worked in Hamburg. This decision turned out a lucky choice for DanceKiosk-Hamburg 2009: the performance earned huge applause.
My team members and I thank all the artists who performed and taught between 2005 and 2015. We thank the institutions, the partners (Hamburger Botschaft, House 73, Kampnagel, K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg, Theater Hamburg Sprechwerk, Vorwerkstift), the technicians, the Kiosk.Helpers, our supporters, family, friends, and all those who helped us to realize this festival.
Looking from the present into the future I’m especially grateful to the people who have been involved in the festival concept 2015/16, 48 hours nomads: the members of PLATEAU, Heike Bröckerhoff, Moritz Frischkorn, Jonas Leifert Alice Peragine, Livia Andrea Piazza, Edda, Johanna Sickinger, the team of the Bewegungsraum, Sophia Güttenhöfer, Veronique Langlott, Sarah Lasaki, Lena Lewin, Jula Luethje, Hannah Wischnewski, the Gängeviertel exile (Moloch, Gängeviertel e.V.) and Cecília Amado, Henrique Antão, Damien Fournier, Juliana Oliveira, Fernanda Ortiz, Barbara Schmidt-Rohr, Anastasia Schwarzkopf, Florian Tampe (die Zunderbüchse). Maike Tödter and Christoph Wilms.
Without you there would be no DanceKiosk-Hamburg.
Angela Guerreiro, Hamburg, in August 2015
