Projects
Internal and external teaching formats
Within the Co-Teachings, the MA CoDE students attempt to teach together as a team and explore methods of collaboration as well as impart different key subjects. During the last years, this teaching format was implemented in the dance field and interdisciplinary exercised at festivals and dance houses.
As a part of their studies, MA CoDE students teach the Professional Training in shifting daily units which are conceived for dance houses or choreographic centers. Key subjects get developed for constructive single- or team-teachings. This allows access to different modern and contemporary dance techniques that get trained and explored. These themed teaching-weeks took place previously at the choreographic centre K3 in Hamburg, the HZT Berlin and regularly in the past years at Tanzlabor_21. The format is constantly evaluated together with the students by using different feedback-methods.
This format was created to enable a productive exchange between different generations of MA CoDE students and their individual teaching approaches. In one-week working-sessions the whole MA CoDE network explores and discusses recent methods and techniques in the studio. Within the Teaching-LAB, know-how from the professional practise flows back into the study program. Likewise, ongoing processes from the study practise get unfolded. The format has an important function as an interface between education and professional practise.
In cooperation with different venues and institutions MA CoDE develops formats for communication and teaching, which are discussed locally with other students or people from the independent scene. An example of such a project is the one-week training format Training Total in Hamburg inspired by Jenny Beyer’s Sweet&Tender. This project provides an open space for collective work and reflection on the subject of Professional Training in contemporary dance. The format takes place in cooperation with K3 – Center for Choreography / Tanzplan Hamburg. Together with dancers from Hamburg, MA CoDE students explore the potential of Professional Trainings. The format as well as the cooperation with Tanzhaus NRW within the symposium “Physical Dramaturgy” is to be continued.
Amongst the discussions on cultural education and an introduction to the professional working context, the cultural and educational projects “Joblinge” and “KulturTagJahr” by the Altana Foundation create a direct exchange with different target groups. Besides the involvement of the students, for some years now Alumni are part of the core team and thereby take the study-expertise into the professional working field.
Feedback methods play an important part within the MA CoDE program. They submit a permanent reflection of the students’ teaching formats and are essential for working processes and dynamics within the group. Besides adapting established methods, MA CoDE is developing new formats which are permanently being explored, evaluated and optimized.
International exchange with educational institutions
As part of the European Summer School, M.F.A. Dance students from Hollins University (USA) will attend classes with internationally renowned artists and scholars together with students from the MA CoDE and exchange ideas with each other. The three-week residency in Frankfurt is a cooperation with the Master's program in Contemporary Dance Education at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, the Forsythe Company and the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. It took place over 3 weeks in 2014 and 2015 and will be continued in the coming years.
In cooperation with the Riveria University of Applied Sciences in Outokumpu, the format of a jointly conceived working week was developed, in which the Finnish students are taught by the MA CoDE students. In addition to the teaching curricula developed for this purpose in the MA CoDE over a period of at least one week in all classes, discussions will take place with artists and other educational institutions on site. This programme is framed by lectures and presentations that reveal the working processes in the MA CoDE. The excursion to Outokumpu, Finland, takes place annually.
For the students of the MA CoDE in Frankfurt and the Master for Dance Didactics in Stockholm, an intensive professional exchange is conceived that is both dance-practical and discursive. This cooperation will take place for the second time in 2016 and is intended to lead to a joint research project in the longer term.
New concepts in training and in the field of work
Physical Introductions, a format invented by MA CoDE, is a special warm-up for the audience which enables a physical access to a specific piece of art. In contrast to conventional introductions the audience gets the chance to experience different artistic signatures through exercises and examples on their own bodies. Participation is desired! The format was developed by Prof. Ingo Diehl for the festival Tanz im August 2013. Since then, it took place at Staatstheater Saarbrücken and regularly at Tanzhaus NRW in Düsseldorf where it is led by MA CoDE alumna Anja Bornsek.
The format Physical Memory was initiated at the tanzplattform Deutschland in March 2016 and got further developped in the course of the symposium Physical Introduction at Tanzhaus nrw in June 2016. Physical Memory emphasizes on a physical and conceptual post-reflection. In combination with the transmission format of Physical Introduction the audience gains a somatic access to the experienced performance.
The Mentoring Program supports the development of the students’ individual working focuses. To come together with a group of professional mentors, MA CoDE organizes the Speed Dating at the end of the second semester where all participants can exchange ideas. On the basis of these talks and in consultation of the head of the program, the students can choose their individual mentor. The following mentorings will last for the whole semester and lead to an open discussion about the individual processes and their impact on the further work.
Within this format, MA CoDE students interview invited practitioners from different sections of the dance field. These experts share their individual intrinsic knowledge and working methods within the discussion, which is being documented and archived. That way, a growing archive of knowledge develops which flows back into the students’ teaching practice. The format is part of the research project “Signature Practices 2020“, which investigates individual handwritings of dance educators.
Forum Tanzvermittlung is an open offer to intensively exchange questions of mediation and concepts and ideas around the topic of dance education. In dialogue with different actors from Frankfurt and the surroundings, questions of cultural education and transfer are being discussed. The events are led by partners (MA Contemporary Dance Education, Tanzlabor 21, KitaTanz) or invited experts from the fields of dance and education. The focus of discussion is questioning on how to deal with different target groups. The format is open for teachers, educators, artists and for all persons interested.
In the last years MA CoDE students organized the workshop-festival Tanzsprint for interested lay persons and professionals. After a revision of the examination regulations, each generation of MA CoDE students will conceptualize a new mediation format within the third semester. A specific focus will be on dealing with target groups as well as institutional frameworks. Further information you can find regularly in the NEWS area.