Space for Practice is a weekly movement practice session that happens every Monday morning between 9 and 11am in the Floating, originally initiated by Sabine Zahn.
This year, the Choreographic Milieu, Alice Chauchat, Clément Layes, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Gabriele Reuter, Ghyslaine Gau, Lea Martini, Paula Kramer and Sabine Zahn are all responsible for hosting.
Space for Practice makes time and space for movement practice with/in the rainwater retention basin of Floating. It is a regular activity with/in irregular conditions such as weather, other activities and the presence of people, beings and materials. It is an occasion for practices to encounter a place, for choreographers to encounter practitioners, for practitioners to encounter the site of Floating and for the site to shape the practices. This year’s edition is convened and facilitated in changing constellations by the Choreographic Milieu: Alice Chauchat, Clément Layes, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Gabriele Reuter, Ghyslaine Gau, Lea Martini, Paula Kramer and Sabine Zahn. We all offer proposals that stem from our respective practices/curiosities and from the site, whilst following each other’s traces.
We start on time at 9 am and all who are present hold the space collectively. There is no need to register and participation is free of charge. All are welcome, regardless of whether you have experience with movement practices or not and are committed to working things out together.
EVERY MONDAY from 9 – 11 am. at Floating University, Lilienthalstrasse 32, 10965 BERLIN
from April 13 – October 12, 2026. We take a break on May 25 and during the summer from July 13 until August 17.
Dan is very happy to be working with Sabine Zahn again. Sabine is currently a fellow at Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam and developing some labs that bring her approach to body and city-making to urban planners, politicians, architects, geographers as well as dancers, artists and performers. Susanne Grau is also supporting the labs as part of an Erasmus+ programme.
The first lab was on Thursday 25 September. The next is Saturday 27 September and in October, there will be labs on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 16 October.
If you’re interested, please get in touch. It’s a full day, 9:30am–4pm and free of charge. Lunch, refreshments and snacks are provided. We’re based at Leipziger Str. 54, 10117 Berlin-Mitte.
As part of Fonds Darstellende Künste’s evaluation of their funding programmes, Sabine Zahn, Alice Chauchat, Ghyslaine Gau and Dan have been asking ourselves what performance and movement work in the urban environment needs in terms of support.
We feel ourselves part of a connected group of artists with similar concerns, a milieu. In September, we invited 12 other artists to present their work and discuss common issues at the Floating University. The artists invited were: Jason Corff, Paula Kramer, Clément Layes, Sophia New, Katja Münker, Gabi Reuter, Josh Rutter, Karol Tyminski and Siegmar Zacharias.
Dan is being a busy little performer this month, performing in 3 different movement pieces, all before the end of September.
There is another chance to see the very wonderful This is Still Not Normal conceived by Arantxa Martínez and Juan Domínguez at the Uferstudios in Berlin Wedding. There are two performances every day at 5pm and 6pm from Thursday 8th – Sunday 11 September. Details on the Tanzfabrik website.
Dan will be working with Arantxa again and join Sabine Zahn and Alice Chauchat in the continuation of Sabine’s unique urban movement practice Into Dwelling #2 which takes place on Alexanderplatz, also programmed by Tanzfabrik (ticket details on their website). There are performances at 12 midday on two weekends: Thursday 15 – Saturday 17 and Thursday 22 – Saturday 24 September. The choreography Into Dwelling #2 creates the conditions for minimal interventions into the habitability of the city. 4 performers take 8 participants on a devised parcour around the microlocations of Alexanderplatz to provisionally occupy subtle situations and movements.
Dan then continues working with Arantxa and Alice to be part of Alice Chauchat’s social dance work Dance Gathering at 6pm on Saturday 24 September at the Uferstudios in Berlin Wedding. This one is free, so come and join us in the courtyard of the Uferstudios for an evening of dancing pleasure. “[Dance Gathering is] an experimental choreographic work becomes a local contemporary folk dance. Prepared in collaboration with the local community in Wedding, Dance Gathering is an open-air party in the public space where professional dancers and amateurs invite visitors to dance speculative relationships. Steps and rules are replaced by guesswork, engagement and curiosity.”
As part of Sabine Zahn’s second Stadterweitern series of labs this week, we will present our performance lecture Together / Apart which we first developed during our residency at PACT Zollverein. The evening starts at 19:30 with a lecture by Dr. Saskia Hebert, I’m the Escalator and our contribution begins at 20:30. Haus der Statistik Haus D Otto-Braun-Straße 70/72 Berlin. Tickets are 7 / 5 EUR available by registering beforehand at stadterweitern@lovelabours.net
Martin Howse and Dan have just recorded a walk near Martin’s studio in Mitte which will be broadcast this Sunday 17 May at 10pm on reboot.fm During the hour-long walk, we talk about Martin’s visit to two of the Stadterweitern labs organised by Sabine Zahn that Andrea Keiz and Dan devised last week. Martin kindly lent his electromagnetic detektors that were used in the Stadterweitern labs. UPDATE: if you missed the broadcast, you can listen to the programme here on reboot.fm’s mixcloud channel
Dan prepared a series of lab experiments in urban space with Andrea Keiz as part of the series of labs called Stadterweitern by Sabine Zahn. You can find out more on the Stadterweitern website, as well as some sample excercises to do anywhere and feed into the research process.
We are very pleased to be presenting a lecture performance on Wednesday 2nd October at about 6pm at the Floating University in Berlin. Map here. We are part of the open programme curated on this instance by Sabine Zahn, with whom we worked on Fremdgehen this summer.
The drop in day will begin at 4pm with a participatory workshop led by Sabine and Arantxa Martinez. We will be performing at around 6pm, followed by a screening of THE VISITOR by Katarina Schröter.
We are delighted to be involved in a unique psychogeographic, choreographic performance ‘Fremdgehen’, initiated by Sabine Zahn. Sophia and I will be performing with Arantxa Martinez and Joshua Rutter. Also involved in the project are Andrea Keiz and Benoît Verjat. Fremdgehen will run twice a day (11am and 1pm) on 2-4 July and 5-8 August.
Here’s an excerpt from the flyer:
Fremdgehen comprises four choreographic city duets each made together with an unknown companion in the area around Anhalter Bahnhof. You are invited to subtly shift your own viewpoint through movement and physical communication. Fremdgehen tests how much playfulness the daily life of this neighbourhood allows.
Tickets: 14 EUR from eventbrite
image: Andrea Keiz and company