Conversations about formats
You organised HIER=JETZT for the first time in 2016 and launched the platform. What motivated you to do so?
Birgitta: The motivation behind HIER=JETZT for us was the realisation that dance simply wasn’t visible in the city. Every choreographer was waiting for funding; once they received it, they’d put on three performances, and that was the end of it. We simply wanted to encourage young choreographers to come forward and make themselves visible.
Johanna: And then, without any financial support, we set up the first platform. All we had was the space and the passion to make a difference.
With HIER=JETZT, you offer choreographers the chance to try their hand at their craft under professional conditions without having to raise funds themselves – what was it like for you when you were starting out?
Johanna: From our early days working in the arts, we know that artistic ideas only come to fruition if you put them into practice and experience them on stage. Concepts remain mere theory if you can’t try them out.
Birgitta: We immediately sensed just how much talent and creative drive there is in the city. Above all, we realised how many interesting ideas there are that can be brought to life with a rehearsal space and creative support from us.
You have both spent many years working in municipal and state theatres, following your experience in the independent dance scene. You, Birgitta, were Head of Dance at the Städtische Bühnen Münster and the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and Johanna, you were Choreographer-in-Residence at the Schauburg in Munich for 13 years. To what extent has this changed your perspective on emerging dancers and choreographers, or indeed on the independent dance scene?
Birgitta: Our perspective hasn’t changed, because it’s always fascinating to observe an artistic development. Not only in the early days of TPM (TANZPROJEKT MÜNCHEN), but also in the theatres where I worked with my own company, it was important to me to offer young colleagues the opportunity to develop their own work. As with HIER=JETZT, I set something in motion that continued beyond the place where it began.
Johanna: During my residency, I realised that it is continuity – in which one can develop an ensemble and an artistic signature – that allows the work to mature. That is the major problem in the independent scene; there is hardly any chance for growth because there are no stable structures in which artists can find a home. Who in the independent scene can, as I experienced during my residency, stage a production 60 times over five years? Now that we are regularly seeing choreographers from the independent scene on the platform, we can see just how much potential there is for growth.
At first, HIER=JETZT focused on Munich-based choreographers, but you then broadened its scope – how did that come about?
Johanna: We received a response quite quickly, even beyond Munich’s borders. Even on the very first platforms, we had guests from ‘outside’. This has enabled local artists to build new networks and, in the meantime, to showcase their work beyond Munich as well.
Looking at the programmes from the early years of HIER=JETZT, it’s striking that, in the beginning, alongside young choreographers, more established colleagues often presented short choreographies here as well. If I’m not mistaken, over the years the focus has shifted towards a platform centred on emerging talent and newcomers, and in terms of format, towards excerpts and work in progress?
Johanna: We can no longer offer the performances where we invited short choreographies and thus organised what we called a ‘dance day’. Our budget is barely sufficient to provide good resources for the participants who come to develop a piece. That is the unique selling point of HIER=JETZT: realising ideas rather than presenting something finished.
Birgitta: Our platform is based on the concept of reaching out to choreographers who want to work on a new piece. In other words, this isn’t about ‘up-and-coming’ talent in the ‘dancer’ sense. Everyone, regardless of age group, is ‘up-and-coming’ when it comes to developing a piece and venturing onto a new level.
Johanna: It’s also very appealing that artists with varying levels of experience come together in this laboratory setting and exchange ideas. Where else do you find that?
Over the last two years, you’ve run HIER=JETZT as an online event due to the pandemic, and you’ve seen this as an act of solidarity with the artists. Does this hold potential for the future, or has it changed the tools you use to run the event? I believe that, ever since HIER=JETZT began, participants have been provided with professional photos and, more recently, video footage for their own use – or has this always been the case?
Johanna: The participating artists have always received video recordings and photographic documentation of their work. Since the 2020 ‘Corona Edition’ – with which we effectively created the last remaining open spaces where artists could realise their work during the ‘lockdown of the arts’ – we have placed even greater emphasis on video recording. Filming is more elaborate, the videos are edited, and then made available to the general public on internet portals. In 2020 and 2021, this significantly expanded the platform’s reach. Even though we are now expecting live performances for 2022, we will continue to maintain the high quality of the videos. We are and will remain a permanently present platform, including on digital networks (HIER=JETZT on Vimeo).
Looking back at the years since 2016, is there anything about the participants that you’d say has changed significantly?
Birgitta: We are proud of the fact that so many of our participants who started out on the platform are now working beyond Munich’s borders and showcasing their productions. Many tested out their ideas with us and then, using the material they gained here, secured the resources to stage a full-length play. The networks formed at HIER=JETZT have also had a significant impact. Thanks to the platform’s annual presence, we can also see how newcomers progress, develop and find their own style. That is, of course, the benefit of being able to participate in the platform more frequently and continually discuss one’s work with colleagues.
HIER=JETZT 2022 and beyond – what would you like to see for the platform?
Johanna: We’d really like not to have to reapply for funding every year, which means we only find out how much we’ve got to work with just before the platform launches. Planning certainty would be absolutely vital. Not to mention growth. Just think how sustainable it would be to have a permanent ‘lab’ format like this in the city? How much more vibrant the scene would be then, and could be...
The interview with Johanna Richter and Birgitta Trommler was conducted by Simone Lutz, March 2022