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SPRUNGBRETT is a production-independent research and work residency aimed at up-and-coming artists and graduates from the fields of dance, choreography and performance whose work is focussed in North Rhine-Westphalia. The community of organisers enables the scholarship holders to take part in a two-week residency as part of the biennial festival, which takes place in nine cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Münster (Theater im Pumpenhaus) and Essen (PACT Zollverein), they can work on their current projects and receive organisational and dramaturgical support, a grant and the opportunity to present their research at several festival venues. This is the sixth time that the festival has awarded research grants to emerging artists from NRW.

* Benze C. Werner, Elin Tezel, Vi Kovarbasic und Rambling Boy Harrers

How does closeness develop in a system based on physical distance and clear rules? Together with dancers Elin Tezel and Vi Kovarbasic and country musician Theocharis Bekas, also known as Rambling Boy Harrers, choreographer and performer Benze C. Werner’s research project Lavender Cowboys is dedicated to country line dancing and the questions: How does it feel to be in a constant repetition – a ‘loop’? How much freedom can arise in this repetition? How much violence is there in the rigid structure that disciplines the body? The focus of the residency is a deeper examination of dance, queer identity and storytelling.

* Julia Nitschke, Jonas Leifert und Theresa Mielich

Julia Nitschke, a graduate of the Ruhr University Bochum in the field of scenic research, deals with the aesthetics of crossing boundaries. Together with Jonas Leifert, currently a scholarship holder of the Kunststiftung NRW for the university course ‘Curating in the scenic arts’, and Theresa Mielich, textile artist, costume designer and scenographer, she is researching the interweaving of dance and ecology. The research Golden Border Crossings combines the fascinating aesthetics of burlesque with the alarming spread of golden algae as the cause of an ecological catastrophe on the Oder. A daring mixture of dance, ecological alarm and artistic provocation, which is intended to result in a ‘documentary burlesque revue on the environmental catastrophe on the Oder’ with surprisingly sensual insights.