Pacemaker Festival

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Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus with Mauro Pawlowski: What's the Prediction? (ImPulsTanz 2010); 2014 guest in Aachen

The Pacemaker Festival has been an internationally oriented festival for contemporary dance in Aachen , Heerlen and Kerkrade , which has been held annually in spring since 1993 , and in Eupen since 2017 . It was brought into being by Rick Takvorian, the event manager of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen at the time , who has been in charge since then. In addition to contemporary dance projects, the overall program also includes multimedia pieces, performances , interactive theater , video dance , country focuses as well as special projects and workshops .

Beginnings and development

At the beginning of the 1990s, Aachen and Aachen's surroundings were no man's land in the field of contemporary dance. This motivated Rick Takvorian to set up a regular annual event with an initially narrow budget, which has been offering a cross-section of dance projects and performances over two weeks in both Aachen and the neighboring Netherlands since 1993. In the beginning there were still smaller dance companies from the two neighboring countries, but the reputation and internationality of the invited groups and people as well as the design of the program through remarkable choreographies increased rapidly from year to year.

Up to 15 companies from all continents are invited annually to ensure a varied program over the course of the two weeks of the event at the various venues in the participating cities. For example, the following dance companies, solo dancers and choreographers have accepted an invitation at previous events :

Akram Khan Company (GB), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (B), Carolyn Carlson (USA), Compagnie Black Blanc Beur (F), Compagnie Marie Chouinard (CDN), Compagnie Philippe Saire (CH), Company Random Dance under Wayne McGregor , Compagnie Thor (B), Companie Velvet (B), Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Het Nationale Ballet (NL), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (USA), Introdans Arnheim (NL), movingtheatre.de (D) under Massimo Gerardi , ms- tanzwerk (CH), Nederlands Dans Theater (NL), Pál Frenák Compagnie (H), Phoenix Dance Theater (GB), Scapino Ballett Rotterdam (NL), Susanne Linke (D), Vuyani Dance Theater (ZA) and many more.

The Pacemaker Festival has been so popular over the years that some of the individual performances are booked out months in advance, as the number of spectators is limited due to the limited space available. Nevertheless, the total of all performances has an annual capacity of around 10,000 spectators. The event is supported by well-known sponsors from industry, business, art and culture.

Supporting program

In order to actively and passively bring contemporary dance closer to a wide range of interested parties, the organizers have decided on a varied supporting program. On the one hand, old and new documentaries and fictional films related to modern dance, which change every year, are shown, including Tanz mit der Zeit , Black Swan , Rhythm Is It! and Strictly Ballroom - who dance against all the rules . On the other hand, dance courses are offered as part of fee-based “workshops”, in which registered participants can be introduced to the techniques of contemporary dance, separated into beginners and advanced. These courses are carried out by trainers and choreographers of individual dance companies participating in the festival in cooperation with the Volkshochschule Aachen.

Since 2014, among other things, two workshops for children and young people have been included in the program, which are titled “Generation2”, which are based on the model of Rhythm Is It! Schools and free youth groups can register for a joint dance project.

Also new from 2014 is the cooperation with the international dance fair NRW from Düsseldorf, which is making a guest appearance at the Aachen Ludwig Forum for this purpose.

Venues

The central performance location in Aachen is the listed former factory building of the Stahlbau Strang & Co company in Aachen- Rothe Erde , which was partially converted into an office and event building a few years ago as part of a thorough restoration. In addition, the Ludwig Forum, the Adult Education Center and the Eden Cinema provide rooms for the festival as required.

On the Dutch side, the dance performances as well as some workshops and the film offerings take place in the Parkstad Limburg Theaters in Heerlen and in Kerkrade.

For the first time since 2017, two performances based on Eupen were also awarded, which take place in the Alter Schlachthof cultural center .

A shuttle bus service was set up especially to enable visitors to move smoothly between the event locations .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pacemaker Generation II, 2014 ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ International Dance Fair Düsseldorf in Aachen 2014 ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Event flyer Parkstad Limburg Theaters (ndl.)