Leipzig dance theater

The Leipziger Tanztheater (LTT) is a dance theater founded in Leipzig in 1967 . The LTT produces full-length dance theater pieces and is also a training center for contemporary dance. It is one of the oldest pure dance theaters in Germany. More than 400 dancers, from three-year-olds to semi-professional dancers, are taught by choreographers and dance teachers in contemporary and classical dance as well as dance improvisation at the LTT. From the age of six you can take part in the performances in Leipzig, throughout Germany and abroad. In the LTT dance pieces, children, adolescents and young adults deal with social, political and interpersonal issues.

In the summer of 2019, the LTT moved into new premises in Hall 7 on the grounds of the Leipzig cotton spinning mill .

Companies

The Leipziger Tanztheater maintains three companies or ensembles: the junior company for the younger generation, the junior company for the older ones and the company. Around 360 six- to 18-year-olds dance in the two junior companies, who have received well-founded dance training at the LTT and who have often been invited to renowned festivals at home and abroad with their dance theater pieces.

Divided into two age groups, Brit Böttge - since 2017 together with Maria Seidel - has headed the junior company for the youngsters with the six to 13 year olds and Bettina Werner the junior company for the older with the 14 to 18 year olds.

The company has been presenting itself since the 2018/19 season under the direction of Undine Werchau and Eva Thielken, freelance choreographers and dance teachers. Annually changing guest choreographers, including Massimo Gerardi and Wagner Moreira, bring diverse artistic styles and dance experiences to both the audience and the company dancers.

In addition to the three Companys, there are the Purzelgruppen, in which Brit Böttge and Maria Seidel gently introduce children to dance and music between three and five years old. In addition to promoting motor development and emotional experience, the creative children's dance prepares the youngest for entry into the junior company from the first grade onwards.

The profile of the Leipzig dance theater also includes the special area! MehrTanz, which promotes artistic creation in Leipzig and strengthens the cultural diversity of the city of Leipzig. These include the Open Class, a weekly open training by the LTT dance teachers for dancers of all levels, and since 2020 the Good Morning Class with changing instructors.

Guest performances, nominations and awards

Guest performances

2019: 16th Delhi International Children's Festival 2019, New Delhi (India): Extract from Essence (Bettina Werner)
2018: Children's Festival, Sibenik (Croatia): The Embrace (Bettina Werner)
2013: International Children's Festival of Performing Arts, Mumbai (India): Veronika Part 1b (Bettina Werner)
2008: International Children's Festival of Performing Arts, New Delhi (India): There is magic in every beginning (Bettina Werner)
2007: International Youth Performing Arts Festival, Lahore (Pakistan): Four Women (Juliane Raschel)
2006: 9th World Children's Theater Festival, Lingen: The Game (Brit Böttge)
2006: Amateur theater festival "Central European Committee", Maastricht (Netherlands): Der Sturm (Bettina Werner)

Nominations

2018: Berliner Festspiele: The Embrace (Bettina Werner)
2012: German amateur theater award "amarena": Pertanzform (Alessio Trevisani)

Awards

2016: German amateur theater award "amarena": I am. But I haven't yet. (Bettina Werner)
2012: 2nd place in the Saxon state competition "Young people dance": Nightmare , excerpt from Tquatiequassel (Brit Böttge)
2010: German amateur theater award "amarena": entanglements (Bettina Werner)
2005: Nationwide competition "Jugend tanzt", Paderborn: Wallflower , excerpt from Das Karussell (Brit Böttge)

Last productions

Junior company of the younger generation

2018: Gewandel (Brit Böttge), Labyrinth (Maria Seidel)
2016: Are we then abandoned by all good spirits? (Brit Böttge)
2014: Das Karussell (Brit Böttge), new edition
2012: Tquatiequassel (Brit Böttge)
2010: Solitaire (Brit Böttge)
2008: The Patch Empress (Brit Böttge)
2006: The Game (Brit Böttge)
2004: The Carousel (Brit Böttge)
2003: Day in and day out (Brit Böttge)
2002: From ABC ... to XYZ (Brit Böttge)
2001: Either way (Brit Böttge)
2000: Haltless (Brit Böttge)
1999: All feet can dance (Brit Böttge)

Junior company of the elders

2019: Essence (Bettina Werner)
2017: The Embrace (Bettina Werner)
2015: I am. But I haven't yet. (Bettina Werner)
2013: The Carousel (Brit Böttge, Bettina Werner)
2013: The Storm (Bettina Werner)
2012: Veronika Part 1b (Bettina Werner)
2011: The Wild Swans (Director: Paula Fünfeck, Choreography: Bettina Werner)
2009: Entanglements (Bettina Werner)
2007: There is magic in every beginning (Bettina Werner)
2005: The Storm (Bettina Werner)
2003: Veronika or how valuable our dreams are (Bettina Werner)
2002: Insights (Bettina Werner)
2001: Snow White and Rose Red (Bettina Werner), At the wrong time in the wrong place (Bettina Werner)
2000: Metamorphosis (Bettina Werner)

Company

2019: .CLARA'S. (Wagner Moreira)
2018: BREAK // DANCE (Massimo Gerardi)
2017: Synapsis (Alessio Trevisani)
2016: 1916 (Alessio Trevisani)
2015: meta morphosis (Alessio Trevisani)
2014: The man in the elevator (Alessio Trevisani)
2013: Cold season (Alessio Trevisani)
2011: Pertanzform (Alessio Trevisani)
2010: Company & Friends - ChArts 10/2 (Jana Ressel, Marlen Schumann), Company & Friends - ChArts 10 (Marlen Schumann, Irina Pauls, Martina La Bonté)
2009: Care level IV (Irina Pauls), Company & Friends (Martina La Bonté, Irina Pauls, Janek Wiatrowski)
2008: Kafka's Metamorphosis (Irina Pauls)
2008: Escalators (Irina Pauls)
2007: Rainbow Waterdrops (Norman Douglas)
2007: Shanghai 49 (Bettina Holzhausen)
2006: failed (Canan Erek)
2005: LTT 24 (Canan Erek)

! moreDANCE

2016: Scratching (Johannes Setzer, Claire Wolff, Fabian Herbolzheimer)
2014: Stop Making Sense (Alessio Trevisani, guests)
2013: Company & Friends - Nothing (Linda Weißig)
2012: Dances the men's swimming pool ( Irina Pauls ), Stomping La Luna (Irina Pauls)
2011: It used to be different, today it is like that ... (Ilka Demmler, Julien Feuillet), water ingress 1 (Irina Pauls)
2010: Signal to Noise (Irina Pauls)

history

The LTT was founded in 1967 as a theater of poetry. In the beginning there was Jürgen Goewes' idea to combine dance, artistic words, music and singing in high-quality amateur programs in a “theater of poetry”. In November 1967, 16 young dancers met for the first training session, and in the same year a sponsoring company for the project was found in the GDR's Deutsche Post . A short time later the ensemble developed under the name “Tanzstudio der Deutsche Post” into one of the leading amateur dance groups in the GDR . It was awarded the City of Leipzig Art Prize, the Prize of the Minister for Culture and other prizes for choreography and soloists.

In 1981 the focus of the ensemble was increasingly placed on dance theater. With the realignment of the ensemble through the intensified examination of content-related aspects and the associated attempt to add a new level to the dance, the name changed to "dance theater". In the following years the LTT appeared at dance festivals in Germany and abroad, for example in the states of the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia as well as in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.

In spring 1990 it became possible for the first time to perform in the western part of Germany. The group took part in a dance project in Duisburg under the direction of the British choreographer Royston Maldoon. In 1991 the dancers traveled to the International Youth Festival in Aberdeen, Scotland. The group made another tour in the same year on the occasion of German-American Day in the USA.

The time of reunification was not that easy for the theater . At first it seemed as if the dance theater, which had been a registered association since 1991 , had survived the political upheaval in the GDR without any problems. But not only the loss of the main sponsor and thus the rehearsal rooms, but above all the departure of the artistic director Jürgen Goewe made the work of the ensemble much more difficult. Under the leadership of the new artistic director Karen Schönemann and with the support of guest choreographers such as Norman Douglas (London) and Ingrid Einfeldt, new dances and programs were rehearsed and the theater was revived.

In 1997, the choreographer and dance teacher Brit Böttge took over the artistic direction of the newly established children and youth area at LTT. A short time later she received support from the Palucca student and choreographer Bettina Werner.

In 2000 the businessman and choreographer Lutz Werner took over the chairmanship of the association. Since then, the entire LTT has been restructured. With the choreographers Brit Böttge, Bettina Werner, Jonna Huttunen, Canan Erek, Irina Pauls and Alessio Trevisani, the Leipzig dance theater built on its old successes. The three main pillars of the LTT - the junior company for the younger generation, the junior company for the elderly and the company were rebuilt and have been continuously developed since then.

In October 2007 the Leipzig dance theater celebrated its 40th anniversary with the “Fahrgastraum” festival in Leipzig. Guests from home and abroad as well as the LTT companies presented the diversity of contemporary dance and dance theater with numerous productions, including eight world premieres, as well as other productions. Specialist lectures on the structures and the future of dance theater as well as a multimedia exhibition on the history of the LTT rounded off the festival.

From October 2010 to June 2018 the dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Alessio Trevisani headed the LTT company. The native Italian established the Open Class at the Leipziger Tanztheater, which enabled the company to continuously gain new members.

In 2013 Gundolf Nandico took over the management of the Leipzig Dance Theater. In the same year, the LTT organized the Leipzig Dance Theater Weeks Festival (LTTW) for the first time .

In 2013, the LTT broadened its range of dancing to meet the increased demand in Leipzig. The Trainee Dance Program, an eight-month intensive training program, gives young adults the opportunity to take part in further training in dance and bodywork. The program concludes every year with the Spielwiese stage series in Plant 2 . In addition to the joint final piece by the choreographers, short pieces by all dancers and trainees are performed here.

At the same time, the association increasingly supports dancers, choreographers and dance teachers in order to stimulate artistic exchange in Leipzig.

At the beginning of the 2018/19 season, Undine Werchau and Eva Thielken took over the management of the company and the trainee dance program.

After many years in Tanzhaus Lößnig, the LTT moved into a new domicile in spring 2019: Hall 7 on the grounds of the Leipzig cotton spinning mill . Together with the LOFFT and the Theater der Junge Welt , it enlivens the second and third floors of Hall 7 with performing arts.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Steffen Georgi: Leipziger Tanztheater officially moves to the cotton mill. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack GmbH & Co. KG, September 19, 2019, accessed on March 27, 2020 .

[1] Steffen Georgi: Leipziger Tanztheater officially moves to the cotton mill. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack GmbH & Co. KG, September 19, 2019, accessed on March 27, 2020 .