Berlin’s Sexy Dance Highlights in the Summer

photos: Carrie Schneider

Nudity is nothing a Berliner is particularly shocked about. In contrary, I think that Berlin is the city with the most public nakedness in the world if you consider all the nude beaches and public sex parties. It is also a different nakedness than in a tropical or Mediterranean city because the weather is not actually inviting to take off your close. The Berlin nudity is a public statement to the liberation of the human body from all the social, political and gender oppressions. At least that is what I like to read into it, even though I doubt that all of the half naked 19year old kids at the Pornceptual parties would agree.

But I am losing track here. Let’s discuss Berlin’s political intentions on nudity another time… I actually just wanted to recommend a damn sexy contemporary dance festival starting today: Tanz im August. Scrolling through the pics I saw some naked flesh popping up in the press folder and I was wondering if a conservative audience would claim that the dance world needs sex to get more attention from the younger audience. This could not be more wrong. Dance is not automatically sexy when the bodies on stage are naked.

But there is an element of contemporary dance that I find extremely sexy (which is why I also used this alluring headline). It is the intensity and the ability to control, perform and present yourself and your body that intrigues the spectator. A contemporary performer is always in a constant dialogue between his own body and the audience and is within this dialogue able to create tension and persuasion. From my point of view, most of the times the nakedness of a performer is actually not erotic but rather a narration of intimacy and disclosure.

We selected several dance pieces from the festival taking places in some of our favorite theaters including Sophiensaele, Hau and Volksbühne, that we think are promising and worth visiting. Our recommendations after the jump.

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Sunny by Emanuel Gat and Aviv Leon

In his pieces, the Israeli choreographer Emanuel Gat let’s things happen rather spontaneously than planning them out: instead of relying on fixed step patterns, Gat understands dance as an evolving, emerging phenomenon. SUNNY is a new collaboration with musician and performer Awir Leon. This piece will open the festival and is probably  a musical and visual highlight not to miss out on.

Fri 12.08.2016 | 19:00 | HAU1
Sat 13.08.2016 | 19:00 | HAU1

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32 rue Vandenbranden by Peeping Tom


The Belgian theater collective Peeping Tom is finally coming to Berlin. Known for its dense atmospheres and hyper realistic works, “32 rue Vandenbranden”, revolves around the members of a small community living in a trailer park. I am really looking forward to this incredible experience I already heard so much about.

Sat 13.08.2016 | 19:00 | Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Sun 14.08.2016 | 19:00 | Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Sun 14.08.2016 | 20:20 | Haus der Berliner Festspiele

32 rue Vandenbranden © Herman Sorgeloos

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Discotropicby Niv Acosta

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The performance Discotropic is an absurd exploration of the relationship between science fiction, disco, astrophysics, and the black American experience. Reflecting the artist’s interest in the role of black presence in sci-fi history. This piece is combining politics with pop-culture and takes places in our beloved Sophiensaele.

Thu 25.08.2016 | 19:00 | Sophiensæle
Fri 26.08.2016 | 21:00 | Sophiensæle
Fri 26.08.2016 | 22:30 | Sophiensæle
Sat 27.08.2016 | 21:00 | Sophiensæle

photo by: King Texas

photos: Maria Baracoda

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Pavement by Kyle Abraham/ Abraham.In.Motion

For “Pavement”, a soundtrack combining baroque opera, contemporary classical music and R&B meets an exciting diversity of urban styles of hip hop with ballet and contemporary dance. Through this, Abraham commemorates the histories of strong and vibrant African-American communities from his hometown Pittsburgh.

Tue 30.08.2016 | 19:00 | HAU1
Wed 31.08.2016 | 19:00 | HAU1
Wed 31.08.2016 | 20:00 | HAU1

photos: Carrie Schneider

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A song to..by Mia Habib

The Norwegian choreographer Mia Habib presents 16 professional dancers and up to 30 non-professionals on stage, choreographing their naked bodies as pure materiality. The nudity symbolizes the supposed naturalness of bodies, and exposes the naked truth of what it means to be human. The question of whether we are looking at a human, an object or an animal loses all importance.

Sa 03.09.2016 | 18:30 | HAU2
So 04.09.2016 | 17:00 | HAU2

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<a href="https://www.iheartberlin.de/author/cr/" target="_self">Claudio</a>

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