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Tanz im August: You should be dancing

Tanz im August kicks off tomorrow (Aug 11), and we've got a list of the up-and-comers you need to catch in movement.

Image for Tanz im August: You should be dancing
Figure A Sea. Photo by Urban Jörén

This year’s Tanz im August (Aug 12-Sep 4) is light on huge names, but heavy on up-and-comers. Here are three performances to watch out for at Berlin’s biggest international dance festival. 

The known quantity: The biggest news this year is Deborah Hay, who co-founded the Judson Dance Theater in New York in the 1960s and remains active as a dancer, choreographer, writer and experimental thinker. In Figure a Sea, she breaks her “no music” principle to work with Laurie Anderson. Aug 30-31, 19:00, Haus der Berliner Festspiele

The code-switcher: “Hip hop meets ballet” usually doesn’t bode well, but Kyle Abraham (who’s halfway through his MacArthur “genius” grant) pulls it off with Pavement, a Boyz in the Hood-inspired evening exploring black male friendship and Abraham’s own history through a range of dance idioms. Aug 30-31, 19:00, HAU1

The acrobat: Yoann Bourgeois works with the National Choreographic Center in Grenoble, France, to pres- ent Celui qui tombe, “he who falls”. An apt title. The seventh star of this piece is a giant, elevated, shifting, tilting and spinning platform on which six dancers work to maintain their balance. Aug 26-27, 19:00, Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Tanz im August, Aug 12-Sep 4 | Various venues, check website for full programme