INSEL Spielplatz / Tanz- und Musikjam

In the organizer's words:

ISLAND
Playground
Dance and music jam
Monday / April 20, 2026 / 7:30 pm (Admission: 7 pm)
Free admission!

Opening ensemble:
duo micans & Sophia Otto
Sophia Oertel (violin)
Lydia Stettinius (violin)
Sophia Otto (dance)

Curated by Sophia Otto.
Light and sound: Julio Escobar

A space open to everyone and everything that is created in the moment: Music and dance meet on the INSEL playground - what is played and who plays is decided by chance!
Dancers, musicians, professional or heartfelt: we invite you to move sounds through the space and bodies on our playground and become part of the performance yourself. In a stage space prepared with new toys each time, you will meet in front of an audience on spontaneous "blind dates", which will be drawn by lot, and play the INSEL together, finding a beginning, an end and everything that can arise in between.
Bring your instruments, your bodies and your voice, throw your name in the hat and try out new spontaneous constellations. A grand piano, drum set and, if desired, a guitar and bass amp are available. Feel free to write to us at sophia.otto@insel.news.
A space for improvisation, movement, sound and encounters, staged live by light and yourselves.

Anyone who "just" wants to watch and listen and not go into the sandpit is also welcome to join us as a playground guest. Free admission. We look forward to seeing you!

Founded in Wuppertal in 2020, duo micans combines an interest in old, new and improvised music and the creation of creative spaces for experimentation and freedom. Coming from the context of classical music studies, the two violinists Sophia Oertel and Lydia Stettinius develop interdisciplinary and new concert formats. Both musicians completed bachelor's and master's degrees in classical and baroque violin at music academies in Cologne, Wuppertal and Zurich. The duo has performed at venues including the Mendelssohn Hall of the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, at "Musik auf dem Cronenberg" and at the "Klassik Fusion Lounge" in Haan. In its own projects, it repeatedly works together with interesting artists from a wide range of fields: In "Gegenüber" (2023) with the speaker Olaf Reitz, in "Fugitivités" (2023/24) with the dancer Sophia Otto and the pianist Lisa Eisner-Smirnova or in "Glassworks" (2024/25) with the percussionist Salome Amend and the lighting technician Chiara Krogull.

Sophia Otto studied contemporary dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, and has been working as a freelance dancer, performer and choreographer since 2018.
Interdisciplinary projects in the exchange between dance and music have been an important part of Sophia's work from the very beginning; she has been a member of the baroque music and dance ensemble Europa Danzante since 2019, choreographed together with Bénédicte Billiet for the free play format of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in 2020, danced as a guest dancer for the new music ensemble uBu and conceived music-and-dance improvisation performances with the musicians in various constellations:Klaus Harms, Tanja Kreiskott, André Füsser, Uli Johannes Kieckbusch and Günther Baby Sommer.
Together with the duo micans, she developed the choreographed concert "Fugitivités" and danced in the music video for Carolin Pook's composition "walk. Run. Jump. Fly. See"

An event of the INSEL.