In the organizer's words:

tanz.tausch festival Showing: The Container

Reut Shemesh & Johannes Wieland

With The Container , Reut Shemesh and dramaturge Matthias Quabbe have developed a new format for intense and intimate choreographies that is both a challenge for choreographers and a terrain for artistic development, offering audiences a refreshing and extremely close approach to contemporary dance. In December 2025, the two choreographers Reut Shemesh (Cologne) and Johannes Wieland (Berlin) will each develop a choreography with two groups of dancers from 5 federal states (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony) over two days, which they will swap in between and finally merge into one. The principle is: cheerful choreographing and dancing, quick decisions, no quibbling and no thought of failure. The development of the choreography is based on an idea that is decided on the first day, is direct, raw, without compromise and without long deliberation.

The Container is produced as part of the network series of the tanz.tausch festival, and is supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Ministry of Science and Culture of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The aim of tanz.tausch is to make artists from the region and beyond more visible, to appeal to a broad audience and to offer a platform for dancers and choreographers outside of large production houses. The focus is on promoting fair working conditions as well as the exchange between artists and audiences.

Credits:

Concept: Reut Shemesh, Matthias Quabbe

Choreographers: Reut Shemesh (Cologne) | Johannes Wieland (Berlin)

Dancers: Choara Ferdini, Florian Entenfeller, Frederike Wagner, Ido Grinberg, Jack Bannerman, Kai Brügge, Killian Löderbusch, Laura Schönlein, Lena Hauth, Omar Torrico

Music: Micha Kaplan

Dramaturgy: Matthias Quabbe

Director tanz.tausch festival: Mechtild Tellmann

Production management tanz.tausch festival: Luzie Schwarz

Free admission!