Dance Preview: TANZ IM AUGUST 2026

TANZ IM AUGUST – 38th International Festival Berlin a festival by HAU Hebbel am Ufer 13th – 29th August 2026

Advance ticket sales for all productions at www.tanzimaugust.de

Under the artistic direction of Ricardo Carmona, this year’s contemporary dance festival presents 19 productions and 54 events across 11 venues, including 3 premieres, 6 German premieres and 4 Berlin and international co-productions.

The world, like the weather, is in motion. This year’s festival programme therefore unfolds like a weather map, presenting dance as a political force that generates interaction and impact. The artistic works invite us to find orientation, together, in our current times of instability and to recognise our collective responsibility.

This is already strikingly demonstrated in this year’s festival opening, in which Joana Tischkau, Jeremy Nedd, and Sophie Yukiko, together with the Malpaso Dance Company, explore the tensions between cultural authenticity and exoticisation.

Several other works of this year’s festival also explore transnational belonging and identity, question the nation state: Mohamed Toukabri traces personal trajectories shaped by language and migration. Marco da Silva Ferreira uses dance vocabularies to resist
militarisation, violence, and toxic masculinity. And Outbox Movement – at Tanz im August for the fourth time – creates encounters between diverse dance styles beyond fixed frames.

Other invited artists also approach history not as a fixed narrative, but as a climate that surrounds us. Chara Kotsali revisits history as a series of discontinuities and disappointments. Trajal Harrell treats songs as archived memory, and Calixto Neto reflects on music as an act of resistance and solidarity. En-Knap with Emese Cuhorka and Csaba Molnár engage with layered references from the Western dance canon, while Kasia Wolińska uses history as a tool for rebirth.

The global atmosphere grows increasingly unstable, the air becomes thinner for many.

Several artists in this year’s festival programme explore the consequences of these developments and consider how they might be addressed: Agnietė Lisičkinaitė and Igor Shugaleev reflect on the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Jumana Dabis
addresses resilience and instability in Gaza. Diana Niepce explores bodies in states of conflict and oppression, while Ballet National de Marseille / (LA)HORDE uses dance as transgression driven by revolt. Besides that Mélissa Guex develops strategies for navigating a seemingly hopeless present.

Beyond these storms, artists also turn to nature and ecological rhythms as tools of reflection and transformation. Dana Michel explores swimming and aquatic histories, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Cheng Tsung-lung explore the fundamental interconnection between humanity and the natural world.

Simona Deaconescu, Ioana Vreme Moser and Simina Oprescu draw parallels between the flow of natural water currents and our bodies, while Lenio Kaklea explores bird movements as systems of competition and play. In addition, Kareth Schaffer together with Jonas Hauer investigate how bats’ echo location can become a mode of sensing our environment and perception.

This year, a wide range of free audience engagement formats and accessibility offers once again complement the stage programme, inviting visitors to take part in introductory talks (‘Before the Stage’), artist talks (‘Beyond the Stage’ and ‘Beyond the Stage Plus’), workshops, audio descriptions, relaxed performances, podcast episodes and parties.

For four selected productions, Tanz im August is once again offering a Youth Ticket this year – a ticket for children and young people up to the age of 14 who can attend the festival for a special price of 5 € when accompanied by an adult ticket holder.

The festival centre at HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2) will become a meeting place for the duration of Tanz im August. This is where artists, audiences and dance experts come together. The festival box office is also located at HAU2. At the heart of the venue is the WAU café and restaurant, whose kitchen is open until 11.00 pm. Outside, deck chairs are set up, and on weekends there is lively activity well into the night. This is also where the festival parties take place – because what would a dance festival be without the opportunity to dance together?

Venues for 2026
Berlinische Galerie, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1, HAU2, HAU3), Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Radialsystem (Halle, Saal), Sophiensæle, St. Elisabeth-Kirche, Stadtbad Oderberger and Tempelhofer Feld.

Tickets and further information are available from today at www.tanzimaugust.de