The Theme of Inclusion/Exclusion was first posited by Inka Thunecke, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung-Brandenburg, over lunch in a French cafe in the jewel-box city of Potsdam.  This was in October, 2009, at the end of the earlier iteration of [Dancing to Connect][2] that was centered on the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  Inka had seen Battery Dance Company’s and Drastic Action teaching artists working with children of Turkish immigrants in Berlin and learning disabled jobless youth in the depressed town of Eberswalde, and had witnessed how the dancing project had injected a spirit of optimism, empowerment and self-realization for these ‘have-nots’ of German society. 

Given German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s declaration on October 16, 2010, that the Germany’s so-called multi-cultural society had failed, Battery Dance Company’s theme of Inclusion/Exclusion was a powerful demonstration of the opposite.  Over a period of 38 days, in nearly 25 schools among 4 German States, Battery Dance Company teaching artists gave students the opportunity to reflect on this potent theme as it impacts them and their communities.  These students were from various disenfranchised sectors such as Turkish, African and Central Asian immigrants, the learning and physically disabled, residents of the former East German States, unemployed youth and others._
 

For more information, please see Germany 2010 Overview.

To see performance footage of one of the schools, Otto-Hahn-Schule, that DtC worked with during their time in Frankfurt, Click here