Battery Dance completed the second year of its Dancing for Trust initiative in Germany in the Fall of 2023, with workshops and performances centered around the city of Halle in the Federal State of Sachsen-Anhalt, and a refresher for teachers in Bremen where DfT had been launched in 2022.

One week of training was provided for 20 German school teachers, comprising 20 hours of theoretical and practical sessions devoted to introducing the methodology Battery Dance has used in schools across Germany, in the U.S. and countries around the world. Once the teachers were familiarized with the educational/creative process, they joined with the Battery Dance teaching artists in bringing it into their schools. This happened in two cohorts – with five secondary schools in the week following the teacher training sessions; and with five gymnasia in the two weeks afterwards. There was a gap of time due to a long weekend that included German Reunification Day which took place this year on a Tuesday, necessitating an extended time frame.

The final two days of the project were taken up with rehearsals and performances at the Volkspark, a multi-venue theater and community center with historical importance for the City. On Wednesday, October 11th, each of the secondary school groups rehearsed on stage in the afternoon and performed their completed choreographies in the evening. The audience comprised approximately 400 audience of families, teachers, peers and members of the general public and dignitaries who spoke at the beginning of the performance including Heike Piornak-Sommerweiss of the Landesinstitut fur Schulqualitat und Lehrerbildung Sachsen-Anhalt and Norbert Ryl of the Landeschulamt Sachsen-Anhalt and David Paned, Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Consulate General Leipzig introduced the program.

The following night, Thursday, October 12th, the five gymnasia followed the same pattern. This time, John Crosby, Consul General from the U.S. Consulate General Leipzig spoke in place of Mr. Paned. Syrian-German choreographer Saeed Hani introduced “The Wind in the Olive Grove”, as well as “A Certain Mood” by Taiwanese choreographer Tsai-Hsi Hung, both of which were created for Battery Dance on commission by the Renate, Hans and Marie Hofmann Trust.

Through the support of the Consulate General in Leipzig, the Company added an interactive event at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, bringing audiences into the outdoor porch and indoor galleries that display Benin Bronzes and other relics from countries around the world. This event extended the Company’s reach into the Federal State of Sachsen and helped to spread awareness of the Dancing for Trust performances and workshops taking place in Halle.

Entrance and exit questionnaires were distributed to the student groups. An indication of the success of the program came the day after it was concluded when a teacher from a school in Sachsen-Anhalt wrote to inquire whether the Company would be returning and whether it would be possible for her school to join. The school offices in Magdeburg and Dessau, where earlier Dancing to Connect projects had taken place, contacted Frau Piornak-Sommerweiss with similar inquiries. Two teachers from a “gifted and talented” school in Halle took part in the teacher training sessions in week one of Dancing for Trust, despite the fact that an earlier-scheduled school trip precluded their students from taking part this year. There is hope that Battery Dance could send teaching artists in 2024 following the program it is scheduled to conduct in the Federal State of Brandenburg, to serve this and other schools in Sachsen-Anhalt.