It’s also not easy to make a living from dancing in Berlin

Here in Berlin the time of warm up before a dance class or the time in transit in the locker room is enough to recognize – among many – voices of people who speak Italian. Are young guys or even adults who, with different motivations and expectations, coming from all regions of Italy to study dance. They are in the German capital for a few days , for longer or shorter periods, or even to live, and almost always, what drives them here, is the desire to find something that is not in their cities or in their country. Some are already trained dancers, others are in the making, others are teachers looking for inspiration or even enthusiasts, all with the desire to achieve the best possible what they came to do.
Since living here I have known people who have chosen Berlin for the dance theatre of Pina Bausch, but then they discover a world that is more diverse and more complex, made of a contemporary and freedom in the expressive possibilities of the body that had never explored; I’ve known people who continue to come back to study from hip-hop to neo-classical with the greatest artists, choreographers and teachers on the international scene; young men, who after being obsessed for years by barre work and by attention to the “lines”, are found to experience the weight and gravity of their body on the floor or to pander to a fall from an out of balance created to generate a new movement or more dancers who compete in acrobatic activity or any other activity in which the body is the protagonist, to finally put together the elements, genres and disciplines in order to give new life to their emotions, their thoughts , and that in order to re-express their idea of dance or even to share all or part of their research .
There’s also those who come to Berlin in the hope of being able to make a living from dancing, trying to get into some company (there are more than twenty recognized contemporary dance companies), or to teach in one of the renowned centres where, week by week , the most prestigious choreographers give classes, but it is by no means easy.
Be careful not to feed the myths!
If there is a huge range of dance, a very high quality, a wide variety of styles, many major shows to see, accessible prices (ridiculously low in comparison to those who pay in Italy to attend a course or workshop), and the opportunity to perform with numerous non-conventional spaces, synergies and the desire to collaborate with dancers, musicians and artists from different disciplines – again able to live exclusively off dance is a very complicated thing. Often we must engage in other activities or distracted by dancing in the narrow sense to be able to make ends meet, but for the experiences that you can accomplish, it’s still worth the effort.