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DANCE & PARENTHOOD

Dance & Parenthood is an initiative of Tanzbüro München that addresses the working and living realities of dance artists who are parents. Its goal is to develop long-term sustainable structures, formats for exchange, and support services for parents in the independent dance scene. The project aims to help make barriers visible, identify needs, and open up perspectives for a more family-friendly dance landscape.

Theatre artists who are parents lose an estimated 8,000 euros in annual income compared with their childless colleagues. Almost every theatre artist with children has had to turn down job opportunities because of parental responsibilities, and nearly half of them eventually give up their artistic work altogether.

These findings from long-term studies by the initiative PiPa – Parents & Cares in Performing Arts (UK) clearly expose the structural disadvantages and precarious living and working conditions faced by artists with children. For freelance artists, these problems are compounded even further. Working hours and conditions that conflict with care responsibilities, inflexible funding programmes, and the still-existing gender pay and gender care gaps have emerged as systemic obstacles for parents, and especially for mothers.

Since the impulse provided by Munich choreographer and mother Ceren Oran with SESSIONS No. 4 – Parenthood and Dance (2023), we have been pursuing intensive efforts to strengthen the topic of dance and parenthood within the dance scene as well as on institutional and cultural policy levels. The major milestone was the two-day symposium Dance & Parenthood, which took place in September 2025 at the Labor Ateliers in Munich.

SYMPOSIUM DANCE & PARENTHOOD

“Care work should not stop women artists’ professional careers, but should be actively integrated into production processes and funding structures.”

This guiding principle ran through the many talks, panel discussions, and practical examples presented at the symposium Dance and Parenthood – Strategies for Fair Care Work in the Cultural Sector. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Munich dance offices, we invited numerous stakeholders from the dance scene, cultural and funding institutions, and politics to the Münchner Labor Ateliers on 18 and 19 September 2025 to exchange views on the different perspectives surrounding dance and parenthood. “Solidarity, empowerment, and above all, an immense drive to act were [felt on these days],” writes Peter Sampel in his review of the symposium on tanznetz.de.

More than 70 participants attended the two symposium days, including many from across southern Germany as well as international speakers. Munich-based choreographers Christina D’Alberto, Jasmine Ellis, Emmanuelle Rizzo, and Léonard Engel contributed their perspectives through artistic examples and panel discussions. The Freiburg-based Shibui Kollektiv presented itself as a best-practice example from dance practice, while Nicole Fiedler and Jana Grünewald from Dachverband Tanz Deutschland presented best-practice examples of funding programmes. Actress Emilia de Fries and director Elisa Müller enriched several discussions with the “Recommendations for family-friendly production” (in german) by the NRW State Office for Independent Performing Arts. Anna Ehnold-Danailov, Angela Pickard, and Marika Smreková contributed international perspectives. Ute Gröbel, Lara Schubert, and Karolína Hejnová represented theatre management and production, while Daniela Rippl from the Munich Department of Culture and the city councillors Julia Schmidt-Thiel and David Süß brought in the cultural policy perspective.

TO THE PROGRAMME

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The symposium revealed a nuanced picture of the reality of care work in the independent dance scene. It became clear — and alarming — that structural inequalities still persist, but also that creative, solidaric, and scientifically grounded approaches to solutions can be developed even in financially restrictive times like these. The participants saw stronger and more sustainable visibility for the topic in different contexts as an essential prerequisite for the changes they are aiming for.

TO THE DOCUMENTATION

TO TANZNETZ.DE

TANZPLATTFORM GERMANY 2026

As part of Tanzplattform Deutschland 2026, the jury’s Soft Spaces offered a format for exchange and encounter ahead of the festival programme. The meetings invited participants to take up topics from the selection process and continue thinking them through together.

On 12 March 2026, a Soft Space on dance and care work, with a focus on parenthood, took place. It was initiated by Simone Schulte-Aladağ and Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. At its centre was the question of how care work can become more visible in dance and what challenges it brings to artistic everyday practice.

The session began with Munich-based dancer Emmanuelle Rizzo, who spoke about her experiences between pregnancy, motherhood, and artistic work. Together with Alpay Akcan and Mikael Champs, she also presented the short film

MOVEMENT PREGNANCY DIARY, which follows her pregnancy and her work as a dancer.

Léonard Engel, performer and dance artist from Munich, also spoke about how life realities change when one becomes a parent — and how this can affect working processes and artistic practice.

Further perspectives were contributed by Daniela Lehmann and Susan Schubert from TanzNetzDresden. They spoke about their work and about sharing practice as a form of exchange and mutual support within the dance scene.

Between information about initiatives and projects related to dance and care work, an open exchange quickly developed: What experiences do parents have in the field of dance? Where is support needed — and which structures could help? The Soft Space thus became an open place for encounter, listening, and joint reflection on how dance and care work can be brought together more effectively.

MittDOKS 2026

On 18 March 2026, the topic of Dance & Parenthood was at the centre of the

DOK.fest goes MittDOKs Delikatessen series at Monopol Kino Munich. We were very pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate once again with the wonderful team at Neo-Kinos and the Munich DOK.fest.

The documentary film WOMAN/MOTHER by Klara Harden (DE, 2025) was shown. The film portrays the dancer Mara, who tries to reconcile her artistic identity with her role as a mother. WOMAN/MOTHER also shows Mara’s struggle for creative freedom.

The screening was preceded by Emmanuelle Rizzo’s Movement Pregnancy Diary, a short film realised by Mikael Champs and Alpay Akcan. The film diary was shot during the dancer’s pregnancy and was also created in response to the fact that Emmanuelle Rizzo “searched online in vain for role models or advice from other freelance dancers in the same situation,” as she said in the subsequent discussion with Tina Meß from Tanzbüro München. She spoke about the support of long-standing artistic companions, but also about the many difficulties and obstacles she faced during pregnancy and after the birth of her daughter, who was also present. Emmanuelle Rizzo announced that there will be both a podcast on the topic and a second part of the Movement Pregnancy Diary. We are looking forward to it!

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DANCE & PARENTHOOD

SYMPOSIUM DANCE & PARENTHOOD

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TANZPLATTFORM GERMANY 2026

MittDOKS 2026