Once upon a time in Heilbronn

Friendship festivals, fascination for the American Way of Life and love relationships, but also drug crime and vehement protest – the relationship between Heilbronn and the US soldiers stationed here until 1992 was and is complex and ambivalent. What influence did this encounter of two cultures have on the city and its inhabitants, what impulses came from contact and exchange? The Heilbronn choreographer and dance teacher Barbara Buck went in search of traces of what remains of it today – and found and collected facts and images, memories and stories from contemporary witnesses.

With the help of a cross-generational ensemble of people from Heilbronn, she developed a dance theater production, a dazzling collage of snapshots in which she translated the exuberant material into images and movement. In the course of regular rehearsals, “Once Upon a Time in Heilbronn” is created from February to the end of May 2020.

Festival Tanz! Heilbronn

From May 27th to June 1st 2020, the Heilbronn Theater invites to the 12th Festival Tanz! Heilbronn.
“Searching for traces,” is how festival curator Karin Kirchhoff titels her selection of performances for this year. Seven very different dance productions will be shown within six days of festival in all three venues of the Heilbronn Theater, including two German premieres. “The search for traces leads to a real historical or imagined past, to other continents or to current social developments,” says Karin Kirchhoff. “It always serves a deeper understanding of the current situation – how did we become who we are – so that we can use it to explore future paths,” the curator describes her programmatic approach. Some of the invited artists use this search in particular to redefine marginalized post-colonial or self-determined perspectives.
There are international dance companies and less well known young choreographers.
A large research project deals with historical events that have shaped Heilbronn.