DanceMap / Horizon Europe 2025-2027

DanceMap: Innovation pathways and policies to promote European dance heritage at home and abroad

The heritage of 20th century dance in Europe is largely invisible and in real danger of being lost. Works that are no longer being performed – even from the recent past – are forgotten, their memory confined to small and fragmented communities of artists and practitioners.

DanceMap aims to develop a cross-sectoral strategy for safeguarding and promoting Europe’s rich dance heritage. DanceMap is a map both in the geographical sense, showcasing examples of successful dance heritage initiatives all over Europe and making them accessible for a wider global public, and in the sense of a blueprint or roadmap towards effective and sustainable policy solutions at regional, national and European level. Combining excellence in research and extensive experience of delivering innovative dance heritage initiatives at the national level, the DanceMap consortium has developed an integrated, cross-sectoral approach that incorporates research, data science, artistic practice, outreach, advocacy and policymaking.

With this project, the consortium – led by Bureau Ritter (Berlin) – makes the case that European dance heritage is overlooked in its ability to build a contemporary image of the EU as a progressive, diverse and inclusive political entity. One of its aims is to ensure that dance is included in the common European data space for cultural heritage (ECCCH) as a use case for other embodied practices.

The DanceMap partners are:
Bureau Ritter (Berlin, Germany) as lead partner
C-DaRE (Centre for Dance Research) at Coventry University (Coventry, UK)
University of Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium)
Motion Bank research group at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz (Mainz, Germany)
Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln (Cologne, Germany)
STUK House for Dance, Image and Sound (Leuven, Belgium)
Culturgest (Lisbon, Portugal)
Noa Eshkol Foundation (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Station Centre for Contemporary Dance (Belgrade, Serbia)
Lokomotiva Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture (Skopje, North Macedonia)
Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Nomad Dance Academy Croatia (Zagreb, Croatia)
Brain Store Project (Sofia, Bulgaria)
Rosas (Brussels, Belgium)
Culture Concepts (Berlin, Germany)
Goethe-Institut – Associate Partner (Germany)

To the DanceMap website

  • 1.Angles and Angels, 1990, from an installation view of ‘archival capsule’, Biennale of Sydney, 2016; Photographer: unknown.
  • 2. The Chamber Dance Quartet (first ensemble) dancing “Promenade” by Noa Eshkol, 1954-1956; Photographer: T. Brauner, Dancers: Noa Eshkol, John G Harries, Naomi Polani, Mirale Sharon.


Noa Eshkol / Noé Soulier & Dance On Ensemble

A Suite of Dances
Dance Compositions / Choreography: Noa Eshkol
Staging: Mor Bashan (The Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group)
Staging Assistant: Dror Shoval (The Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group)
Sound Design: Mattef Kuhlmey
Costume: Werkstattkollektiv

A Day in the Studio
Choreography: Noé Soulier
Costume: Chiara Valle Vallomini
Music: A Day in the Studio, Hanne Lippard (2020); Portals, Jana Irmert (2025); Phase III, Lucy Railton (2025)

A Suite of Dances – A Day in the Studio
Performance: Javier Arozena, Alba Barral Fernández, Anna Herrmann, Dominic Santia, Gesine Moog, Lia Witjes Poole, Marco Volta (5 dancers with an alternating cast)
Light & Technical Direction: Martin Beeretz
Sound: Mattef Kuhlmey
Artistic Direction Dance On Ensemble: Ty Boomershine

In this Performance, the Dance On Ensemble turns its attention to the work of choreographer Noa Eshkol (1924–2007). Her precise dance compositions and the movement notation system she developed are reconstructed. In response, dancer and choreographer Noé Soulier develops a new choreographic work of his own. His practice, which interweaves dance, exhibition formats, and theoretical reflection, extends the dialogue with Eshkol’s thinking, offering a contemporary translation and a continuation of movement.

For the first time, an entire evening is dedicated to Noa Eshkol’s dances performed by dancers outside the original Chamber Dance Group. The evening features dances from “Theme and Variations”, the first suite Eshkol created using the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN), which premiered in 1965. The Selected pieces are: Jacob Rachel and Lea (2) (early 1960s), Duet (5) (early 1960s), Skilla (6) (early 1960s), Fugue (0) (early 1970s), March (1) (early 1960s), Minuet (0,3) (early 1960s).

The performance is part of a series called Replies in which Dance On Ensemble invites contemporary choreographers to respond to masterpieces of the 20th century from their own artistic perspectives. Previously, Mathilde Monnier and Tim Etchells engaged in dialogue with Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham respectively. This creates a continuous thread in which tradition and innovation continue to question one another.

World Premiere: 6 & 7 July 2026, Julidans Amsterdam

Production: DANCE ON / Bureau Ritter
In collaboration with Cndc Angers.

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

Part of DanceMap, funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation.

DANCE ON is a project by BUREAU RITTER, funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Buy tickets here

Link to the event page – The Noa Eshkol Foundation

Dance On Ensemble website

 

 

Photography: Felix Grunscholb

Workshop with the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group

Le Ménagerie de Verre, Paris
6.6.2026 11:00-12:30

In collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group is offering a morning workshop for professional dancers, followed by a performance that same evening.

Noa Eshkol created EW Movement Notation primarily as a compositional tool. EWMN makes it possible to define, analyze, and quantify the given material of the dance field — namely, the body moving through space and time. The notation enabled her to organize this material into new, complex forms and structures.

In the workshop, participants will explore the encounter between the moving body and its graphic representation — the symbols written on the manuscript page — through the various modes of practice this encounter opens: reading, writing, performing, and composing.

Single price: €10
In partnership with the Museum of Jewish Art and History

La Ménagerie de Verre website

 

 

“Zero- Three” – Dances from the dance suite ‘Theme and Variation’ performed by The Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group
 
Le Ménagerie de Verre, Paris
6.6.2026 18:00
 
White Night 2026: Performance by the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group
 
For Nuit Blanche 2026, and in collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group presents: Zero-Three – Dances from the choreographic suite Theme and VariationsThe suite was first composed by Noa Eshkol in the early 1960s. A decade later, in the early 1970s, Eshkol returned to the suite to develop it further, creating a complex dialogue between the original movement scores and the variations.“The people who take part in these events work as a team for many years and are part of a larger team. What unites them is “movement notation” (dance notes). This subject is the nucleus around which daily work revolves. The mission (purpose) to establish an objectively valid system of symbols of movement in the human body dictates the work ethic, tone, topic and object of study. It should be understood that the group is not intended to produce theatrical events as such nor does it seek to “thrill” or “satisfy” the general public, with all due respect. To benefit or get enjoyment from the sessions offered, one should treat the “show” which is necessarily created through its publicness, as a window into our laboratory.”
– Noa Eshkol, 1987 –
 
 
Free entry with reservation
La Ménagerie de Verre website