take-off: Junger Tanz Düsseldorf celebrates 20 years of dance for young audiences
take-off Festival 13–23 November 2026 | Düsseldorf, Germany
For 20 years, the network take-off: Junger Tanz Düsseldorf has been opening doors to contemporary dance for children and young people. To celebrate this anniversary, tanzhaus nrw, together with its network partners FFT Düsseldorf, Junges Schauspiel and Tonhalle Düsseldorf, invites audiences and professionals to a ten-day festival celebrating the diversity of dance for young audiences.
From 13 to 23 November, the festival brings together eleven performances, youth productions, workshops, a professional conference and numerous opportunities to participate and exchange ideas. The programme features both established artists and young creative voices, with productions developed in collaboration with young people taking centre stage during the opening weekend.
The festival continues with performances for different age groups, from FLIP for children aged three and up to energetic and interactive works such as The Round and Bonkers Kidsrave. A family day on 21 November invites visitors to discover dance together through performances and participatory activities. A mixed-abled dance workshop, a professional conference and an exchange programme involving the participating youth groups further complement the programme.
Curated by Micaela Kühn Jara and Alfredo Zinola, the anniversary edition looks back on two decades of encounters, artistic projects and collaborations while also asking what dance for young audiences can become in the future. At its heart is a belief in dance as an art form that does not always need to explain itself. It thinks through the body, raises questions without putting them into words and brings people together without requiring everyone to reach the same conclusion. Above all, it takes children and young people seriously by trusting them to look, feel and make up their own minds.
Since 2006, take-off has been bringing together cultural, educational, academic and social partners in Düsseldorf to create sustainable structures for dance for young audiences – in theatres, schools and youth centres, always in collaboration with professional dance artists. The anniversary festival celebrates not only what has grown over the past twenty years, but also the people who have shaped it: above all, the children and young people whose questions, movements and perspectives continue to inspire the network.
Programme and further information: https://www.take-off-junger-tanz.de/en/festival-2026-2/
