Overhead Project with "Blueprint" part of Open Studio at international tanzmesse 2024

We will be presenting our current production "Blueprint" on 30 August 2024 as part of an open studio at internationale tanzmesse NRW 2024. In this extraordinary pas de deux, two performers navigate their way through patterns of human encounter and familiarity. The piece plays with gestures of invitation, confrontation and provocation. It is a duet in which contemporary circus and dance keep pace with each other.

• 30.08.2024 at 2.15 & 4.15 pm at tanzhaus nrw | Studio 4

The tanzmesse 2024 shows 27 Open Studio presentations. Three companies will each present an excerpt from a work-in-progress or touring production. After the short presentation, there will be time for questions and dialogue with the artists. The Open Studios will be moderated. Read more

Cologne Culture Prize 2024 for CircusDanceFestival

We look back on a great evening: on 14 May, 2024 the Cologne Culture Awards were presented for the 14th time. This year - just two days before the festival opening - the CircusDanceFestival was honoured in the "Young Initiatives" category. Tim Behren, Artistic Director of the Overhead Project company and the CircusDanceFestival, accepted the award on stage on behalf of the team.

The award recognises outstanding achievements and pioneering developments in culture in Cologne. With the Culture Prize, the Cologne Cultural Council aims to emphasise the high quality of culture in the cathedral city and provide impetus for its development. The documentation of the award ceremony can be found here (in German).

"Blueprint" at CircusDanceFestival 2024

With our latest production "Blueprint" we attended the Cologne CircusDanceFestival in May 2024. We would like to thank a wonderful, international audience for three sold-out performances and a great festival atmosphere!

Thursday, May 16th, 2024 at 8 pm
Friday, May 17th, 2024 at 8 pm
Saturday, May 18th, 2024 at 8 pm

Location: Performance tent on the festival grounds – LATIBUL, An der Schanz 6, 50735 Cologne
Tickets via the Festivalwebsite

PREMIERE of "Blueprint" in March 2024 in Leipzig & Cologne

Thank you for two great premiere weekends of our latest production "Blueprint" in Leipzig and Cologne!

Th production plays with gestures of invitation, confrontation and provocation. In this extraordinary pas de deux, dancer Mijin Kim and acrobat Leon Börgens move through human patterns of encounter and intimacy. With humor and an unusual repertoire of movements, they traverse a playing field of trust in order to strike the right note with each other.

Read more about the production & all performance dates.

NRW top funding dance 2024-26 for Overhead Project

We are delighted that we as a company will continue to be supported by NRW's top-level funding program in the years 2024 to 2026 and that we were selected by the expert jury, consisting of the Ministry of Culture and four dance experts, from a total of 25 applications with the following jury statement (excerpt, in German):

"With its work at the intersection between contemporary circus and dance, Overhead Project takes an outstanding position nationwide. Through its productions, workshop formats and cultural policy positioning, the company has significantly and sustainably strengthened the role of contemporary circus and dance locally, nationally and internationally. The Circus Dance Festival, curated by Tim Behren, also makes a relevant contribution here, establishing an important platform for the visualization of current aesthetics and discourses in both disciplines.

Cologne Dance Theater Prize 2023 for "What is left"

THANK YOU to our team & the many partners that accompanied the production – we are very proud of the Tanztheaterpreis 2023 for "What is left", which we received on December 4th, and congratulate all nominees & award winners!

"... this carrying, throwing, falling and being caught points to the fact that social interaction is not possible without trust and mutual care. A great production, congratulations from the jury." – excerpt from the laudation of this year's jury (Thomas Linden, Dr. Ruth Prangen & Jenny Patschovsky)

UK Tour in March 2023

"I think it is safe to say the audiences were blown away. I myself found it to be a perfect blend of skill, accessible contemporary work, dance, acrobatics and humour." (Adrian Berry, Artistic Director Jacksons Lane)

In March 2023 we travel to the UK for the first time with the company and showed our production of "What is left" at the Lowry in Salford, Circomedia in Bristol and Jacksons Lane in London. We are still overwhelmed with the warm welcome and great feedback we got from the British audience – a big thank you to all who made the tour happening!

The production "What is left" explores spatial structures that shape human communication culture. It shows the brutal beauty of frontality and the everyday social fashionwalks of this world. Read more

Publication "Circus in flux" released

The CircusDanceFestival (deputy Tim Behren & Jenny Patschovsky) released a workbook under the title "Circus in flux - Zeitgenössischer Zirkus | Contemporary Circus"! It was published July 1st, 2022 by Verlag Theater der Zeit and can be ordered now.

Tabori Award of the Fonds Darstellende Künste for the Company

The jury decided: "This honors a unique signature of the merging of contemporary dance and contemporary circus, creating a performative language of its own that makes a special contribution to both establishing and communicating the formats and their differentiated thematic worlds." (translated excerpt from the jury statement)