Performing Arts Season

The guest performances “Planet [wanderer]”, “2020”, “GLA55” and the new work og Giséle Vienne&nbsp;are realized with the support of Dance&nbsp;Reflections&nbsp;by&nbsp;Van&nbsp;Cleef&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Arpels.<figure class="table" style="width:500px;"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td style="padding:20px;"><a href="www.dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img class="image_resized" style="aspect-ratio:130/42;width:121px;" src="/magnoliaAuthor/dam/jcr:61cffd3f-361e-45ae-8662-e0fbd972e56d/DANCE REFLECTIONS.svg" alt="Logo Dance Reflections by Van Cleef &amp; Arpels" width="130" height="42"></a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table></figure>

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Every autumn and winter, the Berliner Festspiele present a Performing Arts Season that brings a panorama of international dance, theatre and performance productions to the stage of the Festspielhaus and the Gropius Bau.

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Performing Arts Season 2025/26

Today’s Events

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Marina Abramović unfolds Balkan&nbsp;Erotic&nbsp;Epic in two parts: the exhibition by the iconic artist will open at the Gropius Bau in April, and in October her new multi-hour stage production will be shown at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele as part of the Performing Arts Season. The work traces Abramović’s ongoing engagement with ritual, eroticism, death and the body as a site of political resistance.

Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic

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The second season, presented between October 2024 and January 2025, concentrated on memory and heritage in contemporary performing arts, with a focus on New York’s dance and performance scene.

Performing Arts Season 2024/25

Trailer, Performing Arts Season 2024/25, Design: 3pc

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Performing Arts Season 2024: Überblick

Performing Arts Season: Overview

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Gallery 2024/25

Cultural pluralism is not a new phenomenon; it has long existed within peoples, nations and communities. Even in prehistoric times, humans moved in search of food, water and shelter. Their migration patterns were influenced by climate, resource availability and interactions, later driven by imperialism and economic ambitions. The resulting cohabitation and collective behaviours, along with the languages, gestures and cultural heritage shared and exchanged, have continually shaped people’s identities as well as nations and communities, not seldom at a devastating cost. While this multidimensional diversity and plurality of identities has always been a part of human history, contemporary global homogenisation now poses significant challenges to traditions, local languages and cultural heritage. This, in turn, leads many regions and countries to witness the resurgence of rigid, stereotypical and essentialist concepts of identity. Against the backdrop of these developments, the Performing Arts Season 2025/26 will bring together works that interrogate binaries and singular, unrelated identities, reflecting the interconnectedness of the world and the self in its totality – what Édouard Glissant termed the “Whole-World” (Tout-monde).Paraphrasing these conceptions of identity through the lens of the performing arts as an ephemeral phenomenon rooted in negotiation and relationships, this third Performing Arts Season edition presents a selection of dance, theatre and performance works that discard the idea of a majority-minority-society which often ascribes non-European artists to a certain minority status. The pieces created by Eun-Me Ahn, Gisèle Vienne and Étienne Bideau-Rey, William Kentridge, Akram Khan Company, Nina Laisné, François Chaignaud and Nadia Larcher, Thorsten Lensing and Ligia Lewis delve into themes such as the precarity of identity, displacement, creolisation and transnationality, highlighting the power of performance to navigate and articulate our shared yet diverse experiences.

“Who am I?” is a question as old as humanity itself, and one that has been repeated – sometimes philosophically, sometimes corporeally – across the world. Despite our complex, constantly changing realities and pluralistic societies, the belief in a consistent self nevertheless still holds a certain credibility and triggers political and social debates. This intangible and often troubling notion of “identity” serves as the starting point for the Performing Arts Season 2025/26.

Trailer, Performing Arts Season 2025/26, Design: 3pc

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Following on 12 and 13 November, Albanian-born Greek-based theatre maker Mario Banushi returns to Haus der Berliner Festspiele after being part of the festival Performing Exiles in 2025. Banushi shows his latest piece, MAMI, as its German premiere. As his personal mythology, this work, a visual poem and a landscape of memories, depicts the source of life and is a tribute to the women who nurtured us.What is more, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to her roots with the new creation GLA55, which will have its world premiere at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 19 November, with further performances on 20 and 21 November. The Ictus Ensemble and Bl!ndman revisit early works by the master of minimalism, Philip Glass, while Rosas dancers let a geometric choreography unfold, guiding our consciousness into a trance-like dimension.In December, you can see two bold dance pieces. Belgian-French choreographer Damien Jalet brings Planet [wanderer] on 4 and 5 December, inspired by Japan’s Genesis story, the Kojiki. Alongside the overwhelming organic stage set by the Japanese sculptor, Kohei Nawa, it discusses the boundary between the living and the dead, and the inseparable relationship between the human body, the elements of the cosmic world, and gravity.Canadian leading choreographer, Marie Chouinard, on the other hand, highlights on 9 and 10 December an evening consisting of her early masterpiece and her latest piece: The Rite of Spring, a piece of music that has inspired legendary artists to create groundbreaking choreographies in each epoch, and MAGNIFICAT, which is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and is the canticle most frequently recited. What defines both works is that they are subject to her sublime and exquisite choreography.&nbsp;Dumb Type, Japan’s leading multimedia performance collective, presents their latest performance work, 2020, from 15 to 17 January. This has been a phantom work, which they almost completed and planned to premiere in March 2020 as the first work after 18&nbsp;years but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; only a recorded version was presented. Berliner Festspiele present the European premiere in January 2027 right after the now live world premiere at ROHM Theatre Kyoto. AI, surveillance society, communication failure, the climate crisis, geopolitics – the performance explores these threats to humanity in the liminal space between technology and the living body.After being a part of the 2025/26 Performing Arts Season and being nominated for the 2024 Theatertreffen, we are pleased to welcome again Franco-Austrian artist, choreographer and director Gisèle Vienne on 21 and 22 January with her new creation CREATION 2026 (WT) and Berliner Festspiele co-production (world premiere at Schauspielhaus Z&uuml;rich). In this first collaboration with the writer Marie NDiaye, Vienne articulates the contemporary concerns and the struggles for a dignified and viable life for all, embodying the long-standing research into power relations and their construction.Through these prominent contemporary expressions of performing arts and while bringing back to mind fundamental meanings of performativity, we might find that the performing arts exist as neither mere entertaining nor healing, but as a device that shapes our profound perception and thinking about the world, and furthermore, generates and changes it. The theatre has been over time and will continue to be an actual space: a place for people to come together. At the same time, the experience of theatre is a phenomenon that cannot be repeated and exists only in the here and now. Let’s share this unique time together and encounter different people and perspectives in the upcoming edition of the Performing Arts Season, which coincides with the Berliner Festspiele’s 75th anniversary year.

Myths that tell of the world’s origins and rituals that connect humans to nature and the earth serve as the very source of identity, allowing humans to anchor themselves in history, confirm their roots in a particular land, and affirm their coexistence with others. Myths often depict battles, not to make humans hostile, but to provoke deep reflection on how tragic and devastating the consequences of war truly are. Some ancient rituals, including those involving sacrifice, may seem brutal by modern standards, but they were not intended to stimulate sadism; rather, they served to affirm the vulnerability and preciousness of life. It is fair to say that a sense of awe for the dignity of life has sustained these traditions.The immediacy that characterises the practice of performing arts is a mechanism for activating a community’s collective imagination and emotion, and its origins can likely be traced back to songs and dances praying for harvests. There, mythical narratives unfolded, ritualistic forms became established as local festivals, and were passed down continuously across generations. In other words, myths and rituals can also be said to be the origins of performing arts. Now, let us ask ourselves anew: Can contemporary performing arts serve not as something that divides us living in the modern world, but as something that connects us? And can they inspire a sense of awe and reverence for life and its dignity? It is by returning to this fundamental meaning of performing arts that this 2026/27 Performing Arts Season has been conceived.<h3>Programme</h3>We open the fourth Performing Arts Season on 14 October with a bold new performance work: the stage version of <a href="${link:{uuid:{c9197019-0240-4d93-9716-a043bce5ed89},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/performing-arts-season/programm/2026/spielplan/balkan-erotic-epic}}}">Balkan Erotic Epic</a> by the seminal iconic performance artist, Marina Abramović, will premiere in Germany. This durational ritual where ancient Balkan myths meet performance art explores until 17 October the eroticism, spirituality and traditions of Abramović’s homeland, brought to life by a cast of more than 30 performers, dancers, musicians and singers. Furthermore, she will host an exhibition of the same name that will already open in April at Gropius Bau.

Performing Arts Season 2026/27

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Advance sales are now live: tickets for ten selected concert highlights of the Musikfest Berlin, which in 2026 will also mark the 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, are now available. The programme includes Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesquely humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Musikfest Berlin

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How does the bourgeois longing for revolt take shape, when the faith in progress and reason is unsettled? Berlin-based artist and director Leila Hekmat explores this question in her newly commissioned performance Roses Rising – The Movement. Moving between concert and ballet, the piece transforms the space into a landscape hovering between bunker, rehearsal room and dreamscape and invites the audience to witness a dinner party unravel into a happening.

Leila Hekmat: Roses Rising – The Movement &nbsp;

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On 13 January, the Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of the 10 most remarkable productions for the 2026 Theatertreffen at a press conference. Our congratulations go to the nominated production teams and all participants!

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MaerzMusik invites you to concerts, performances, installations and discourse formats at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and several other venues in Berlin. The programme is published; advance ticket sales are on.

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More Berliner Festspiele

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Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud with Nadia Larcher

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Programme &amp; Advance ticket sales: 18 June 2026, 14:00

A Panorama of International Dance, Theatre and Performance Productions

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Upcoming Events

We would like to thank all artists, everyone involved and you, our audience, for a great Performing Arts Season 2025/26 full of moving moments! We are already in the midst of preparations for the next Season, which will present a new panorama of international dance, theatre and performance productions at Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Gropius Bau from October 2026 to January 2027. Initial information on the programme will be available at the end of February.

Thanks for 2025/26 and Look Out for 2026/27

From October 2023, the Berliner Festspiele is to launch an annual Performing Arts Season that will present a panorama of international dance, theatre and performance productions on the stage of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Gropius Bau through the autumn and winter months. Some of the works on display will be co-produced by the Berliner Festspiele or produced in Berlin. The Curator and Programme Director of the Berliner Festspiele’s Performing Arts Season is the dramaturg Yusuke Hashimoto.

Trailer Performing Arts Season 2023/2024, Design: 3pc

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Teaser Performing Arts Season

Trailer Performing Arts Season 2023/2024

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In interviews Eun-Me Ahn, Akram Khan and Ligia Lewis discuss their artistic practice and the creation of their recent works, which were presented during the Performing Arts Season 2025/26. Essays and a lecture also offer insights into the significance of dolls in Gisèle Vienne’s work, as well as into the rehearsal process for Thorsten Lensing’s Dancing Idiots.

In the Media Library

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Performing Arts Season 2026: Previously on PAS

Impressions

Since 2023, the Berliner Festspiele’s Performing Arts Season has been presenting a range of outstanding international dance, theatre and performance productions at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and Gropius Bau during the autumn and winter months. Some of the works shown are co-produced by the Berliner Festspiele or specially produced in Berlin.

About Performing Arts Season

The works presented in the Performing Arts Season 2025/26 go beyond simple portrayals of identity, embracing its precarity and fluid, multifaceted and often contradictory nature. Through an exploration of connections and differences, they underscore not what divides us, but what unites us, both individually and collectively – strengthening once more the shared threads of our communal experience as well as the validity of the performing arts.

The Programme

Key Visual Performing Arts Season 2026

Programme &amp; Advance ticket sales: 18 June, 14:00

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The Performing Arts Season presents a panorama of international dance, theatre and performance productions on the stage of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Gropius Bau through the autumn and winter months.

Festivals & Programme Series

Upcoming

The Berliner Festspiele organise a range of festivals and art exhibitions, concerts, dance and theatre performances, readings, lectures, debates and much more throughout the year. These events are presented at a range of locations across Berlin but are concentrated primarily at their own two venues: the Gropius Bau and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Berliner Festspiele

Die Season

The Season

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You can listen to some of our events this year digitally in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library after the live concerts.&nbsp;In addition, On Demand offers from past years are available.

Musikfest Berlin in the Media Library

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The international Jazzfest Research Lab&nbsp;welcomes academics and students to take a critical look at the festival’s archive, its programmes, creators, musicians and – last but not least – its myths. In two seminars during the summer semester of 2024, students from the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Hildesheim have explored the festival’s history from various perspectives. In this film, the participants give a first look at how they dealt with their research subject.

Introducing: Jazzfest Research Lab

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To mark its 60th anniversary, Jazzfest Berlin is celebrating the cultural diversity of the neighbouring district of Moabit in collaboration with around 35 official partners and initiatives and with over 350 participants of all ages.&nbsp;In June 2024, interviews were conducted with 20 partners who presented their perspectives, wishes and ideas for the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit. You can get a first impression with this film.

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Curated by&nbsp;Meron Mendel and Saba-Nur Cheema&nbsp;

From 13 to 16 June 2024, the interdisciplinary themed days “Reflexes &amp; Reflections” on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its consequences for society in Germany took place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. You can now find video and audio recordings of the discourse events in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library!

Reflexes &amp; Reflections. 7 October, the war in Gaza and the debate in Germany

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The Invisibles

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In 2026 the Berliner Festspiele celebrate their 75th anniversary. A selection of events programmed throughout the entire year engage take the anniversary as their theme or mark the occasion with works at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, the Gropius Bau, the Philharmonie, on Berlin’s Ringbahn and at other locations in the city. Outstanding international that liberal societies and their cultural institutions face in a new, multipolar world order. artists such as Marina Abramović, Gabriele St&ouml;tzer and Akira Takayama will set the agenda both thematically and aesthetically. Entitled “Die gro&szlig;e Unordnung” (The Great Disorder), the four-day focus Reflexes &amp; Reflections will also enquire about the challenges.

75 Years of the Berliner Festspiele

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The massacre, hostage-taking and rocket attacks by Hamas have shaken us deeply. The grue-some attack on Israel on 7&nbsp;October left us stunned and initially lost for words.

The Berliner Festspiele on Current Events in Israel, Gaza and Germany

With this letter of intent, we, the signing cultural organizations, express our intention to welcome, host and stage Ukrainian theatre artists in our venues, to make Ukrainian dramatic work visible to the European community.

Support of the Ukrainian Cultural Scene

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The Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of the 10 most remarkable productions for the 2026 Theatertreffen. The programme will be published on 2&nbsp;April, advance ticket sale will begin on 18 April, 10:00.

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Tickets for ten selected concert highlights of the Musikfest Berlin, which in 2026 will also mark the 75th&nbsp;anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, are already available. The programme includes Gy&ouml;rgy Ligeti’s grotesquely humorous anti-opera Le Grand Macabre and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.