Report:

To the dancing bodies, funding bodies…

DanceWEB can be one of the most incredible, life-changing experiences. People say “it is what you make it.” This is partially true.

My time at Impulstanz was indeed life-changing, but I’m aware that I arrived fully funded, and coming from within Europe, my travel costs were minimal. No culture shock. No language barrier. No pressure for the next six weeks to be financially “worth it.”

I met the kindest most extraordinary beings. At arsenal, on the bikes, by the river, in the night. Among the 98 danceWEB / ATLAS participants and 2000 other festival goers, you find your people. Or they find you.

On not one but two occasions I was locked out of my apartment for multiple nights. The weekend was spent wrapped in an armour of borrowed belongings. Su’s shirt, Lu’s shorts, Emily’s underwear, Irisi’s socks, Isi’s knee pads, Lili’s shampoo. I was head to toe in kindness couture.

Apparently, I saw 36 shows. I loved 4…walked out of 1. I soon realised I was learning just as much on the dancefloor and in the conversations in the cracks between classes as I was in the studio. I am grateful for my mentor who helped me see that these moments were just as valuable.

Impulstanz offers plenty of opportunities for schmoozing, yet access is not equitable. It depends on who you know and how adeptly you can navigate the invisible rituals and protocols of professional socialising. I applaud our cohort’s resistance to getting caught up in these hierarchical dynamics, but ultimately, it’s hard to bite the hand that feeds you (literally).

It’s a bright, loud, social environment, where being constantly present and available greatly impacts your experience. For neurodiverse participants this was really challenging. Within the festival program there was no space for slowing down, to hang out and meet in more relaxed settings. There felt a craving for other ways of gathering.

We lay, entangled in Vienna social seating
Is this badly designed or does it know exactly what it’s doing?
Sliding down,
arms, legs akimbo,
falling into touch,
friendship,


+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

My experience with DanceWEB 2026 was truly amazing. It was a very important moment for me, both artistically and personally. I learned a lot through the different workshops, practices, conversations and encounters with artists coming from so many different backgrounds and countries.

One of the most meaningful parts of the programme was my time with Raja Feather Kelly. Raja is such a generous, kind and understanding person, and I really appreciated the way they created a space where I could feel comfortable to question, explore and share. The exchange with Raja gave me new perspectives on my own practice and on the way I think about movement, performance and artistic research.

What I also loved about DanceWEB was being surrounded by people from all over the world. Every person brought their own culture, experience, questions and way of seeing things. The possibility to meet, talk, dance and improvise together was very special for me. I felt that I was not only learning from the teachers, but also constantly learning from the other participants.

Unfortunately, because of the limitations of my visa dates, I was not able to stay until the end of the programme. This was something I was genuinely sad about, because I would have loved to experience the whole journey with the group. Even though I had to leave earlier, I left with a very full heart and with a lot of new ideas, connections and inspiration that I will carry with me into my work.

DanceWEB gave me a sense of being part of a wider artistic community, and I am very grateful for that experience. I returned home with new questions, new energy and a stronger desire to continue developing my practice and sharing what I learned with the communities and artists I work with in Morocco.

Report:

짧다면 짧은 길다면 긴 5주, 모든 순간이 좋았다고 말할 수는 없겠지만 내 인생에서 가장 필요했던 시간들이라고 말할 수 있을 것 같다.
To be honest, I can’t say that every moment was wonderful. But I can say with certainty that these five weeks were something I truly needed in my life.

Meeting so many people with different personalities, backgrounds, ways of dancing, values, and artistic perspectives, I found myself learning and feeling inspired by them in the most unexpected moments.

It felt as though these moments and days would never come to an end. But now, looking back from Korea, I realize just how beautiful they were. I miss those nights when conversations about art, performances, and each other never seemed to end, when we could simply be with friends without worrying about anything else.

Life in Korea, and life as a choreographer, feels quite different from the life I had while enjoying the festival. I guess that’s how precious and happy those five weeks really were.

If I have the chance, I would love to return to Vienna and the festival every year, even if only for a short time. I feel like I learn more there than I sometimes do in a classroom. Maybe it has something to do with my values, the way I learn, or simply who I am — someone who seeks to learn through direct experience.

I miss you all. Maybe it’s because I know I can’t go back to those exact moments that they feel so precious now. If I could return with these memories, I would want to talk a little more with everyone and get to know you all a little better.

Anyway, thank you for giving me such an experience. It means more to me than I can fully express.

Youngdon Cheon

Report:

Roughly 40 performances, 14 workshops, 1 research project, participation in an ATLAS project and countless parties.
My day as a danceWEBer already starts the night before, when I think about how the hell I’m gonna survive another day of webbing around in Vienna. Back home, I love going to the sauna to clear my thoughts. But waking up in this summer’s standing hot air of the accommodation room didn’t have that same effect. On the contrary. So I wake up and bike to Arsenal. Bike…my thighs have grown in Austria. I will never forget the bike rides from one theatre to the next, being carried by legs that were only still working because there was magic in the air. Magic that made me fall in love with the overload and overstimulation. Anything became possible. Even horse whispering.

Thinking about the future turned into dreaming about it. I graduated less than two years ago, meaning visions and dreams are still in the making. DanceWEB made me realise that…

…old goals have been reached.
…the umbrella of meaningfulness
is gone.
And now I’m in need of a new plan.
How much does it have to align
with the old one?
How can I blend in other needs and passions?
Can the compassion with the other artists felt in Vienna shape how I as an individual and we as the art field shape our (work) lives?
When will I find peace of mind?

The most important aspect of the whole experience were the angels surrounding me. Sitting at home and writing this, I have to think of them flying around the globe and developing the beauty I saw unfolding during our time together. I got to know so many great humans and aspects of their work. We formed creative bonds that are both affective and artistic. This has sparked changes in my perception of self. I feel increasingly comfortable as a self-confident individual within this network of clowns and rockstars. People are crazy. Crazy different. But honest in their ways of doing. Exposure to radically different, hard working movers has made me understand what uniqueness means and that it comes with strengths but also flaws. And these flaws are what makes me unique and therefore they are a strength and I should never get rid of them.
Oh, I want to be like them. Of course! Wishing to be like other people is a part of how I grow. But after Vienna, it’s less confusing. Whenever I ask myself ‘Why can’t I be like that person?’ I am restricting myself. I realised that I actually can. There is nothing stopping me. Not even myself really. Alter Egos can do anything! And imagine them pairing up with myself! Superpowers!! Immediately after the festival, I started applying for solo residencies. The desire to express my own ideas has outgrown the fear of doing so. Clearly, paths are changing and I like it.

I left Vienna feeling a lot of hope and trust in the art community. Trust in the relevance of our work. Hope that we can actually impact the world around us. Everyone had such inspiring practices, questions and worries I could relate to. Maybe the magic I mentioned was the collective interest in finding common ground with each other, making us wake up every morning just to be with each other for another again. Even when the social battery was at its lowest.

The festival’s networking opportunities were invaluable. Not only has it led to future collaborative opportunities already. It also fostered a sense of being part of a global community of artists that will keep on meeting and supporting each other. To the other danceWEBers who read this: There will always be a free spot on my couch for you!

On a more theoretical note, I resist the idea of measuring art as "good" or "bad" and danceWEB has confirmed that for me. Inspired by Indigenous authors like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Ailton Krenak, I see a parallel between learning FROM nature (rather than about it) and dancing with a present, questioning mindset (rather than predetermined ideas and finished concepts). For me, it’s not about imposing truth, but adapting, learning together, and remaining grounded in honesty.

Note to self: Remember honouring silent processing. Save time and energy for the moments when you’re not out spending energy and collecting memories but simply with yourself. I guess that’s meditation. But it felt likeable new invention when it grew from pure necessity.

Finishing off. Danke! Obrigado! Takk! спасибо! дякую! ευχαριστώ! Merci! Thank you <3



+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Report:

DanceWEB was a challenging experience for me.
I’ll share with you something I wrote while I was there:

“I need to address everything.
Where is my value? Because right now if feels as if my value is monetary; my output is labor.
How do I change this?
I should say ‘No’ more often than I would like.
I should say it to everything as a training method.
I am asking the questions ‘Does this reinforce my value as a human?’
Or ‘Does this reinforce my value as a commodity?’
It feels like something is wrong and it’s of my own doing.
It feels as if Capitalism’s teeth are sunk deep into my neck.
My dilemna is how to make the most of the rest of this festival that is seeping me dry.
I need to not ‘waste’ this opportunity but maybe this opportunity has just allowed me the space to recalibrate at a great cost.”

I had received no funding for DanceWEB. I funded the program myself through excessive amounts of work leading up to the festival and personal financial reserves.
I arrived burntout at the onset.
I learned that people received funding from the festival, but this support was selective and this support was hidden. I realized I could have asked for help, and maybe I could have received help but this was not made transparent. Hearing of this hidden support two weeks into the program was a huge blow to my already overstimulated system. I was left with the knowledge that I carried the burden of responsibility myself and worked myself into exhaustion before I even arrived when other people received assistance and help. This all felt very opaque.

I felt very unlike myself while I was there, lacking charisma and energy, and I was forced into very intensive social environments when I was already at a deficit. I was seeking DanceWEB as a professional development space. I felt the mentorship lent more towards personality and social connection rather than professional connection.

Some things I am grateful for: I met truly incredible people I adore and respect, and will keep in contact with professionally and otherwise. I had some workshops that gave me keys and leads to continue research on my own. I was able to flex my creative and critical eye after performances, strengthening my language to analyze work. I was pushed to extremes and these extremes pulled new things out of me.

I would say the largest portion of my time at DanceWEB was spent questioning Capitalism and my complicity in its toxic manifestations. My biggest take away: radical rest. I arrived back into normal life post festival and drastically assessed my tendencies towards productivity and my dependency on my own hard labor for benefit and gain instead of other strategies.
In general, the workshops that were the most beneficial for me were ones that did not require physicality because my energy was low. More theoretical workshops composed of lecture and discussion were favorable.

I feel I should speak on the final days of the festival because I was very angry and emotional at the end of the experience. DanceWEB participants were given the ultimatum of choosing between exchanging our own artistic practices as a cohort and witnessing/supporting the Atlas showings. This was a change that happened in order to prioritzie the final DanceWEB Salon which was placed of higher value by the team. In reality it had very little beneficial value for me as a artist moving forward outside of danceWEB. I felt like the final Salon was not really for us at all. If it would have been for us, feedback and suggestions would have been taken into consideration in its material.
The artistic exchange that us danceWEBers organized ourselves (more labor placed on us) was exactly the kind of environment and experience a lot of us were craving throughout the festival and never received.
The ATLAS showings had real applicable interest and significance for me as an artist because multiple of the ATLAS participants are based in my country and city of residence. Isn’t one of the proposed benefits of the program the chance to network and exchange ideas with other working artists for future collaborations? I feel the program should value the ATLAS showings as a beneficial environment for danceWEB participants. The cross-pollination of the two programs is one of the benefits of the festival. I think it should be encouraged, and I suggest that the team should rethink the schedule of the final days.

I think DanceWEB has the potential to be a great resource for artists, but I think it is flawed in its current structure– in particular in its funding model. Certain artists have a greater ability to seep the benefits when they are supported within the system. The intensity of the program offers a lot, but for those entering on unequal grounding, the access to its benefits are sometimes out of reach.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++
As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

DanceWEB is put very simply as a process of saturation: your schedule is full, your energy is maxed, your body exhausted, and your mind swimming. If there was a glimmer of a question about the art you make sitting idly in the corner of your eye, it will arrive front and center, as there will be no place left for it to go. You will see art you love. You will see art you hate. You will see art that makes you squeeze a new acquaintances’ hand in the dark to try and catch your breath before you walk home in complete silence while navigating the full spectrum of human emotion. Or you won’t. I definitely did.

I cannot express the depth of my gratitude at having been a part of DanceWEB 2026. This life as an artist, especially as a freelancer, can be deeply lonely, and I arrived in Vienna carrying such feelings, but I did not leave this way.

Our pursuit to create in a way that only we can often means not having a path which includes a step-by-step guide for how to find whatever it is that drives you forward. We are moths to the flame of something ineffable and we consistently choose some amount of instability and chaos in favor of it, no matter how briefly it can flicker. There is a heavy weight in the seemingly impossible demands of just existing in a world consistently putting our efforts in question while also asking us to produce blindly without expressing our humanity or dissatisfaction with injustice. It is easy to feel utterly lost and alone in the questions that come up, and even harder to emerge with any answers that satisfy.

My time at DanceWEB was anything but alone. To my fellow DanceWebbers, to move amongst you and share my weights as I shared yours was nothing short of a miraculous reminder of how beautiful this life we have all chosen is. It is dark and awkward, and seeing you all navigate it in your own ways, making the incredible art you make, renewed the courage I desperately needed. Knowing you are all in this world with me is assurance enough that there is something worthwhile in the many existential crises we may experience, purely because I can see that something in each of you.

The artist I strive to be has permission to exist because of the people I found during my time in DanceWEB. People are the irreplaceable engines of Art, and I will never tire of seeing all of us moths continuously saying,
I was here
I was here
I was here

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

a summer dance camp and a group of 80 young and hot artists riding pink bikes in zigzag through Vienna

during five weeks, with equally many heat waves, I discover danceWEB to be a place for myths

sweaty days spent dancing

sweaty nights spent dancing

sweaty nights awake at the dorm room, impossible to calm down my nervous system and sleep after a day with countless impressions

mentorship that focused on individual journeys

He Jin Jang reminding us that we’re shaped by our environment

a whole new environment and a new us

many promises

leaning into acceleration

no real reason to go home at night

equals a bodily sensation of neo liberalism

the first week I did ballet at 9 am

the second week I did a workshop that will feed me for years

the third week I saw a dead rat smooshed on the bike lane on Mariahilfer Straße

the fourth week var vi redan blödiga

cancellations

pickiness

air-conditioning in one out of like ten studios

flirting

new city friends

an exceptionally kind group

a sense of freedom, held by that kindness

foodora riders zigzagging through the city, on bikes in the same hot pink colour as ours

the realisation that what we share is doing commercial

no one is removing the flat rat, and I pass by it every day

several old people scream at me in the streets

many many shows

even more conversations after

split opinions (so exciting)

a lot of sexy

the audience frenetically weaving their fans

Mikaila winning the battle

Iris and Lu making everyone moove on the dance floor

biking to the pond with Michael and Sasha

late night tea with Gégé in our dorm kitchen

a study program turning 30 years old

reminders of the things that have changed for the better over the years

appreciation for the ones that pushed it

but wow, some things are sticky

many safety protocols

at times more talk than practice

heat and speed make the word sustainability absurd

no chance to do it all

people try to do it all to get their money’s worth

an implication to max it

a wish for more artistic exchange within the group

a wish to hijack the structure

by the end of the five weeks, the only-eating-without-proposing-back starts to make itself heard

suspicion that if we would have stayed longer, the bubble would’ve burst

some things work because they don’t last forever

-

The last day, on my way to Arsenal to drop off my bike, I can’t see the rat anymore. There’s only a slight shift of colour in the asphalt where it used to be, and I can’t tell if the city’s street cleaners have removed it, or if it is flattened to the degree that it has merged with the bike lane.

the rat is gone
we sweat til the end
can I go back to summer dance camp every year?
no. you. can’t!

-

thank you all,
s



+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Dance web experience for me was like returning to teenage feelings: the boost of energy, the excitment of learning, the constant movement and the joy of knowing new and so amazing people.
At the beggining I was adapting myself to the non stop training, as I was a bit out of shape, but it is impressive how the body reacts so fast and after the first week I was on the road, doing and doing and trying to take all the moments with me. It was so much like this that many times after the workshops I was dancing in the party with other dance webers and sometimes alone just to dance a bit before sleeping.
The last week I was able to connect to a creative place were freedom is hidden. A place were the emotions and feelings cross the movement and the dance, were the form is in a second layer, and you realize that imagination can take you further and the body follows this.
At the end I thought I could have been two more weeks in the programm and go deeper in some technics, I felt so energized and happy :).

Regarding the group it was very touching to know such beautifull people and artists. I felt our gruop was very generous and commited with ourselves, so many talented people together is a bless. There is a moment that it is stuck in my mind, when while parting some of us were molested by another person (not danceweber) and we all came out to defend the ones that were being molested. It was an epiphany, a sudenn ganga was created and we knew exactly what to do.

The mentor Raja Feather Kelly is a lovely and amazing person. I admire him very much, I think he did a great job, taking the time to see each ome of us, having fun with us, and mavigating stressing but amazong weeks with us.

The organization of the programm was also very good, all is arranged for us to make this 5 weeks as easy as possible.

I felt very lucky because I got a funding to cover my staying and the programm in Vienna, but this is not the case for all of us. This uneven situation within a group creates worries that were not addressed collevtively and this could be manage better in the future for a even more joyfull time for all the participants.

I will digest the learnings and experiences of dance web with time and love,
Thanks for all the joy it brought to my body

Isidora Gazmuri

Report:

Report:

Many people asked me how my summer danceWEB adventure was, but one of the questions that someone asked me will stay with me:

“How do you feel after the festival? More confused, or did you get what you needed?”

Nobody can really prepare you for the DanceWEB experience. You arrive with your expectations, interests and plans, and then suddenly you are surrounded by so many possibilities that it is difficult to know where to start. There is a constant flow of information, movement, performances and conversations, so you can get lost very quickly and stay that way for five weeks ;). Honestly, even though it was difficult for me, I embraced this state of being lost and decided to trust myself and my curiosity. There is no such thing as the perfect combo: the best workshop list, the perfect performances wish list, the perfect time to go to bed or the perfect number of beers.

It’s an experience of making choices:
100 danceWEBers and ATLAS participants to meet
250 workshops to choose from
50 productions to watch
1,000… encounters with fellow artists
1,001… moments of joy, confusion, sweat, laugh, WTF?!?, tiredness, sleepless nights, dance…
1,002… memories

My combo: Post-Failure Potential - martial arts - choking techniques - self-defence - Arsenal - BDSM - being a queen - being a jazz diva - Rushes - boxing - Vestibül - MayBe - partnering - throwing - Tao Yee - receiving - digesting pain - spirals - What the body does not remember - limits - the river - Nymph - washing machine - sliding - bruises - heat - the dorm

Raja Feather Kelly as our mentor, encouraged us to think about how we wanted to approach these five weeks, what we were trying to achieve and how we were making choices.
“What do you want?”
“What do you need?”
He kept reminding us that we were all in this adventure together and it’s important to stay curious, open, and to take care of ourselves and each other.

danceWEB is an opportunity that can change your career, I guess, but for me, it was an experience of discovering new worlds opened up by the beautiful souls I’ve met. Getting to know them as artists and people was the biggest gift I brought back home - along with a little more knowledge about the dance scene all around the world. We were all artists with our unusual life paths and unique stories, but first of all, we were all people who needed to share, to ask questions and to look for some answers.

So, am I more confused or did I get what I needed?
Maybe both.
And maybe that's exactly what I needed.

“What do you want?”
“What do you need?”
… still processing .

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

I am so grateful for the summercamp danceWEB 2026. When I arrived in Vienna, I had just been through a difficult personal situation, which I think helped me put everything into perspective and not take things too seriously. I approached the experience like a sponge: absorbing what interested me, letting the rest pass through, without dwelling too much on the difficulties or contradictions. There was hardly any time to digest anything, but somehow that was part of the beauty of it. An overwhelming, exhausting, and incredibly sweet summer camp.

I saw some of the best performances of my life and some of the worst. It felt particularly meaningful that the festival closed with Trajal Harrell's "o' Music Music", one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I cried, I cried a lot, and afterwards I drank a lot of natural wine. I also cried watching the beautiful duet over a blue sea. I discovered the work of the ATLAS participants, attended some truly wonderful workshops, danced at night, cycled endlessly through the summer heat, and enjoyed the permanent gossip. What a delight. And most importantly, the group. The people you meet. The other danceWEBbers.

During the first days, at the bar where we gathered after performances, someone outside our group was responsible for a racist incident. It was beautiful to see how immediately the danceWEBbers who were there reacted, stood together, and confronted that person. It was one of the most meaningful moments of the festival for me. There was something very special about this group: a sense of commitment and respect. I met new people and got to know some people I already knew much better. And getting to know someone through dancing, tears, and sweat is always better than through words alone. I met people I would love to keep getting to know, people I would love to dance with again, and people I hope to work with.

Music, music, music. He Jin Jang. The myth of Ariadne. Blue. Rocío Jurado playing while Alina Arshi and Juliette Uzor make faces. Purgatory with Maria F. Scaroni. The Those beers from a supermarket, gossiping after surviving the first week. Conversations about performances, conversations about workshops. Laughing, laughing, joking, gossiping, gossiping. Falling in and out of love in less than five minutes. The swans. I take home questions, problems, rejections, fascinations, new desires, and a clearer sense of how I want to make work, but also how I don't. Talking about death in the bikes, about love, about relationships, about sex, about crashes, about pieces.

Thank you to Raja Feather Kelly, especially for his research project and for the questions that are still wandering around in my head. Thank you to the ImPulsTanz festival team, and especially to the wonderful people responsible for the organization and coordination of danceWEB. Many thanks to the Tanja Liedtke Stiftung for financially supporting my participation and making it possible for me to be part of this experience.

thanks
b

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

DanceWEB has been a chaotic, rich and overwhelming moment of my summer 2026. And to be honest, I was so glad to be there, but so happy when it ended.

Before arriving in Vienna, I trustfully thought I needed an intense experience of dance. Being there helped me to put my dance practice into perspective: I feel better connected to my body and to artistic research when artistic frame and social events are more loose and less tightly connected to each other. In another words, I need time outside of art sphere in order to reflect on my practice as a dancer and maker. I strongly believe in slow process, digestion, spewing out, recycling and transforming. Consuming feels inappropriate, and somehow I felt consumed.

People, classes, bike, rice salad, heat waves, cozy diner, weird party, laughter, doubt, uncertainties, no sleep, effective dreams, boundaries, He Jin Jang <3, crying, missing out, bones structure, flow, no flow, river, ATLAS showings, friends, Samir Kennedy, This resting patience, crush, feeling lonely, daydreaming, sweat, 4L of water, too slow, not fitting, small drama, Fran’s kitchen, Spanish-speaking crew, witnessing love, Raving Mckenzie Wark, the tent, the diner in the tent, free drinks, wine and sparkling water, thick air, crying, dumbness, hopefulness, crying, DM, cocktails, running, not sleeping, soccer matchs, coupe du monde, writing, feeling too much, and too little, muscles, horizons, encounters, new friends, spontaneous diner, the dorm, where do you come from, protein bars, loneliness, dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing, listening, cold shower, coco coffees, concave and convex space, concave and convex bones, boxing gloves, connected dreams, blanket, white light, aura, butterflies, offerl bakery, singing, grey dress, feeling off, flipflop, red, being red, pool, not feeling home, 5weeks that feels too fast and way too slow, finding solutions, writing again, not forgetting anything, 3salads for my 28 birthday.

The harder issue to deal with was the realisation that not everyone got a grant to come to danceWEB, and that the criteria to receive this grant (from Impulstanz) remain a mystery since then. From an ethical perspective, economical transparency is a really important matter, as it forces a social equity between different parts, it allows us not to perpetuate discrimination towards less privileged people, as there is knowledge about who gains what. It is with a big disappointment and bitterness that I left the festival. I simply disagree with how money feels randomly distributed. It is a sad note to live with this feeling. It is hard not to think about it.

+++ As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants. +++

Report:

Report:

A wildly different timeline. Speedy – soft – and harsh at times – loving – rooms filled with urgency – excitement – tears and joy – confrontation – complexity. A summer of continuous play – a play – continuously diffracting attention. We’ve built a bubble and a bubble was built around us. Protected – chaotic – with so many vectors pointing in different and similar directions.

DanceWeb felt like one massive crossroad. Getting to know impossibly many people, energies, concepts, attempts and layers of selves within such short amount of time. All was moving at a pace sometimes hard to match. How to build cocoons within that, how to steal time, escape, suspend, savour, surrender. I am still astonished by how fast learnings can land, by how much and how often reality shifts, by how deeply caring and fleeting relations can be. So many memories stored somewhere close to the heart now.

I am super glad to have been part of the Web of 2026. One massive thank you!




+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Report:

Stepping into Vienna for the danceWEB Scholarship Programme at ImPulsTanz 2026 felt like crossing a threshold into another dimension. For an entire month, completely stepping away from the familiar rhythms and pressures of my daily life in Korea, my existence was stripped down to the purest essentials: movement, breath, dialogue, and constant inquiry. Looking back on those intense weeks now that I am back home, the whole journey feels almost like a lucid, incandescent dream—a precious sanctuary in time where the ordinary boundaries of artistic practice simply dissolved.

Every single day at the Arsenal was a profound sensory awakening. Moving through eight distinct workshops, from the delicate internal navigation of In-visible Threads to the visceral instincts of Ultima Vez Vocabulary and the structured improvisation of Tuning Scores, I was repeatedly reminded of how endless the process of learning truly is. It challenged my established bodily habits and invited me to confront my vulnerabilities with curiosity rather than fear. Sharing dance floors with people of diverse physical abilities, ages, and backgrounds shifted my fundamental perspective on dance, revealing it not as a display of exclusive technique, but as a universal, radical medium of human empathy and connection.

Equally transformative were the evenings spent at the theatres. Witnessing legendary and cutting-edge contemporary choreographies, including Maguy Marin’s May B, expanded my artistic horizon and gave me new lenses through which to examine silence, time, and societal friction. The intense dialogues with fellow danceWEB fellows, the late-night conversations under the Viennese summer breeze, and the shared exhaustion and euphoria bonded us in ways that transcend spoken language.

This journey was not merely a summer residency; it was an expansive voyage of the mind and body. It widened my inner landscape and showed me that my artistic pursuit is an open-ended path with infinite horizons. The insights, physical textures, and generous spirits I encountered in Vienna are now deeply woven into my flesh and consciousness. As I return to my ongoing creations, I carry this invaluable dream within me as an enduring compass, ready to embrace the unknown with an open heart.

Report:

Report:

I’m so grateful that I could be part of this year’s danceWEB participants alongside many talented, hilarious, critical, inspiring, smart, sassy, cute, political, generous dancers. I truly had a crazy time, and with crazy I mean the amazingly intense. Not gonna lie, sometimes it was way too much as well, but I kinda like intense phases. At least in the moment, LOL. The dopamine crash afterward was not fun. BUT I thank each and every one who accompanied me through this LOCURA and made my experience unforgettable.

wake up
meet my friends
cycle to Arsenal
crossing the Mariahilfer people labyrinth
My legs getting stronger and stronger
Workshops new people new input new techniques
Move dance talk learn read
Rice bowls for half the price
chatting while sitting by the pool with my legs in the water
Singing Happy Birthday to someone every week
Naps in the try-hard comfy space at Arsenal
Westbahnhof: crossing red lights hoping there are no cops
Talking outside of OED on a bench smoking cigarettes
Being silenced being threatened with calling the police
Hotdogs at Ikea for 1 Euro
Cooking sessions and eating gatherings in the mini kitchen
Running last minute to the shows
Debriefing shows at my favorite place WUK while drinking beer
Vestibül: What a strange place what fun nights!
Always trying to get into the VIP tent
DJing while the whole clique pulled up to dance!<3

You can’t be ready for what danceWEB is!

Inside the Kosmos of Impulstanz, the outside world somehow faded into the background, and I found myself completely absorbed by the festival and its people. I remember sometimes losing sight of everything that existed outside of what I was experiencing there. Sometimes you stepped outside the bubble and were confronted with a very different reality. Vienna is somehow a strange place for me. As I’m from Switzerland, I thought there was no other place that loves rules as much as Switzerland but this summer I found another place: VIENNA. We experienced some weird, annoying, frustrating and RUDE things with people and the police in Vienna as well as some racism. I sometimes felt like the city is not ready for the people that the festival brings into it.

I’m a multidisciplinary artist, and over the past two years, I've been discovering myself as a dancer. My background is mainly in acting, theatre, music, and performance. Although I sometimes felt insecure being surrounded by so many skilled dancers, I never felt excluded. People were kind, willing to show me things, and happy to share their knowledge. I think this is where the research week really made a difference. Having a whole week to work together allowed these different approaches to come together and created space for a deeper exchange. Since we spent five weeks together, I would have loved the program itself to offer more time and space for the dancewebbers to connect through playing dancing and talking together as a group. I guess the Saloons were partly meant for this but for me those settings didn't really feel like the right moments for it. It was often late and we were already tired and hungry. Mainly in the last few weeks, we allowed ourselves to skip some classes and hang out. I LOVED hanging out with y'all! That felt really precious <3

After DanceWeb, I returned to Switzerland with lots of ideas for my own projects. I applied for residencies and wanted to see lots of shows. danceWEB had really inspired me. I feel like I left some of my general insecurities behind and gained a clearer sense of what I want and where I see myself within the performing arts world. And on top of that, I now have so many friends that I would love to work with! I’m incredibly grateful to have this wonderful pool of talented people I can simply reach out to. Thank you, I love you!

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Report:

It was truly an intense, non-stop experience full of new everything: new people, new places, new delicacies (ice spaghetti?). I had been craving a summer camp-like experience, something creatively and socially overstimulating, and that is what I got. I think the power of DanceWeb lies in the osmosis of different artists from around the world, all eager to be apart of something, all ambitious to develop their practice. I expected to make some friends, but I got more than I expected. I met someone else participating in the program who made every day from the get-go magical, dream-like, and full of depth, and it is hard to imagine what the program would have been like without this profound encounter. It was a gift I'll never stop cherishing. I then found truly meaningful friendships and creative stimulation from other participants from all over the world. They are connections I intend on preserving, that may result in professional collaboration, or just much-needed karaoke in a dive bar in a foreign country one day. I can't wait to visit Germany, Sweden, Spain, Lithuania, and so on... and I find myself already looking into plane tickets...

I found out about two weeks before the start date that I had gotten my funding. One day, I hope DanceWeb and my arts council can just create a partnership rather than requiring the artist to apply to both, which results in almost a year long project. I wish DanceWeb would have been able to confirm my acceptance earlier, but I mostly express my frustration (and yes... my gratitude...) to my arts council, which operates with unrealistic delays. Speaking of applications, I realized I wasn't clear on the difference between DanceWeb and Atlas when I decided to apply. In theory, I thought Atlas was more like uni, and DanceWeb more like high school, but I now realize the difference is more that DW leans more toward interpretation, and Atlas more toward creation. Maybe I was in the wrong group being far more of a creator than a dancer myself, but I know I was ultimately with the right people. In any case, I loved seeing the Atlas outcomes, and would encourage this being quasi-mandatory. I also enjoyed seeing as much of the festival programming as I could. Many people had warned me that DanceWeb could get exhausting, so I told myself from the beginning to enjoy meeting people, to trust what felt good, and to not hesitate to take distance when something wasn't gelling, or when a break was needed. Certainly I took much distance when needed. I dropped out of many workshops (except for musical theatre, shout out to Christopher Matthews!, so much fun). Maybe I didn't sign up for the right workshops (and in fact, maybe this is where mentorship would have been helpful), but in my defense I found many of the workshops disappointing. Sometimes I felt the teacher lacked a plan, and other times I felt the work spoke to me on paper but not in practice. I didn't mind though. I just explored Vienna and the new connections I was making instead. What got to me more was the mentorship aspect of the program. Our mentorship sessions continually left a bad taste in my mouth, and I ended up writing privately to the program coordinators to get some of what I felt off my chest.

I would encourage any dance artist looking for a life-changing experience to apply to DanceWeb. I would tell them to prepare for some aspects of the program to be imperfect, but to pursue wholeheartedly the aspects that feel rewarding. There are beautiful people you would never have had the chance to meet otherwise. I would also suggest not having high expectations in terms of networking with presenters. During an office hours session with the festival toward the end, the festival team explained to us that imPulsTanz is not so much a market festival with presenters out and about, but more of an audience-based festival, and that there's nothing to feel guilty about if you aren't promoting your own work. This was good to learn. The festival team is great, down to earth, and I wish I had connected with some of them earlier. I would also suggest bringing towels, fans, sandals, padded bike shorts, a sweatband, and preparing to deal with a lot of European hierarchy, policing, and bureaucracy- they just can't help it over there!

Report:

Report:

Taking part in the 2026 Danceweb programe was wonderful, but also a bit overwhelming. Sometimes it felt like my own space, and another time it felt like I was complete stranger waking up in an unfamiliar place filled with dancers.
During my time in Vienna, I kept asking myself, What kind of dancer am I? Who am I as an artist? The process of designing a calendar that you believe to your artistic doppelganger, and then perhaps realizing later that not everything has anything to do with your practice.
Before it all began, I remember Raja, our mentor, sending an email suggesting that we think about our "little darkness"; that small, hidden voice which accompanies us and which we don't always let out, but which is also part of our desire. He also told us to name it. He also gave a name to the group we were going to be: SMUTS!
SEEKING MANIFESTATIONS AND UNDERSTANDING THROUGH TRANSFORMATION AND SPECTACLE! He asked us, "What do you want? What are you trying to do?"
On the first day, we sat in a circle and wrote a letter to our future selves. In that letter, we had to share our expectations, fears and longings for the coming weeks.
"What do you mean? Who are you? What is your artistic practice?".

ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW ALLOW

I quickly realized that my artistic practice was not aligned with many of the practice shared there. Amid the disillusionment and frustration of constantly switching between workshops that I had selected before arriving, thinking they were the ones that would suit me best at this point in my carrer, I gradually found my own practice.
At first, I forced myself to stay and be present. I opened my ears and let myself be carried along by whatever practice suggested. However, there was too much talk in practices that were not very grounded. They left me feeling lost and inactive, rather than lost and rediscovering myself.
But even with these "setbacks and disappointments"- also my torn calf muscle, I've fallen in love with many moments: the connection between participants in the ATLAS and DANCEWEB programes; the most intimate bonds that didn't fully form until almost the very end. There were the confessions of crushes, sharing tupperware, bike riders, the heat, strict city regulations, the beauty of belonging to a group, having a VIP wristband to consume art until "it came out of your ears", the care and attention from people working at the festival, Raja's love, my love for someone I hadn't spoken to, my bike, my sad days and my (new) friends.
The bond formed between 39 strangers has been truly sincere and generous. It's like a family that came out of nowhere. It feels like the hallways of the Arsenal are your home. Every party is like your birthday or that of someone in the group. It's been special.
Vienna was a different kind of trip. It was a turning point in terms of my practice and my perspective. My timing and my desires. It was a long, hot summer filled with dancing with many words and many different languages.
Thank you to each and every person who made this possible. Thank you Pasoa2 Dance Competition, gracias gobierno de España. Spanish Embassy and to me for hanging in there.

Report:

Being part of danceWEB through the support of LifeLongBurning was one of the most intense and rewarding months of my life. Physically, mentally, and socially, it tested my limits, but I am returning with an incredible bag of knowledge, new friendships, and future project ideas. I was told danceWEB will change my life both professional and personal, but i didn't believe it.
Working with the Ultima Vez vocabulary was a dream come true, as I’ve admired their work since I was young. Seeing both their first and latest shows and having the opportunity to talk to the company after the shows while diving into their movement language closely aligned with my own creative direction. The Arsenal workshops were easily my favorite part. The experience helped me grow not just as a dancer, but also as a choreographer, manager, theatre director and also as a teacher.
Exchanging ideas with fellow danceWEBbers and also ATLAS and IMPACT artists opened my eyes to how culture is supported globally. Realizing how much we have in common gave me the confidence and energy to keep pushing and developing the contemporary dance community back home in Romania. I’m bringing back concrete tools for my creation, composition, and teaching processes.
As my first long project abroad alone, it was intimidating at first, but I’m leaving Vienna inspired, deeply fulfilled, and immensely grateful to LifeLongBurning, 4Culture and ICR Vienna for making this milestone possible. Writing this means putting the dot at the end of this experience, but even after nearly two months after the festival, I feel like I'm still integrating all the knowledge I gained; nevertheless, I know I will carry this experience with me for a lifetime. See you guys maybe next year at Vestibul ;)
Thank you everyone for everything,
from bikes, shows, discussions, friendship, emotionally support, classes, shared tasty meals, questions, answers and the most important that you made Vienna feel like a home for more than a month.
All the best,
Silvana Neda

Short note for future webbers -Honor the sanctuary of your own stillness, even when the storm of the schedule threatens to consume you.

Report:

I would describe DanceWEB as a mix of The Amazing Race, a dating show, and an art history documentary. It's been a few weeks since the end of the program, and my memories of the experience still make me smile. Time in Vienna was so dreamlike and precious that, at times, it feels like the kind of life I see on TV, sort of illegible or untranslatable to my routine back home, juggling from job to job and hustling just to get any job at all.

Someone in a DanceWEB class said that there are realities that exist parallel to one another; they don't quite merge, but they interrupt each other. This is what looking back on this summer feels like: like witnessing multiple realities, like time travelling, like being a cat with many lives.

DanceWEB is an electric shock of the best kind. It is a wonderful but exhausting program that demands balancing pushing one’s boundaries with self-care (and I couldn’t have it any other way). I remember the exhaustion of long days in workshops and research projects, followed by free shows, followed by endless conversations at a bar, followed by a spinning brain in bed, setting an alarm to wake up way too early in the morning the day after. I remember being reciprocated, provoked, questioned, challenged, and inspired. I remember having my emotions pushed to the surface, moved to tears, or easily angered. I remember the scale of the festival, its mythical number of shows and workshops, and the generosity of its many staff and participants. I remember how scary the Viennese police are. I remember my infamous crushes.

DanceWEB is undoubtedly a unique opportunity. It profoundly expanded my understanding of dance and the creative arts, while offering a valuable platform to connect with peers and make amazing friends. It also gave me the time and space to train, experiment, make mistakes, test new ideas, and take creative risks. Above all, it offered an environment where curiosity could lead the process and where artistic growth could happen through exploration and exchange.

It saddens me to see the program cost has now increased, and that despite constant feedback from previous participants, ImPulsTanz continues increasing the financial barriers that sideline artists and dancers from participating in both DanceWEB and ATLAS.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

It was a great pleasure, privilege and challenge to take part in the danceweb programme 2026. Going through the memories of that time, I instantly feel a sense of amazement, a rush, a stream of images, faces, dances, rhythms, movements – I feel grateful.

Doing the program as a local turned out to be a very specific experience – entering another dimension in the very city I grew up in, a dimension shaped by oversaturatedness, iced coffee/matcha rituals and the indescribable bond that unfolds as you spend your days, evenings and weekends together with 38 people who used to be strangers.

The most precious part of participating in the programme to me was the friendships and connections that grew from those five weeks together – learning, exchanging, sharing ideas and views, supporting each other in developing artistic ideas with fellow dancewebers, atlas and teachers. Asking questions, having conversations and critical reflections about the danceworld and its unwritten rules with other artists and perspectives from all over the globe was very enriching and striking.

While the fatigue from the continuous input was real, I was amazed by the stamina I experienced in myself – and I’m speaking of the physical, mental, emotional and social stamina, a state of openness and readiness that arose. I’m deeply grateful for the many firsts I got to experience which proved to me once again that I’m in love with dancing and will forever love learning and being a student – while simultaneously also enriching my own teaching practices. Another big take away was a research project that I participated in that nourished my process, the development and first steps of my new work so much.

The list of experiences goes on and on: the performances that moved me and that I loved; the performances I didn’t like so much; the group bike rides; the rare but crucial dips in the danube; the salon evenings with our mentor Raja; the sheer dimension of this festival, which is hard to grasp from the outside; the evenings on the dance floor, behind the decks and in the tent; the dorm life at Gasgasse, hangouts and visits; shared meals; the highs, but also the hardships we went through individually and collectively – everything contributed to coming out on the other side of danceweb and moving forward with a better understanding and greater clarity about what I am seeking in dance, and what not. It was transformative on a personal, physical and emotional level.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Many people have asked me how I experienced danceWEB, and at first, I could only answer with one word: life-changing.

You might think that something that changes your life should be easy to describe. For me, it is exactly the opposite. I am trying to put into words something that cannot really be described.

About three minutes after arriving at danceWEB, I met someone who would influence my entire time there – someone who touched my being, my past, my present, and perhaps my future. But this experience did not remain connected to one person. It expanded into the many encounters, conversations, performances, questions, doubts, and connections that unfolded over those five weeks.

My biggest takeaway is something very simple: I am incredibly grateful.

Every day brought new input: listening, questioning, being questioned, laughing, dancing, observing, doubting, losing myself and finding myself again. To have the time and space for all of this is an incredible privilege.

Perhaps this is what was life-changing about danceWEB: it was not one person, one moment, one performance, or one workshop. It was the sum of all these things and something greater than their sum.

I came to Vienna with a certain idea of who I am, where I come from, and where I am going.

I left changed. I left as a different person.

My past feels different.
My present feels wider.
And my future suddenly holds possibilities I could not see before.

Report:

5 weeks of countless encounters
5 weeks of daily dancing
5 weeks of shows
that touched me deeply and/or couldn’t bare watching

5 weeks of witnessing
5 weeks of tuning in

a beating heart
a moving spine
a tailbone letting into gravity

5 weeks mostly of early mornings
5 weeks of using the public transport
having endless conversations before or after the workshops, on the way to the venues, back to the dorm, to Vestibul and so…
of following rules
Lots of rules
of NO A/C
few free days
few nights out
5 weeks full of Big Words:
Life- Changing Life-Changing Life-Changing Life- Changing Life- Changing
The urge to
s
l
o
w
down


What keeps us moving?
What keeps us insisting?

a series of practices
a week of altair- building; My first week, a soft landing, a research project on grief, a space where we tenderly articulated what we carry and who we carry
2 weeks of morning ballet classes
few days of dancing the Goldberg Variations

Skipping class
Cancelling tickets to shows
Long strolls in the city

You just can’t do it all


thank you all for the kindness, the realness and the warmth

M

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Honestly simple as that: danceWEB has been great. It is a little travel into a parallel universe in which you manage to bike 2 hours a day, take workshops, watch shows and talk with colleagues until the end of the night on repeat. It allows you to forget everything outside of danceWEB and Vienna and gives you the chance to fully indulge with dance in any way that you can fully shape to your own taste.

I approached my planning for the weeks quite tactically after having a rather overwhelming experience with Impact two years before. Looking at distances between venues, trying to combine two shows in one evening and keep another one free, take either 2-3 workshops or just one research project and be flexible with ticket swaps when something called me urgently.

Artistically I have been invited by Raja to continuously think about what am I looking for in each workshops, talk, show and salon and how that is making me feel. This a tremendously shaped how I was approaching the festival. I was following my intuition and listen to the experience of each colleague about workshops shows. This was only possible because I had a fantastic group that insisted on staying nice, curious about each one of us and supportive.

In the end my experience has been shaped by the group and Raja insisting on me thinking about what I want to achieve within the scholarship. I have been trained, inspired and fulfilled socially. I would not want to be missing this experience and the people I meet along the way.

I would recommend to come in any context, age and shape to experience the festival and try to look for something that you have been missing in your everyday life.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

[Dancing in the threshold]

Hi, I'm Dagô, queer child of a black jaguar who once swallowed a live shark, with whom I've been sharing their belly ever since. I'm a Brazilian transdisciplinary choreographer and performer based in France. I was able to take part in danceWEB thanks to the Capacity Grid scholarship, supported by Life Long Burning, which I received while representing Agora – Cité internationale de la danse, in Montpellier. This support was essential in making my participation possible, and I am very grateful for the opportunity it offered me to become part of this programme at such a particular moment in my life.

When I look back at my five weeks at danceWEB, I cannot separate this experience from what had happened to me just before arriving in Vienna. Less than two weeks earlier, I had woken up from a coma. I was still recovering, physically and otherwise, and had barely begun to understand what returning to everyday life might mean. I was also trying to find my way back to movement, to my work, to myself. In many ways, I arrived at ImPulsTanz still crossing a threshold.

I could not have imagined that danceWEB would become a kind of parallel universe, a place where I could slowly find my way back into the world. Each week brought a new form of joy, as I gradually recovered my relationship with movement, with other bodies, with curiosity, and with my own artistic imagination. There was something profoundly generous about being able to do this through dance, without having to turn my recovery into the subject of everything. I could simply be there, participate, observe, discover, and allow things to happen (and bike a lot).

I am particularly grateful to the danceWEB team for the care and understanding with which they welcomed my situation. Their sensitivity made a real difference. Rather than feeling that I had to catch up with an experience I might not be physically ready for, I felt that there was room for me to find my own rhythm and inhabit the programme in a way that was both demanding and attentive to my circumstances. This generosity was one of the main conditions that made this experience possible.

Artistically, the research projects were perhaps the most significant part of my time at ImPulsTanz. They offered spaces in which I could go beyond the acquisition of tools or the practice of particular techniques, and instead engage with artistic questions that have been accompanying my work for some time: how to compose through images, how to inhabit mythologies, how to make room for other-than-human presences, how to transform chaos into a generative force, and how to imagine other ways of being together. All of this was supported by the knowledge of the small but strong communities that took shape in each research project. There was something truly exciting about spending time together around a shared subject, learning from one another and seeing what could emerge from that encounter.

I particularly enjoyed moving between different approaches to embodied research, composition and collective imagination. I didn't necessarily leave these experiences with answers. I left with questions that had shifted, and with new ways of approaching things I thought I already knew. At times, I recognised something of my own work in what was happening, at other times, I found myself somewhere less familiar, looking at things from a different angle. I value both movements, recognition and displacement... They are part of how I learn and how my work changes.

The workshops also brought important encounters, although I found a different kind of depth in the research projects, where there was more time to stay with an artist and a process. I appreciated being able to move between different artistic languages instead of following one technical or disciplinary direction. Choreography, for me, is an expanded field where movement can meet drawing, writing, philosophy, ritual and other forms of knowledge, sometimes in unexpected ways. ImPulsTanz offered a particularly fertile ground for these crossings.

Raja Feather Kelly's accompaniment was another important part of the experience. I appreciated his generosity and availability as a mentor. I enjoyed his humour and imagination, and the way he encouraged us to take our artistic presence seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. Over the weeks, there is something about his Virgo way of trying to structure his chaos (to find the thread...) that I will remember with great affection. I got many meaningful insights thanks to Raja's sharp daily presence and attention.

The people I met were also a huge part of what made these five weeks so meaningful. And for me, there should be even more space in the program so participants can go deeper into the human and artistic resources already beautifully and powerfully present in the group. I feel lucky to have shared this time with the other danceWEB participants, artists coming from very different geographical, cultural and artistic contexts. Beyond the diversity of our practices, I was touched by the relationships that took shape: the conversations, the affinities, the disagreements, the moments of recognition, and all the things that happened between activities and outside the studios. The artists taking part in the ATLAS residency became an equally important part of this ecosystem. The two groups crossed paths constantly, and I found people and artists there whom I came to appreciate very much. Some encounters simply stay with you. At the very end of the festival, when I found myself in an unexpected and difficult situation, this community came together around me in a way I could never have anticipated. DanceWEB and ATLAS participants, alongside members of the team, set something in motion collectively. And how hope hides precisely in our capacity to create community, to associate, rely on, and share the weight. This is the great lesson life kept repeating to me this whole year, I should say...

As a spectator, I was particularly drawn to [8:tension]. It was one of the parts of the festival I enjoyed most, and I was impressed by the curatorial work behind it. I appreciated the openness of the selection, the attention given to singular artistic languages and the way the programme brought together works that took risks in their forms and imaginaries and challenge expectations. There was a sense of coherence without uniformity, which I found especially stimulating. I also discovered performances elsewhere in the festival that stayed with me. Taken together, these encounters gave me a chance to experience a wide range of approaches to choreography and performance, and to see how differently artists can make work speak to the world around them.

The impact of danceWEB on my artistic life is difficult to separate from the moment in which I took part in it. I didn't arrive in Vienna simply looking for new references, professional connections, or opportunities. I arrived while trying to understand how to inhabit my body again after an experience that had interrupted almost everything. I was learning, once again, how to inhabit a body that had been through something extraordinary. I arrived feeling grateful for life above all, and yet, at the same time, dealing with the feeling of being a stranger to my own body. Over those five weeks, I gradually recovered not only some of my physical capacities, but also a sense of possibility, desire, and confidence in my artistic existence, as well as the sensation that the useless moving things we produce as dancers actually move something...

I return to my work with new questions and a renewed appetite for experimentation. The research projects will continue to accompany me, particularly in my investigations into myth, imaginary anatomies, collective bodies and the possibilities of choreographic composition. I am also taking with me the people I met, the conversations that are still unfolding in my mind, and the feeling of having been part of a temporary community where different histories and imaginations could meet and affect one another. I'm looking forward to seeing how these little sighing encounters will produce great winds in the future.

I sometimes think of dance as a way of making a world temporarily inhabitable. During those five weeks, danceWEB became such a world for me. I arrived still finding my way back to life, and left with a renewed desire to move, to make work and to keep encountering what I don't yet know.

For that, I am deeply grateful.

I finish by joining my colleagues from Atlas and danceWEB in this collectively agreed statement:

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

DanceWEB 2026 － A Post-Reflection

The DanceWEB programme at the ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna was a truly transformative experience. I arrived with a sense of duality, questioning how to integrate the different dimensions of my work: my identity as a dance artist, my scientific research into breathing, and my interest in bridging dance, health and science. Throughout the five weeks at the festival, a series of encounters, artistic research projects, workshops and conversations progressively helped me erase this supposed separation.

One of the most inspiring experiences was the Post-Failure Potentials research project led by Makisig Akin (DE/PH) and Anya Cloud (US). It brought together Contact Improvisation, Brazilian jujitsu, improvisation scores, and relational practices. The project challenged us to question conventional distinctions between success and failure, and between collaboration and competition. Its unique queer, trans, and BIPoC-centred approach also opened up another perspective on inclusivity and dance practice for me. We practised and performed for one another, exploring fighting and caring simultaneously, often in close physical contact with dancers we had known for only a few days. It was striking how quickly we developed a climate of trust, generosity and deep listening. The project also challenged my relationship with time. Building trust and a meaningful collective experience cannot always be shaped by a predetermined schedule. It requires time, flexibility, patience and an unconditional willingness to listen. This was an important reminder that the quality of an artistic process depends not only on what we do, but also on how we relate to one another. This experience was so meaningful that I changed my plans for the second week to continue refining the tools and attend Makisig and Anya's classes.

Other decisive encounters came through conversations with our DanceWEB mentor, Raja Feather Kelly (US), and Angélique Willkie (CA), mentor of the ATLAS programme. These exchanges helped me recognise that what I was searching for outside myself was already within me. Rather than continuing to look for a way to integrate two separate worlds: dance and science, I began asking myself what I wanted to do with the knowledge, experience and interests I already carried. Throughout the festival, Raja repeatedly returned to a simple question: “What do you want?” The question became a compass to help me to clarify my current intentions and take a step forward whenever a challenge arose. Beyond this experience in Vienna, I began an MFA programme in September to deepen my studies in dance science and my research into breathing. During the same month, I participated in an intensive dance training programme, where I had the opportunity to facilitate daily 15-minute morning breathing sessions for dancers. My challenge was to translate scientific knowledge into accessible, practical information to support dancers in self-regulation throughout an intensive, physically demanding training period. Returning to Raja's question helped me navigate this responsibility with more simplicity, brevity and patience. Instead of trying to communicate everything I knew, I frequently asked myself: “What is necessary now, and what is not?” “What information will serve these dancers at this moment?” I trust that understanding would develop over time, rather than trying to provide every answer immediately. The questions and experiences I had encountered at DanceWEB were already influencing my professional practice.

This experience has also changed how I perceive my identity. I no longer see my embodied and academic practices as two separate worlds searching for one another. I now involve them in an infinite loop, in which I continually travel among research, physical experience, artistic exploration, and scientific inquiry. Sometimes this movement is slow, and I may feel temporarily immersed in one field. At other times, the speed is so fast that two dimensions fuse, allowing me to experience the particular energy that emerges when intellectual curiosity converges with physical awareness and embodied knowledge.


.:::::::. .:::::::.
.:::. .:::. .:::. .:::.
.::. .::. .::. .::
.:: .::. .::. .::
.:: Scientific .::. .::. Artistic .::
:: Method ::. .:: Inquiry ::
:: ::. .:: ::
.:: .::. .::. .::
.::. .::. .::. .::
.:::. .:::. .:::. .:::.
':::::::' ':::::::'



It is within this movement between the two that I feel most fulfilled, unique, confident and at peace. DanceWEB helped me recognise that I do not necessarily need to choose between the two dimensions of my work. Instead, I can continue developing the relationships between them and allow each to inform the other.

I returned from Vienna with no immediate collaborations to share, but with a strong desire to maintain and develop the relationships sown throughout the festival over the coming year. I also return with a clearer sense of direction and a question that continues to accompany me: “What do I want, and what is necessary now to move towards it?” DanceWEB offered me more than an exceptional concentration of artistic experiences. It gave me the time, encounters and environment to reconsider my practice, recognise my own resources and imagine new possibilities for my future. It also reminded me why I chose this path, strengthened my confidence in who I am as an artist, and gave me renewed energy to continue exploring, questioning and contributing to this demanding field.

I am grateful to the Impulstanz Festival team, the DanceWEB programme team and Pro Helvetia for making this experience possible and for supporting an opportunity that continues to influence how I move, research, teach and contribute to the dance field.

Emeric

Report:

Report:

// Neurodivergence, Artistic Practice, Inclusion, and Learning to Navigate the Dance Scene //

For me, ImPulsTanz became an intensive laboratory in which I could experience the dance scene from within. The abundance of performances, parties, conversations, networking opportunities, and the expectation to remain constantly available made visible challenges that are not always addressed: sensory overload, pressure to keep up, and the overcompensation that can come with navigating environments that do not accommodate neurodivergent needs.

As a neurodivergent and queer artist, I have often wondered how to participate fully without exhausting myself. During danceWEB, I could explore this in practice, noticing when I felt connected and stimulated, when I became overwhelmed, and what I needed to regulate myself and recover. Conversations with my mentor helped me consider how to build a sustainable artistic life without treating my needs as obstacles or weaknesses.

The sense of safety among fellow participants made it easier to be vulnerable, speak openly, and express my needs without feeling I had to justify them. It also raised a question: how can I carry this openness into professional contexts where I may not feel equally safe? DanceWEB gave me a kind of green light: permission to trust my instincts, take my needs seriously, and stop treating my differences as something to compensate for in order to belong.

This experience also encouraged me to embrace another dimension of my activism. Alongside my ecological activism, I want to speak more openly as a neuroqueer artist advocating for inclusion in the cultural field. Inclusion requires more than welcoming diverse people into existing structures. It means questioning expectations of constant availability, networking pressure, and the intensity of cultural events, while actively considering different sensory needs, rhythms, communication styles, and ways of participating.

I also recognize the conditions that made my participation possible. Colleagues and family supported me financially, as funding opportunities for artists in their late thirties can be limited. Living in Vienna was another decisive factor. As a migrant artist from the Global South, I know that accessing an international program like danceWEB would have been far more difficult had I applied directly from Central America. Funding, age, geography, migration status, and professional networks shape who gets to participate.

Ultimately, danceWEB did not simply help me adapt to the dance scene; it encouraged me to question what the scene itself needs to change. I leave with greater awareness of my needs and more confidence to navigate artistic environments without abandoning myself. I want to contribute to cultural spaces where people do not have to compromise their well-being or conceal parts of themselves in order to belong.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

pink and blue bikes
Vienna streets passing by

This is the first image that comes to my mind when I think back to my time in Vienna.
It was an enriching experience, filled with many exciting moments and encounters. I vividly remember the multiple workshops I took part in; dancing together, creating soundscapes, observing bodily images, and discovering different approaches to moving and being moved.

The many experiences I had during the festival opened up spaces for exploration, creation, exchange and imagination, allowing me to experience my body in relation to others.

crawling bodies
jumping bodies

shaking bodies
writhing bodies

distant bodies
touched bodies

transformative bodies
insect bodies

humming bodies

Voice and sound stood out to me in particular.
Through classes that opened up spaces for singing, screaming, whispering and talking, I was able to discover facets of my voice that had previously remained undiscovered. This opened up new sonic possibilities and ways of weaving together sound and movement.

falling into

clicking
scraping
sticking
rustling
creaking

breathing

The onset of exhaustion was also a part of my experience throughout the festival. The big amount of information, and the rising temperatures made it difficult to keep up with the program on some days.

Looking back, however, my time in the danceWEB program was not only shaped by the workshops and artistic encounters, but also, and most importantly, by the people I met along the way. I made friends, I am still in touch with and feel very grateful to have in my life.


+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Sooooo ImpulsTanz 2026 was an absolutely insane and HOT ride! A very charged emotional and physical journey. I have to say for me it was a very meaningful, but a greatly challenging one.

I wasn’t aware the report will be published on the website up until 1 hour till the deadline lol so now I am writing a new, less espousing one:)
I’m not entirely sure what exactly is the purpose of the report, but if you, my dear reader, are a future program participant seeking reference or so - feel free to find me on the landscapes of the internet and we have a chat! I’m happy to help as much as I can! Cause baby tbh you might need assistance in such intensity…
I needed. Thanks god I had! Big shoutout to friends new and old, and to human care! And to the water of all lakes and rivers, showers sinks, seas and oceans!

I met some truly fantastic beings on the way, very grateful for that. The feeling of the group was powerful, such big group for such long time on such speed - unique! Wild! Surreal! Back to school? Forward to some parallel cosmic lane? Both at once?
Who would imagine such a summer camp can be possible after 25?! Wild! Moon and bikes sun and bikes, blue and pink, moon moon, heat, pedaling, dance, pedaling, dance, heat, moon bike...

Several profoundly beautiful and inspiring works of art shifted something in me. I felt them with the stomach. They were 4. But I guess watching other 30+ shows was worth it to meet these 4.

Despite wildly beautiful discoveries moments and people, I can’t say it was a healthy experience for me. It was meaningful, it made me feel finally chosen, finally supported, finally granted an institutionally supported opportunity in the European dance context, which as a self-taught immigrant I never felt I had. That was definitely internally very important.
And even more important were the people.

At the same time it turned out to be way too intense for me, the amount of social exposure often felt unbearable, sometimes I was locking myself in arsenal’s bathrooms for 10/20 min to just breathe, calm down and be alone. Really, before the festival I’ve always considered myself a very social person. But this amount of social exposure was a record.
I was constantly on a go and most of the time in a rush for 4 weeks, with little possibility to process, to rest or to satisfy basic needs.
It was of course due to my own choices but it was important for me to acknowledge it with myself later that in a world where this kind of opportunities are rare (or at least I never had one) it was very hard for me to not try to “catch it all while I can”.

Meeting the police of Vienna was a trauma.
Meeting wonderful people was magic.
Meeting myself in this special frame was a great learning.

Thank you all.

+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

Report:

Report:

The first image that appears in my memory bank is the circle. On day one, my cohort converged in studio G for the first time. The studio felt so vast, and along with the size of our group, intimidating. How could we fill the space with our personalities, histories, curiosities, and movements? Then we began walking in a circle, counterclockwise, responding to our mentor Raja’s directives. Suddenly, the space is activated. Bending, conforming, shapeshifting to the will behind our why. The “why” that made us decide to spend 5 weeks at ImPulsTanz, and for me, a disorienting, far distance from home. We walked, ran, skipped, and changed direction for a duration that felt meditative at first, but exhausting by the end. I had now arrived fully.

Who knew that my psoas needed to be released, and once released, I would walk the halls not knowing how to exist in a relaxed state? This was my week one. I am already walking differently. Some actions that come to mind are: awakening, stimulating, and lengthening. My lateral, central, spiral, and ancestral lines were called in. Now my guard is down. A lowering of defenses that had been strategically built by my life as a Black woman in the States. Whew, now my soft spots are exposed, and I can see the questioning behind people’s eyes of where they are trying to place me. Every day was a “Wow, I am actually in Vienna, that’s crazy!” moment.

I want my body to be inside of my body, and not go above her beautiful design.
I’ve overcompensated so much that my center has been compromised!
The return to my being required shaking, tactile pressure, tone, and pull.
My psoas hugs my nerves, and the back of my neck can speak!
I have to lay my kidneys down onto the floor and filter out what is not needed; what is not true.
It is time to exhaust old patterns, and recognize that alignment is everywhere
The imagery around me has left its imprint
The stars expanded my presence.
–Excitable Tissues (Kira Kirsch), Psoas Connection (Kerstin Kussmaul), Patterns in Transformation (Ulduz Ahmadzadeh/Till Krappmann)

I suppose I chose classes that aligned with my artistic interests and where I felt my knowledge base was limited. My approach to my dance career became exhaustive, and I wanted to learn perspectives that challenged my own. I also wanted to heal my creative inner child. She’s been knocking and screaming for quite some time. But I felt myself shedding the idea of needing to uphold my physicality, and welcomed more dreaming. Through my interactions with the other participants (those whom I feel I can truly call friends now), there was a bridge to a whimsical, radical, pleasurable field of flowers that carried me to a side full of possibilities.

The workshop No Neutral Canvas, taught by Angélique Willkie, was extremely impactful in how I now approach my teaching. This class is an important offering to understand how to decolonize our thinking and to become more specific in naming people, places, and cultures that influence our work.

Invite contradictions
My body’s acknowledgement
Contemporary is just a time period
Dances not Dance
The snake came in and connected my past, present, and future
-Afro-Haitian (Karine LaBel), No Neutral Canvas: a personal dramaturgy (Angélique Willkie)

Gratitude, stretched, revelatory, beloved, and moved. These words describe my feelings and experience as a danceWEB participant. As I reflect, I remind myself of the people. Everyone I had the chance to meet- my cohort, mentor Raja, teachers, dancers, performers, and even strangers has left an imprint on how I approach the work I feel called to do. A sweet and salty summer indeed! By the end, I was done physically, but mentally renewed. The sensibility of the bounce that I learned from LaTasha Barnes in her House and Authentic Jazz classes was the restoration. An engine that allows forward motion. A continuum. There is much more processing, and I am sure everything that I’ve learned will be replanted in different areas of my life. I can’t wait to see what I grow into.

Prep on 7, move on 8
-In the beginning there was ... Jazz (Authentic Jazz That Is!) (LaTasha Barnes)


+++ 2026 Atlas and DanceWEB Solidarity Statement +++

As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants.

Report:

hello hi

I will approach writing this report as a practice of memory...to honor what happened over those 5 weeks. I offer this attempt in gratitude.

Arriving, I felt so young and very small. But my questions were big and my love grew bigger with each person I encountered.
I got on that damn pink bike! It was a long ride.
I offered my curiosity and my questions.
I remembered that I live for people. We live for each other.
I practiced becoming soft to meet each messybravecrazy person.
Befriending each danceWEB (and ATLAS) peer was like encountering an entire world every time…
I turned 23 surrounded by angels. I am a pearl and the oyster is my world!
As the exhaustion sunk in we became a delirious group of giddy love
My mantra shifted from “day by day to “hour by hour.”
In the heat a fan became an essential audience accessory.
I LOVED ATLAS SHOWINGS. kisskissinspireinspire.
When the last hour arrived we said goodbye and I cried out of love (not sadness).

Day in the life vlog: Wake up. Eat (don’t trigger the fire alarm!). Bike to the arsenal. Take classes. Talk with people between classes. Ask lots of questions. Bike to the theater. See a performance (or two. three?). Maybe a little partypartyparty. Bike home. Go to bed (too late!)

a few excerpts from my journal:
I’m a dancer…now what?
what I want is equally as important as my understanding of what i don't want.
I am going with the flow. in general i feel really good
i feel capacious
i am starting to understand myself in new ways. updated questions. expanding
becoming available for ….emergance
i took a great dramaturgy class this week with angélique willkie. called no neutral canvas
i want to continue to become myself
i am not scared.
i do know some things! and each time i make a decision i become myself again/more...
…i am a dancer and i want to be an artist
I love to learn.
so much hummus
what happens when my curiosity meets life?
I hate to rush. I practice slowness.

takeaways: I want agency in my practice. I want to be empowered in my dance. I do not want to seek permission to practice. YES. I love people as much as I love to dance. Oh and I HATE TO RUSH. slow down. Slow. down. What do I wish I had that others have? Age. time. Experience. So I vow to slow down and live each moment on the way to what I desire: patience and trust and relationships with place, people, and dance over time. Yes.

danceWEB was a place that allowed my questions to get really really big! A place to practice asking my questions. my goal was to get delightfully disoriented. from this place of disorientation, i can see more clearly how I want to reorient myself in the aftermath. In the beautiful brave mess of people and questions.

Dear danceWEB / ATLAS dears: thank you for your dance, your questions, your love.
See you soon.
Stay in touch. (clairewilcox5019@gmail.com XOXO)

Practically this is what happened. In other words, how I spent my time:
1 research project (Myth, Madness, Montage, and Melodrama with Raja Feather Kelly)

19 workshops.….having access to the wide range of workshop offerings allowed me to understand what I am genuinely interested in right now…I learned that what I think I want is not always what I want! (highlights: Contemporary Pole with Conny Aitzetmueller, No Neutral Canvas: a personal dramaturgy with Angélique Willkie, The Concept and the Idiot with Jassem Hindi, Concave–Convex Attunement: Improvisation through the Porous Body with He Jin Jang, Musical Theatre Jazz with Christopher Matthews, Deep Movement Consciousness with Peter Jasko)

26 Performances.....I really love seeing performances. It was amazing to see so much live performance within a 5-week period. I loved some, not all! here was one evening where I saw 3 performances back2back! I would not recommend…I need time to process in between.….in general my ‘favorites’ were from the young choreographers series. (highlihgts: Ndoho Ange's Welcome To My Jungle, Samir Kennedy / DEFECTUM's The Aching, Alina Arshi / KAAM KAAJ's States of bewilderment, Ole Meland's JEG BRAKK, Trajal Harrell / Zürich Dance Ensemble's o’ Music Music, an evening with Trajal Harrell & Lula Pena, and Ewa Dziarnowska'sThis resting, patience)

41 ATLAS work in progress showings (this was maybe the best thing ever!)

x10000 hours riding that pink bike around vienna.

x10000 conversations and questions

2 swims in the danube

1 swim in the lake

+++ As participants in DanceWEB scholarship program and Atlas choreographic training program, we are very grateful to have been part of it. We recognize the value of a program that brings artists from across the world together and gives them access to the artistic playground of ImPulsTanz. However, we must also address the inequalities embedded in the system that determines who is able to participate, and at what cost.

Requiring artists to secure €2,900 for Atlas participants and €2,500 for Dancewebers (€2,900 as of 2027) in funding through their country of residence creates unequal conditions from the outset. Access to funding varies greatly depending on where artists live, their support structures and their financial means. As a result, some arrive fully funded, while others depend on savings, debt, family support, crowdfunding or the expectation to conform to an unsustainable capitalist work culture just to be here. Some do not arrive at all. These disparities extend far beyond finances. The stress of securing funding, navigating visas, and covering travel and living expenses places significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on artists before the program even begins. Fair access cannot begin once we arrive; it must be built into the conditions that allow us to get here.

In particular this past year, administrative errors, a lack of timely correction, and an absence of accountability left participants facing funding losses and covering program fees out of pocket, without adequate communication or support. A festival that defines itself through multicultural diversity cannot meaningfully celebrate that diversity without addressing the material conditions that enable participation, which place a disproportionate burden on marginalized and precarious artists. Bringing artists together from around the world means taking responsibility for the unequal conditions they face. In certain cases, this responsibility was not reflected in the festival’s approach to participant support, safety, and housing. Cases of theft, unsafe conditions in shared housing, and a lack of emergency support point to broader gaps in participant care. Housing and studio facilities also lacked ventilation during periods of extreme heat.

We call on ImPulsTanz to acknowledge these structural concerns and take concrete action towards creating an accessible funding model that benefits everyone and a safer housing situation during the festival for participants. +++

Report: