Vocal Affairs – A new, solidarity-based and feminist cartography of Wedding
From September 10 to 14, 2025, Tanznacht Berlin invites you to a new edition of the renowned festival for contemporary dance and performance entitled “Vocal Affairs.”
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Vielstimmige Klangperformance von Otucha Choir
Curated by Felicitas Zeeden and Mila Pavićević, this year's program revolves around the artistic, political, and sonic dimensions of the feminist voice—as an expression of desire, discomfort, and resistance.
On the other hand, the feminist voice as an artistic and political positioning in a deeply patriarchal society is at the heart of the festival.
To counter neoliberal notions of private funding and excellence as the highest good of the independent scene, Tanznacht will focus on supporting and presenting non-funded projects. In addition to the larger performances, there will be choirs, concerts, lecture performances, residencies, and workshops. A special focus will be on voices from Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia, whose artistic strategies can be read as practices of resistance under precarious conditions and political upheaval. Participants include Jule Flierl & Irena Z. Tomažin, Agata Siniarska, Ana Lessing Menjibar, Sergiu Matis, MONAliesA, Open Group, Kasia Wolinska, Olympia Bukkakis, and Sheena McGranddles.
In cooperation with the PSR collective, SAVVY Contemporary, and the Leipzig literature collective MONAliesA, a festival network is being created that spans several locations in Berlin's Wedding district—including the Uferstudios, SAVVY Contemporary, and a new venue at Grüntaler Straße 9. "Tanznacht is a festival by and for Berlin's independent scene, which is faltering in the face of devastating cuts in cultural funding: Instead of falling into a logic of opposition and competing for the few available resources, we want to bring together cultural creators and artists, as well as the teams of cultural institutions and their audiences and neighborhoods.
“The goal is to join forces, share resources, learn from each other, share time and space, and establish new working relationships based on solidarity.” — Felicitas Zeeden, curator of Tanznacht Berlin.
Festival opening: Otucha Choir – Polyphonic Ancestral Disco
The opening on September 10 makes a clear statement: The Otucha Choir, a nine-member FLINTA+ vocal ensemble, creates a polyphonic, raw sound performance in the courtyard of the Uferstudios. Under the title “Polyphonic Ancestral Disco,” the collective combines traditional Eastern European wedding songs with elements of disco polo, rural polyphony, and experimental vocal work.
The performers understand their voices as tools of self-empowerment: sound becomes a place of resistance, remembrance, and collective transformation. Matrilineal knowledge, embodied in old songs, becomes a living archive that transforms shame into strength and tradition into radical presence.
Jule Flierl & Irena Z. Tomažin – U.F.O. – Homage to Katalin Ladik
Another highlight of the festival is the performance “U.F.O. – Homage to Katalin Ladik” by Jule Flierl and Irena Z. Tomažin. In this impressive work, the German sound dancer and Slovenian choreo-vocalist engage with the work of Hungarian-Serbian artist Katalin Ladik – a pioneer of sound and performance art in Southeast Europe.
Based on Ladik's legendary performance “UFO Party” (1969), a poetic-political sound journey unfolds that blurs the boundaries between language, body, voice, and
poetry. The performance was awarded the prize for best performance at the Gibanica Festival in Slovenia in 2023.
Library, Encounter, and Resistance
The center of the festival is the feminist library curated by MONAliesA in Studio 12 of the Uferstudios. With a focus on feminist literature from East Germany and the GDR, the library becomes a place of discourse, gathering, and living archive. The workshops held there are based on the concept of “Sijelo” – a Serbo-Croatian form of social gathering that combines practices such as handicrafts, housework, gossip, and knowledge exchange.
Tanznacht Berlin Vocal Affairs is organized by Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, supported by the National Performance Network Guest Performance Funding Dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the ministries of culture and art of the federal states. In cooperation with MONAliesA, PSR Group, SAVVY Contemporary, and Uferstudios GmbH.
