Spring Forward 2024

Aerowaves and the host partners brought together the #Twenty24 selection of artists from around Europe to a professional global audience.

In Darmstadt, Wiesbaden and Mainz we saw 20 performances over 3 days and welcomed 228 dance professionals from 47 countries. In addition, 1750 local spectators attended the performances across the three cities.

The festival was also an opportunity to meet the international group of journalists and writers of the Springback Academy and the producers and curators of the Startup Forum programme. Aerowaves has also invited 10 dance makers based in Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz and Baden-Württemberg (Germany) to be part of the Spring Forward Artists Encounter.

On the last morning of Saturday 23 March at Staatstheater Darmstadt, there was a talk featuring Habib Ben Tanfous (Aerowaves 2024), YAV (Aerowaves 2024) and Jasna Layes-Vinovrski (Aerowaves 2016) facilitated by Emily May.

Extra programme

Before the festival started, on Wednesday 20 March former Aerowaves artists Olga Dukhovnaya and Chen Wei Lee & Zoltan Vakulya presented their work with students from the Frankfurt School of Music and Performing Arts.

Spring Forward 2024 host organisations & Supports

Hessisches Staatsballett

Staatstheater Darmstadt

Staatstheater Wiesbaden

Staatstheater Mainz and tanzmainz

Aerowaves is Co-funded by the European Union and Spring Forward 2024 was possible thanks to the support of: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Pro-Helvetia, Acción Cultural Española, Kultur Luxembourg, Perform Czech, Onassis Stegi, British Council, Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Czech Centre Berlin and Québec Government Office in Berlin.

Festival partners

Bruno Heynderickx

Watch, listen and read about the festival

Post-trailer video

Video by Rita Lira

Spring Forecast, the festival podcast

This series, produced and presented by Dany Mitzman, documents the Spring Forward Festival 2024. Spring Forecast is a strand of Aerowaves’ podcast series, our way of telling the world about contemporary dance across Europe, discussing wider topics around art and life, and demystifying the choreographic world.

In this second season of Spring Forecast we will release four episode and discuss some of the themes connecting many of this year’s 20 works like tradition, music, rituals and heritage.

Trailer

As part of the Spring Forward Festival 2024, on the last morning of Saturday 23 March at Staatstheater Darmstadt, there was a talk featuring Habib Ben Tanfous (Aerowaves 2024), YAV (Aerowaves 2024) and Jasna Layes-Vinovrski (Aerowaves 2016) facilitated by Emily May, in which the artists discussed what the body carries.

Springback Academy reviews and features

An annual review writing course founded in 2015, Springback Academy serves as a basis for building quality critical writing, thinking and communication on new contemporary dance in Europe, and the culture it inhabits. Springback Academy is the gateway for contributors to all Springback projects.

You can read the reviews of the works presented at the Spring Forward Festival 2024 here.