NEW WAVES

LEIPZIGER BALLETT

Dancers of the Leipzig Ballet are presenting their first choreographic works on the LOFFT stage.

• Dance

WERKSTATT: UN/AGED – VON LINIEN & FALTEN | UN/AGED – ON LINES & WRINKLES

TANIA-MARIA STERNBERG (LEIPZIG)

To what extent are age, gender and prevailing beauty standards intertwined? An intimate exploration of new ways of approaching ageing.

• Performance

IM PALMENHAUS | IN THE PALM HOUSE

RUTH KEMNA (BERLIN)

A performance in which dance, music, and video art create an imagined palm house —
as an utopian and critical space for reflection on our relationship with plants, the archiving of nature, and lost sounds.

• Music
• Performance
• Dance

LISTENING WORKSHOP: IM PALMENHAUS | IN THE PALM HOUSE

RUTH KEMNA (BERLIN)

In her workshop, Ruth Kemna invites participants to rediscover the relationships between plants, people and spaces on the Spinnerei site.

• Workshop
• Music
• Installation

SPIELWIESE | PLAYGROUND 2026

LEIPZIGER TANZTHEATER

Between pleasure and abstinence, freedom and constraint: 13 short pieces – choreographed by dancers from the Leipziger Tanztheater – curiously and polyphonically explore the vast field of temptation.

• Dance
• Theatre

FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION: SIEBEN BRÜCKEN | SEVEN BRIDGES

Irina Pauls, Ralph Grüneberger und Dr. Theresa Jacobs

In the artist talk, Irina Pauls and Ralph Grüneberger explore the connection between Leipzig’s coal mining landscapes, the cultural history of the GDR as seen through biographical accounts, and the experience of transformation today.

• Discourse

SIEBEN BRÜCKEN | SEVEN BRIDGES

IRINA PAULS (LEIPZIG)

Dancing together connects people – then as now. A dance piece about the landscape transformed by coal mining and its unifying power. Elements of folk dance are adapted into a contemporary dance practice, creating something new.

• Dance

VISITING: DRAWING CIRCLE AT LOFFT

Marlet Heckhoff, Aoife McAtamney, Drawing circle HALLE 14

The HALLE 14 drawing circle is led by the artist Marlet Heckhoff and takes place as part of Aoife McAtamney’s Tanztriennale residency at LOFFT.

• Workshop

EHRENTAG 2026: #SCHATZSUCHE | #TREASUREHUNT

KAHMANN & MOSQUERA (BERLIN/LEIPZIG)

In a poetic dance journey, a dancer, together with the young audience, discovers ever-changing natural phenomena such as sand, water and sound.

• Kids & Youth
• Dance
• Theatre
• Performance

WERKSTATT: ZUM GEKLEISTETEN KRUG | THE GLUED JUG

ÉMILIE HAUS AND TEAM (LEIPZIG)

A pottery studio, a woman at the potter’s wheel – and the feeling that something isn’t quite right. A theatrical exploration of pottery, between clay, humour and loneliness.

• Theatre

OBERSTUFENABEND | UPPER SCHOOL EVENING GERDA-TARO-GYMNASIUM

BASIC COURSE 11 AND BASIC COURSE 12 AT THE GERDA TARO SCHOOL (LEIPZIG)

The Year 11 and 12 ‘Urban Dance/Urban Dance Theatre’ courses at Gerda-Taro-School are presenting their end-of-year productions here at LOFFT.

• Dance

SHOWING: TANZTRIENNALE COUNTER BALANCE RESIDENCY

AOIFE MCATAMNEY & LUCY O’DONNELL (DUBLIN)

As part of the first Tanztriennale Hamburg, we are hosting Irish musician and choreographer Aoife McAtamney and Dublin's Lexicon Library senior librarian Lucy O’Donnell.

• Dance
• Music
• Discourse

NACHGESCHMACK: GESPRÄCH BEI POMMES SCHRANKE

Artist talk following NACH DER BAHN DIE WENDE. We’ll reflect on the experience together over some chips – in German called Pommes Schranke.

• Discourse

NACH DER BAHN DIE WENDE | AFTER THE LANE, DIE WENDE

AN AUDIOVISUAL PERFORMANCE ABOUT ORIGINS, FUTURES AND LEARNING TO SWIM

Off to the pool! With some headphones on, join STUDIO URBANISTAN as you dive into the social pool and explore the subtle distinctions of German-German identity.

• Performance

TANZFORUM: DOUBLE BILL: YOUNG DANCE

INSIDE/OUT + JUNIORCOMPANY OF THE ELDERS OF LEIPZIGER TANZTHEATERS (LEIPZIG)

TANZFORUM 2026 presents young perspectives on dance: two performances by and featuring young people, exploring urban dance, voice, music and choreographic research.

• Dance
• Music

TANZFORUM: OH DEATHMOTHER OH! RITUALS FOR THE UNSEEN – WORK IN PROGRESS

LIQUID LOGIC (LEIPZIG)

As part of TANZFORUM 2026, the group Liquid Logic invites you to transform fear, grief and longing into a shared physical ritual.

• Performance

OFF EUROPA: IF APHRODITE WAS A MONSTER

IVA SVESHTAROVA + ENSEMBLE (BULGARIEN)

The impressive choreography is inspired by the aesthetics of carnival and the possibilities of the female body to unfold its full potential.

• Dance

OFF EUROPA: THE FALSE FRIENDS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE

DIVADLO FESTE (CZECH REPUBLIC) BASED ON ROBERT MISIK (AUSTRIA)

The play, based on an essay by Austrian journalist Robert Misik, tells the story of a society that despises its foundations, its peripheries.

• Theatre

OFF EUROPA: FUGK

PASI MÄKELÄ (FINNLAND/TSCHECHIEN)

In FUGK (an abbreviation for ‘Finno-Ugric Garage Kabuki’), folklore and trash meet contemporary live art.

• Performance
• Theatre

OFF EUROPA: WHO KILLED BAMBI

Çağlar Yiğitoğulları (Türkei/Deutschland)

The minimalist laboratory setting created by Turkish-born artist Çağlar Yiğitoğulları, which offers little protection, increasingly becomes a place for taking stock of precarious lives, not least those of migrants.

• Performance

OFF EUROPA: THE SPERMBANKERS

CONCERT

Old-school grooves and hard-hitting sound without nostalgic detours or retro tricks: The Spermbankers cultivate a kind of contemporary punk gospel.

• Music

OFF EUROPA: I LOVE BALLET

Ramona Nagabczyńska & Guests (Polen)

Twenty years after completing their classical dance training, four reflect on their current view of ballet.

• Dance

WERKSTATT: KNALLKREBS, KUCKUCK & CO | PISTOL SHRIMP, CUCKOO & CO

DAUTZ / FUCHS / HEMMESMANN / POSENENSKE (FRANKFURT(MAIN)/LEIPZIG)

Can music be a means of communication between humans and animals? Using instruments, video clips, puppet parts, and masks, we're falling for the musicality of animals, their lives and their tricks.

• Music
• Theatre
• Performance

ELLA

SEBASTIAN WEBER DANCE COMPANY (LEIPZIG)

Between dance, text, percussion and audio recordings, a finely pulsating performance emerges about the power of grandmothers.

• Dance

WE HOPE THIS HELPS

ILDIKÓ TÓTH (LEIPZIG)

What makes us human is our ability to experience and react intuitively to the moment. How can dance make this unique characteristic of being human tangible?

• Dance
• Performance

HELLO NOBODY. ON THE DAMAGE TO BODY, MIND AND TRUTH.

with Miljenko Jergović, Yevgeniy Breyger, Yara Hoffmann, Kinga Tóth among others

This year, the Federal Agency for Civic Education is once again hosting a special evening as part of the Leipzig Book Fair – featuring literature, music and authors from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

• Discourse
• Music

SHOWING: BAU HOW

FELIX BAUMANN / VON B BIS Z (BERLIN)

Felix Baumann transforms the construction site into a performative playground - where everyday work routines, accidents and materials are staged into absurd, poetic images - through circus, dance and humor.

• Contemporary Circus
• Theatre

WERKSTATT: OUT OF JOINT

LEONI EIBES (LEIPZIG)

A family. Shaped by years of shared experiences and memories. Bound, connected and welded together. A seemingly well-functioning system until an exceptional situation lets their world begin to crumble.

• Dance

I’M HUMMING TO NUMB SOUNDS OF BURSTING

FORWARD DANCE COMPANY + ELSA ARTMANN (LEIPZIG/KÖLN)

How do we keep experiencing togetherness when everything falls apart? A choreographic research for a future among ruins.

• Dance

MÜLHEIM ABSTURZ RUHR

THECODES – THEATERCOMPANY DENNIS SCHWABENLAND (BERN)

A play about classism, life on welfare, and resistance to the myth of entrepreneurial success stories.

• Theatre