Audacity is a journal written by students of Zentrum fur Zeitgennosissischen Tanz (ZZT), a dance school in Cologne. It emerged from a workshop offered by the Whisle While You Work platform in which they worked on issues of sexism, abuse and harrasment in performing arts education. The publication acts as a revolt, as testimonies of structural violence and a demand for political transformation of these institutions.

In demand for better scheduling!
In demand for support of my art! In demand for transparency!

In the past, generations of students at the Zentrum für Zeitgenössischen Tanz in Cologne have had constant discussions about abusive dynamics that consistently take place, but it has always been difficult to find a voice or even to find enough ‘brave’ individuals to support and take action on issues of mental health, racism, abuse in its different forms, acknowledgement of boundaries, sexism and other criticisms for systems of injustice.

This time, behind In Demand (signature for the political action and for this article) stands a large group of students who gathered and partly or fully agreed to the different needs and urgencies that each of us were facing: the articulation of demands is ever-changing and we see it as the necessary starting point for a re-evaluation of the structure, scheduling, behaviour, communication, content, evaluation, accessibility and the support of life and study at ZZT. Change can only happen through collaboration and constant dialogue.

With this article, we want to echo our experiences and action to share with a larger community of students, dancers, and artists ‘out there’. We felt alone and isolated in the hard, emotional work we put into this action, yet we slowly came to understand that ZZT was not the only institute in Europe where there is a need for structural change. We wish to inspire and give strength to those who feel lonely and powerless because of how they are treated or represented, and we are open to help in any way we can.

p. 14 …”When I had some complaints, I never communicated them. I felt I would get ‘in trouble’ instead of being listened to. Maybe I could confide in a teacher and voice my complaints, but that would never work because the communication between the teachers was so bad or non-existent.

I only felt supported by one teacher in ZZT; for the rest, I was just a hard working student who never complained, and they didn’t ask me, why we were there, what we wanted to do, work on or if we were interested in any specific work…”.

Audacity issue I, by ZZT

You can find the full version of the Audacity issue I here: