Manuel Gaubatz

You have been working as a dance educator and workshop facilitator for the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company since the 2021/22 season. Some members of the Patrons’ Association have already met you during workshops. Your work is strongly focused on outreach and engagement. What is particularly important to you in this regard?

At the heart of my work with the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company is the interplay between each person’s individual ability to express themselves and the artistic work of the Company.

Creating understanding and offering people the opportunity to experience the work of the DFDC themselves through our workshop formats are central to what I do. This goes hand in hand with each individual’s need to express themselves through their body and emotions.

It allows every participant to use moments from their own life as personal points of reference and integrate them into dance in their own individual way. I very often receive wonderful feedback from participants who describe the workshops as a form of self-reflection. Dance offers us the opportunity to express ourselves completely freely and can help us reconnect with ourselves.

One aspect of Ioannis Mandafounis’ work is about being truly present and living in the moment. Since I also have considerable experience in acting, and this aspect of his methodology is very close to my own personal approach to dance, Ioannis’ improvisation technique offers a wonderful opportunity to engage both with the DFDC’s productions and with oneself.

You are a trained dancer and also attended drama school. What was your first defining encounter with dance that influenced your later development? How did the desire to become a dancer emerge?

I grew up in a modest household in the Swabian Alb. As a teenager, I wanted to move, but I didn’t know how or what kind of connection I needed to develop with my body. Football and basketball simply didn’t interest me at all, even though my grandfather was a huge football fan and I always watched matches with him.

I tried judo for a year, but I couldn’t connect with that either. Then one day, someone handed me a flyer for a dance school on the street in my hometown of Balingen, and suddenly I knew: I want to dance.

Olesja Gordenin was my first dance teacher in hip-hop, ballet and jazz dance, and I owe much of my initial inspiration for dance to her. She encouraged me and gave me the fundamental knowledge, discipline and first insights into the world of dance.

When I was growing up, especially in a rural area, it was still unusual for a boy to dance, and there were no platforms like Instagram or TikTok where you could easily find like-minded people. I took dance very seriously and stood 100 percent behind what I was doing. People around me noticed that and respected it.

At the same time, I had no illusions about becoming a professional dancer. At the age of 18, I still didn’t have enough confidence to believe that I could actually become one, so I decided to audition for drama school instead.

But I couldn’t suppress my need to express myself artistically, to immerse myself in other worlds and perhaps escape reality a little from time to time. So I ended up at drama school.

During my studies, I continued dancing and eventually caught the attention of a dance academy. The teachers had to put quite a lot of effort into convincing me to attend the audition. When I finally agreed, I was awarded a scholarship for a private jazz dance programme.

That became the turning point in my career.

I decided to audition at the HfMDK in Frankfurt and at ArtEZ in Arnhem and was offered a place at both schools. For personal reasons, I chose Frankfurt and have since become a very happy Frankfurter.

Of course, it wasn’t easy, particularly when it came to catching up on the gaps I had in ballet. But with determination, motivation and a great deal of hard work, I managed to secure a full professional contract as a dancer with the Holstebro Theater & Dance Company in Denmark during my third year of studies.

I genuinely never expected that I would one day dance professionally.

Over the years, I also found my way back to acting, and today I work in both fields. I wouldn’t want to give up either of these art forms. Just as Ioannis incorporates different approaches into his work, my own work is also shaped by influences from a wide variety of artistic disciplines.

So my desire to become a dancer actually arose rather by chance. It wasn’t a clearly defined path I had chosen as part of a career plan. Life and the universe simply guided me to where I am today. 

What does dance mean to you?

Dance means expressing your own emotions through your body and through your personal interpretation of movement. It means creating a platform that allows you to bring what is inside you to the outside.

For me, it is about creating connections between my own view of the world and the way society sees it.

The most important thing for me is that dance comes from love and joy, and from the desire to move something or trigger something within another person when they see and feel my interpretation of movement.

For me personally, dance is a way of grounding myself, exploring who I am, continually rediscovering myself and also healing.

Dance can create beautiful connections between different generations and cultures. I have experienced this not only in our DFDC workshops but also through many different productions.

Dance has the ability to make people feel and see things that cannot be expressed through words. And that is what makes dance so special to me.

Everyone can interpret movements and danced images differently and in a deeply personal way.

The dance workshops bring together very different groups, including young people and senior citizens, to whom you and the other members of the team introduce dance. What do you personally learn from these participants?

Some aspects of my answer to this question have already come through in my previous responses. Every age group gives me the opportunity to look at dance from a new perspective in its own unique way.

Every workshop format is special to me, and I share my love of dance and teaching with genuine passion.

When I lead a workshop for children and see them expressing themselves creatively with an almost unstoppable enthusiasm, throwing themselves into improvisation exercises with incredible motivation, it reminds me again and again of the positive influence my work can have on younger people – and particularly on boys.

The opportunity to change perspectives and help young people develop access to their own emotions and ability to express themselves, thereby strengthening their self-esteem, is one of the most moving aspects of my work.

Especially because, as a young child myself, I would have loved to have had role models like that.

Adults, and particularly participants aged 60 and over, give something different back to me: an incredible sense of gratitude.

Seeing people move in ways they perhaps never would in their everyday lives, while also witnessing the desire for self-reflection and self-discovery that exists regardless of age, often makes me stop for a moment and feel deeply grateful.

Grateful that I have the opportunity to act as a catalyst for this process of engaging with oneself. Grateful that I can make a difference in society, encourage dialogue and create a sense of closeness and connection.

What feedback about your work has meant the most to you so far?

I appreciate every piece of feedback, including suggestions and constructive criticism. It helps me respond even better to participants’ needs and understand what they require.

The most beautiful feedback is when participants approach me after a workshop with a sense of gratitude and tell me what the experience has triggered within them – that dance has helped them process personal situations or transform emotions.

I also particularly cherish the wonderful homemade gifts from participants in our 60+ workshops around Christmas, as well as handwritten cards after workshops containing beautiful messages and words of thanks.

I once taught a course with almost 40 men. On the first day, everyone was still a little reserved, but by the second workshop day they had already opened up so much. They were moving and interacting with one another in ways I could never have imagined.

That was an incredible form of indirect feedback and something I will not forget anytime soon.

And perhaps the greatest feedback of all is that people keep coming back to the courses regularly and that a real community of enthusiastic participants has developed over time.

Some members of the Patrons’ Association are interested in taking part but are still somewhat hesitant about signing up for a workshop. How would you encourage them to give it a try?

If you never try, you will never experience!

I warmly invite everyone to come and discover for themselves just how individually adaptable our workshops are.

Everyone can participate in the movements at their own level of intensity, engage as much as feels right for them, and explore their own body and movement in their own way.

There is no right or wrong. There are no steps that you have to learn. There is simply you, your ideas and the big white studio on Schmidtstraße, where you are free to explore and let yourself go – naturally within the framework I create through the workshop and the respective production.

How often in life do we get the opportunity to truly connect with ourselves, perhaps reconnect with our inner child, and rediscover our playfulness and creativity – all while sharing that experience with an entire workshop group?

Come, discover, feel, dance – and see what it does to you!

You studied in Frankfurt am Main and now work in Frankfurt. What are your favourite places in the city?

My favourite district is Sachsenhausen. When I moved to Frankfurt, I ended up there relatively quickly.

The Museumsufer and the River Main are places where I feel at home. In summer, I love having an iced coffee at Maincafé overlooking the river and enjoying a good conversation in pleasant company.

I also love Berger Straße and its cosy, traditional wine tavern, where you can enjoy a nice glass of wine with friends on a summer evening.

At the weekend, the Kleinmarkthalle is always a favourite, as is Friedberger Platz on Friday evenings.

When I want to work on my laptop in a relaxed café atmosphere, Mokas in Sachsenhausen or the Liebieghaus are among my favourite places to go.

What is your wish for the future of dance in Frankfurt?

I would like to see even more opportunities to introduce people to dance and make dance more accessible to everyone.

I would also like to see greater support from the city in bringing dance into schools from an early age, so that children can encounter dance while they are still young, experience dancing themselves and develop an understanding of this art form.

I hope there will be more opportunities for freelance artists and more performance spaces, as well as greater funding for projects that address the social aspects and themes I have mentioned.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH