Talking about dance
hosting, moderating
Mark Christoph has a passion for moderating and hosting and does so by combining his extensive knowledge about the current European contemporary dance scene while also being able to place works within a greater dance historic context. In the past, he gave pre-performance lectures, moderated after talks or guided audiences through festival settings.
Facilitating dance
creative producing
As a creative producer Mark Christoph sells the work of Dominik Więcek (PL) internationally and organises touring outside of Poland. Więcek was selected as an Aerowaves Artist in 2023. Moreover, Mark Christoph administrated projects of the Cologne-based collective TachoTinta in 2021 and 2022 and continues to produce all works of Merle | Mischke | Klee since 2018.
With a great understanding for the needs of individual creative processes, he builds strategies with the involved artists to best facilitate the making of new work. He has a good understanding of German funding structures in rural regions, metropolitan areas as well as on a federal level. His skills include:
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co-writing concepts for funding applications
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developing comprehensive financial plans
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planning a creative process from start to finish
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monitoring budgets
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communicating with the artistic team and partnering institutions
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drafting contracts
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concluding written and financial reports
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developing an audience-centred side program for artistic work
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facilitating moments of reflection for creative and organisational processes
Building dance networks
initiating structural change for the scene at large
Mark Christoph grew up in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s most northern federal state. His performance collective Merle | Mischke | Klee is based there and creates work mainly in rural regions and for audiences that often have first encounters with contemporary dance. To stimulate a dance scene outside of big cities, to foster peer-to-peer exchange and to create more visibility for dance, in 2019, he initiated the dance and performance network Schleswig-Holstein (TuP.SH Tanz und Performance Netzwerk Schleswig-Holstein). A variety of artists from the region come together in regular meetings. They make events visible on a shared website and in a newsletter, help each other and articulate current cultural-political challenges. Mark Christoph is administrating the network.
tanz.nord is a project that funds residencies, new works, regional touring, artist labs and school workshops in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. It was initiated in 2020 by TuP.SH, K3 – Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg, Kultur- und Bildungszentrum Bad Oldesloe and Dachverband freie darstellende Künste Hamburg e.V. Mark Christoph is representing TuP.SH, conceptualised the project tanz.nord from the very beginning and is now administrating it in collaboration with the other partners. tanz.nord receives funding from both federal states as well as 3-year federal funding from TANZPAKT – Stadt Land Bund.