Im Wintersemester 2018/19, Sommersemester 2019 und von Januar-Juli 2020 war Anna Till als Künstlerische Mitarbeiterin am Hochschulübergreifenden Zentrum für Tanz – HZT Berlin tätig. Im Rahmen dieser Stelle hat sie im BA Studiengang „Tanz, Kontext, Choreografie“ Seminare und Kolloquien gegeben, Prüfungen abgenommen und die Studierenden in ihrem Studienverlauf beratend begleitet.

In the winter semester 2018/19, summer semester 2019 and from January-July 2020 Anna Till was research associate at the Inter-University-Centre Berlin (UdK Berlin – Berlin University of the Arts). As part of this position, she gave seminars and colloquia in the BA program „Dance, Context, Choreography“, was part of several admission committees, took exams and advised students in their course of study.

Individual Training Practice Development / Anna Till / WiSe 18/19
The goal of this practice based class is to define every students training needs and establish an individual training routine. Students are guided and accompanied by Anna Till to support reflection on questions like: What defines a training practice? What is my own practice? What is my training history? How can I structure a training routine that serves my needs and prepares myself for rehearsal work and performing.
Students regularly will exchange their explorations amongst each other within a shared training. A workbook is required to keep track of each individual training schedule and as matter of assessment.

Modul 11 Kolloquium / Eva-Maria Hoerster & Anna Till / WiSe 18/19
In this colloquium 5th semester BA students meet to review and discuss work that happens and happened in the frame of their module 11 – own project work. During a two days meeting at Gutshof Sauen students will have the opportunity to revisit their individual and collaborative projects, to identify (recurring) themes, interests and traces and to look at their practice in relation to another artist’s work. The seminar will allow students to reflect on their work through peer exchange, discussion and writing.

Set Re-Set / Anna Till / SoSe 19
Who owns a movement? How to pass dance on to others? How to notate a dance? How to remember movements and redo them over and over again?
This movement based seminar deals with setting movement – in opposition to instant composition, improvisation on stage, score based dancing or performing a movement quality.
We will work on different principles to create a set movement-phrase, e.g. to improvise with a camera and relearn certain movements, to walk blindfolded, take in the surrounding with all your senses, translate the experience into movement, set the essence of your moving translation into a phrase, to flip through a series of images, set a dance phrase in the order of the images, and much more. The set material will be used to elaborate the doing and performing of it, exhausting the set form to explore the transformation which might occur and use this for the further choreographing.
What if the phrase is performed in a very different moving quality? What if it’s done backwards or on a different level (e.g. lying on the floor)? What if you pass it on to somebody else and melt it with another one`s set material?
Eventually every participant will own a set dance phrase, which will be performed in different variations: as a solo, in a group, as a canon etc. We will use the possibility of Studio 14 (> “Raumlabor”) to stage the movement material in a Black Box and a White Cube, adding lights and sounds as we wish.

The Mind is a Muscle.* Künstlerische Strategien in Tanz und Performance / Sandra Umathum & Anna Till / im Rahmen von PAF Campus
Dieses PAF Campus Seminar bietet eine Einführung in die heterogenen künstlerischen Strategien der freien Tanz- und Performanceszene Berlins. Mittels Videomaterial und Praxisübungen nähern wir uns unterschiedlichen Vorstellungen von Tanz und Performance und lernen Formen der Stückentwicklung kennen. Wir blicken zurück auf die 1960er Jahre, auf das Werk von Yvonne Rainer. Mit ihrer Kampfansage gegen Glamour und Virtuosität entmystifizierte sie den Tanz und wies ihm als Kunstform eine neue Rolle innerhalb von Minimal Art, Fluxus und Konzeptkunst zu. Rainers Performance sowie ihre Maxime „The Mind is a Muscle“ gelten als bedeutende Zäsur im Tanz und als Grundstein des sogenannten postmodern dance. Wir untersuchen, inwiefern sich zeitgenössische Methoden des Choreografierens, Komponierens oder Wiederaufführens auf diesen Paradigmawechsel beziehen (oder nicht).
*“The Mind is a Muscle” (UA 1968, Anderson Theater, New York)

MANDATORY MONDAY / Anna Till / SoSe 19
Show tell and Talk – Kolloquium (Monday Morning)
Im Kolloquium treffen sich die BetreuerInnen mit den Studierenden, um gemeinsam die Arbeitsprozesse und Ergebnisse zu planen und zu besprechen. Im Rahmen dieser Veranstaltung können auch Showings stattfinden.

Show Tell and Talk – General Assembly (Monday Afternoon)
Montag nachmittags treffen sich alle BA Studierenden um gemeinsam mit Prof. Thomas Plischke und Prof. Nik Haffner (gegebenenfalls weiteren Mitgliedern des  BA Staff) die Arbeitsprozesse und Prüfungen zu planen.
Im Rahmen dieser Veranstaltung finden auch Prüfungen statt.

time/ing / Anna Till / WiSe 2020
This seminar is a shared research about TIME from various perspectives – in connection to movement and performance, and as well in relation to other disciplines, such as cultural science or sociology.
Main questions will be: How do we perceive time? What is the time/ing of a movement, a dance, a choreography? Which different experiences do we have with time within our daily life? What is your personal relation to time while dancing and improvising? How and why do we measure time? How does a different timing change a choreography? How is time connected to socio-economic aspects? How does the awareness of time/ing structure a group choreography?
Starting with various (group) exercises, experiments and try outs, we will later meet 2 guests to share our thoughts about time on a theoretical level and get input from the perspective of cultural science and sociology. Eventually we will focus on your own artistic projects to observe the role of time/ing within.

NAH DRAN EXTENDED: BEGINNINGS. / Anna Till, Gabi Beier, Jo Parkes / SoSe 2020
Performance Project in Cooperation with ada Studio Berlin
“NAH DRAN extended” is a curated performance format, the most important among all performance series at ada studio. Within a defined thematic frame, it presents 3 pieces of 20-25 minutes each in one evening to the audience. The pieces are not yet finished, but convey a state of affairs, something rough that is still under construction.
For “NAH DRAN extended: beginnings” the students of the BA1 will be professionally accompanied by the ada team along the journey from the concept to the presentation, in the draft of the works, in the practical and technical implementation, in the press and PR work. In the current situation, where it is not possible to work together and to perform at ada studio, we will intuit, imagine, test and develop formats for sharing the work with an audience in July. We might, for example, shift the focus to process, explore the potential of digital formats or, perhaps, decide to insist on the importance of live co-presence at some future time. The formats that have been tried out at ada studio in April and May can be a point of departure for our research.
The theme of all work is “beginnings”. This can refer to a movement research that examines the starting points of certain movements and condenses them into a piece; this can be considered in terms of content: What are beginnings? What are their characteristics, for example in contrast to ends? And this can be thought in structural terms: How do I begin a piece? How do I get from off stage to on stage? The focus is on collaborative work in duets and/or trios.

DON`T QUIT / Anna Till / SoSe 2020
The class will be based on movement principles that work with a strong energetic flow and breath. Throughout the class we will step by step establish a movement cycle that will be continuously repeated, a training that every participant owns. The class aims to support the stomina of both: body and mind. Don`t quit, modify.

ONE-OFF ENCOUNTERS / Sandra Umathum & Anna Till / SoSe 2020
In this specific situation we want to give the possibility to get to know the artistic work and research of guest teachers and staff members. Each session will be dedicated to the work of one artist and consist of up to 30 minutes of sharing a contextualizing background to their work, accompanied by excerpts of projects and followed by a Q&A session from the participants.
Guests: Angela Schubot & Jared Gradinger, Andrew Champlin in conversation with em*sama kann, Jule Flierl, Michael O`Connor, Frauke Havemann, Odile Seitz-Walser, Lingji Hon, Anna Till