Vibrant life and dance in Berlin for students

Berlin is an attractive city for future dance professionals

When you move to Germany’s capital Berlin as a dance student to complete your dance education with us, you will be immersed in the world of one of Europe’s most creative and vibrant cities, also called the City of Unlimited Possibilities.
Berlin has always attracted artists and creative people from all over the world. Despite the rising cost of living, Berlin is still one of the most livable cities in the world. This is not surprising, because Berlin has something to offer for every taste.
Berlin is now the largest municipality in Germany with 892 square kilometers as well as the most populous city in the European Union.
In fact, Berlin was once formed from many small villages, some of these village centers can still be found in today’s districts. Despite its size, all districts can be easily reached by Berlin’s extensive road network.
Berlin is a cultural metropolis, party metropolis, fashion metropolis and green capital all at the same time.
You can turn nights into days in Berlin, but you can just as easily go for a walk in the beautiful Berlin forests and numerous parks, and even swim in some of Berlin’s lakes. Berliners love their strikingly large number of street trees, which make a green cityscape.

Culture

The cultural offerings in Berlin are extremely diverse. The city has about 200 museums, of which the Berlin Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest museum ensemble in the world. Furthermore, you will find 400 galleries, eight major symphony orchestras, three opera houses, about 150 theaters and stages and more than 90 cinemas.
The oldest musical theater is Berlin’s famous Friedrichsstadtpalast with one of the largest theater stages in the world. Musicals are also performed in the former Theater des Westens. In addition, you will find cabaret stages, children’s theaters and Berlin’s independent venues.

Dance

The Berlin State Ballet has three famous houses at its disposal: the Deutsche Oper, the Komische Oper Berlin and the Staatsoper unter den Linden. Many of the more contemporary and experimental productions are presented by Hebbel am Ufer (known as HAU for short), which also has three stages: HAU 1 (formerly the traditional Hebbel Theater), HAU 2 (formerly Theater am Halleschen Ufer) and the backyard stage HAU 3 (formerly Theater am Ufer). The three theaters were merged in 2003.
Other interesting stages for contemporary dance include Dock 11 and Eden, Halle Tanzbühne Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin and Uferstudios for contemporary dance, where we, too, present our Balance 1 dance performances.

Contemporary dance in Berlin

Berlin has a large independent and international theater scene with more than 35 independent venues. Famous companies such as Sasha Waltz & Guests, Constanza Macras/Dorky Park and the cie. Toula limnaois are also based in Berlin. Approximately 400 dance and theater companies work outside the structures of the state and municipal theaters. Many of the independent projects are financially supported by the Main City Culture Fund and other grants. This offers an optimal environment for you to explore contemporary dance in all its variations.
Nevertheless, to this day not all of the more than 2,400 dance professionals achieve a sufficient annual income through stage productions alone, but must additionally secure their livelihood through dance classes and workshop offerings.
Since 2000, Berlin has had its own association for contemporary dance, which represents the interests of freelance dancers, choreographers and artists. The association is also responsible for the Tanzbüro Berlin (Dance office Berlin). The Tanzbüro is a central contact point for the dance scene in Berlin and offers artists many free consulting services.

Food and drink

In every district in Berlin there are countless restaurants, cafés and bars. Here you will not only find German cuisine. International cuisine is everywhere in Berlin due to the many settled cultures: Turkish, Indian, Italian, African, Chinese, Mexican cuisine, and so on.
More and more dishes for vegetarians and vegans are offered.
The so-called Spätis (“laties”) are also part of Berlin life. Unlike a normal kiosk, Spätis are often open around the clock for Berliners, even on holidays or weekends. So for Berliners, Spätis are like supermarkets, meeting places and Internet cafés all in one.
In addition to the normal supermarkets, there are markets of all kinds in many parts of Berlin: market halls, weekly markets, organic markets and flea markets, where it is worth shopping. Of course there are also international supermarkets e.g. with Asian or African specialties.

Accommodation

Finding an apartment in Berlin has become a difficult task in recent years. Many people move to Berlin and want to stay here. Therefore, you need to find accommodation in time if you are moving to Berlin for your education.
Unfortunately we can’t find you a room, but of course we can post your search on our bulletin board. Sometimes a room becomes available at one of the Balance dancers.
We also have a Balance 1 Facebook group where your apartment or shared room request can still be seen by many of our graduates, even though the younger ones are using Facebook less and less these days. Since there are many other Facebook groups like “Wohnung frei in Berlin” (“apartment free in Berlin”), it may be worthwhile to rejoin Facebook for your apartment search.
Then there are the Internet portals as well as apartment offers in local newspapers. To make sure you don’t pay too much, you should take a look at the current rent index beforehand and also consider which district you want to live in so that you don’t have to travel too far every day.
If you register with search portals such as immobilienscout, it is worthwhile to subscribe to Mieterplus+ (“tenentplus+”) so that your request appears higher up.
For shared rooms in Berlin, you can also register with wg-gesucht or wg-suche.