Ageing Trouble stands for a sense of discomfort with age stereotypes and ageism, as well as for resistance and self-determined educational processes in later life. From a performativity-theoretical perspective, Miriam Haller develops in her book a performative cultural geragogy that connects Ageing Studies with cultural education in older age.
How are geragogical models of ageing deconstructed in literature? And how is Ageing Trouble brought to the stage in cultural education practice? To explore these questions, she analyzes the performativity of discourse on education and ageing, and opens up action-oriented perspectives on self-willed performances of ageing and aesthetic educational processes in later life. She does so through performative practices such as Un/doing Age, Un/doing Generations, Un/doing Biography, and Un/doing Beauty, based on three dance and theatre projects with older adults.
The study examines intergenerational dance projects by metabolisten/Silke Z. as well as the Ageing Body laboratories by Silke Z./resistdance; the performative practices of the senior theatre ensemble Golden Gorkis in their production “Ätsch Age!” under the direction of Ron Rosenberg at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin; and the OLDSCHOOL ensemble with their production “Wunderschönes Welkfleisch” under the direction of David Vogel at Schauspiel Köln.
All three are part of the network and exchange project “NachWieVor. Tanzperformance & Alter(n)”, which was initiated by ehrenfeldstudios in 2022.
To mark the publication, a book launch party will take place on July 18, 2026, at 6 pm at ehrenfeldstudios. The event is being organized in collaboration with Dr. Miriam Haller’s passAGEnwerkstatt and will bring together invited guests from the fields of dance, academia, and cultural education for a private professional gathering.
The class consists of a warm-up class leading into a guided investigation towards imagination and movement research tools for creating from the instant.
The warm-up class is a practice of body and mind, designed for animating one’s own creative work. The body is allowed to access its own intelligence by sourcing from its natural urge to be present, to move and to create. We tune into the relationship to gravity, centre, space, articulation, coordination and musicality. The practice is based on many years of ongoing research and training knowledge found in international movement and performance traditions such as contemporary to urban dance styles, Tai Chi, Karate and Japanese Butoh, continuously landscaping in dynamics of living experience. On this basis, Beljana will be sharing creative tools for diving into sensitivity and porousness towards imagination in movement and fullness in performance.
The class is providing space for deepening the immediate relationship between dancer and their art. In this listening space, the movement becomes our teachers. Beljana shares her practice as creator, sharing the space with creators.
In collaboration with Ayberk Esen, ehrenfeldstudios invites you to a professional training class in contemporary dance. A rotating roster of regional and international instructors leads the classes, bringing diverse artistic perspectives, training methods, and movement approaches. The program is designed for dance students and professional dancers and provides a space for ongoing practice and artistic development. Click here for all further dates and information.
DATES Mon, 25.05 – Fri, 29.05.2026 | 10 am – 11:30 am each day
Further dates (instructors to be announced):
10 am – 11:30 am each day
Mon, 01.06 – Fri, 05.06.2026
Mon, 22.06 – Fri, 26.06.2026
Mon, 06.07 – Fri, 10.07.2026
Participation in individual sessions is also possible.
PARTICIPATION FEE Single ticket: 9 euros
5-ticket pass: 40 euros
Foto: Alexis W.
About the artist/teacher:
Beljana Metje is a dancer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist; BA alumna of the University of Music and Dance Cologne (ZZT, 2021). Currently, she is studying MA Choreography at the National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in Oslo, Norway.
Beljana works throughout Europe as a dancer, performer (current projects with Mira Plikat, Leo Gnatzy and Valtteri Keinänen), and choreographer, collaborating on interdisciplinary projects with live musicians, composers, visual artists, writers and poets. With her dance collective “Nangilima Projekt,” she creates own performances that are often self-produced and have been invited to festivals across Europe (Canary Islands, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Spain; such as the Festival Danza de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain and more) and have been supported by the European Union (Creative Europe), among others. For more information, visit the website https://nangilimaproject.wixsite.com/home.
In this movement workshop, we explore the theme of traces in various ways. Traces can be found everywhere – in nature, in movement, and in memory. During these two days we will explore together what traces are, how they emerge, and what they can reveal or carry with them. Our starting point will be dance: How does movement leave a trace in space, in the body, or in perception? What remains from a movement once it has passed? We will work with elements from Instant Composition, Body-Mind Centering, and Authentic Movement.
The workshop is conceived as a shared space for exploration – curious, open, and experimental. We will dance, observe, follow movements, and sense the traces they leave, while also taking time to exchange and reflect together.
From a dynamic approach, this training prioritizes expressive physicality and musicality. We begin with a high-energy warm-up designed to activate the entire body, followed by targeted mobility and strength work—specifically focusing on the hips and shoulders. The training transitions into detailed floorwork, exploring highly physical endurance and musicality. We conclude with technical phrases that challenge endurance and play with contrasting musical qualities, encouraging to refine individual timing and dynamic range, playing creatively with timing, texture, and dynamic.
In collaboration with Ayberk Esen, ehrenfeldstudios invites you to a professional training class in contemporary dance. A rotating roster of regional and international instructors leads the classes, bringing diverse artistic perspectives, training methods, and movement approaches. The program is designed for dance students and professional dancers and provides a space for ongoing practice and artistic development. Click here for all further dates and information.
DATES Mon, 11.05 – Fri, 15.05.2026 | 10 am – 11:30 am each day
Further dates (instructors to be announced)
10 a.m. – 11:30 am each day
Mon, 25.05 – Fri, 29.05.2026
Mon, 01.06 – Fri, 05.06.2026
Mon, 22.06 – Fri, 26.06.2026
Mon, 06.07 – Fri, 10.07.2026
Participation in individual sessions is also possible.
PARTICIPATION FEE Single ticket: 9 euros
5-ticket pass: 40 euros
About the Artist Jovana Petrovska (she/her) is a performer, choreographer and dance mediator based in Cologne, originally from Skopje, North Macedonia.
Her core practice involves a deep commitment to building the contemporary scene in her homeland, continuously creating and sharing work for a local festival for the past three years. The artist explores the intersection of culture, traditional dance, and contemporary movement.
A bearded nun performing miracles? The surviving videos from prehistoric times seem irrefutable. Sister Mary Wendy and the Order of Brah Brah are confident that a lasting solution to global crises and conflicts is not far off, and are already recruiting new members. Who wouldn’t want to join them?
The Miracle uses contemporary, physical and wildly exuberant clown storytelling that complicates genre and gender boundaries while charmingly inviting the audience to expand their own freedom. Absurd, surprising, playful and fun, the show embarks on a search for myth-enshrouded, queer-feminist ancestors from a not-so-distant past, whose knowledge of the miraculous power of ambiguity and humor wants to be rediscovered! As Sister Mary Wendy, Olivia Platzer draws on a rich canon full of wild women and genderqueer pioneers— from Baubo, who reveals her vulva to the depressed goddess Demeter to cheer her up and thus end a global famine, to the popular saint Wilgefortis, who as a crucified virgin with a beard became the patron saint of women in distress. The Miracle tells of a community in which non-conformity, not conformity, is sacred.
Combining physical theater, humor and English text, The Miracle is equally suitable for audiences with different language skills.
Foto: Ingo Solms
Largely accessible toilet in the neighbouring building, No grab rails or height-adjustable mirror available.
On request we offer a touch tour before the performance. Please contact us via 
