Berlin’s tradition of boundary-pushing is perhaps best seen on stage. From experimental performance art pieces at HAU to tightly choreographed mayhem at the Volksbühne, Berlin audiences have to be ready for anything and everything. But tradition runs deep in the theatres of the city as well, putting countless operas and ballets in the spotlight, alongside some more modern interpretations of classic storylines. We’ve curated a list of the next most interesting productions on in Berlin, ranging from more traditional pieces to performances that defy categorisation and bring you along with them into a world of in-betweeness.
We order our listings with what’s coming up next at the top. That way, you’ll never miss out.
Tanz mit! Festival 2026
DANCE For two weeks, Potsdamer Platz will be movin’ and shakin’, as the dance festival hits the town and turns this city-centre landscape into a sweaty mix of salsa, bachata, tango, swing, hip hop, breakdance, contemporary and many more. So whether you’re a novice or a pro, don’t be shy and find your groove among many others.
- Potsdamer Platz, through Jul 11, details
2nd International Korean-German Dance Festival
DANCE This three-day festival at Uferstudios brings together German and South Korean artists in a celebration of movement and artistic exchange in the form of dance battles, performances and cultural dialogue. The second edition kicks off with the finale of a nationwide K-pop dance battle before unfolding into a programme of performances and encounters that offer fresh perspectives on contemporary dance from two very different countries.
- Uferstudios, Jul 17-19, details
THE PRESSING
Dani Brown’s THE PRESSING is an exploration of CUNT, straddling the somatic, the scenic and the damn-right slippery. The performance interlaces Brown’s voice, body and choreographic practice. Through physical, visceral and humorous states, she investigates and reappropriates CUNT, a once-revered word that Brown now writes in all caps as a “subversive act in terms of how it shows up on the page”. Similar to many female and femme-identifying artists before her, Brown continues a lineage of artistic enquiry driven by the need to examine her own assigned gender and sexual anatomy.
- Radialsystem, Aug 6-9, details
Joan
DANCE Loosely inspired by Friedrich Schiller’s novel The Maid of Orléans, dancer and choreographer Hannah Schillinger reworks the classic text through a distinctly contemporary lens. Blending storytelling, spectacle and ritual, the piece explores religious and heroic gestures through a queer frame and questions who gets to shape cultural narratives. Audience members are also invited to participate at key moments should they choose to step into the story themselves.
- DOCK11, Aug 20-23, details
Bazam (Repertoire)
DANCE Bazm (Repertoire) will make its German debut at Radialsystem in July. As an entry point to the piece, we’re asked to look beyond the repertoires that we already know and value in the field of dance, meaning choreographer Armin Hokmi could be offering something entirely unique. The work circles back to the origins of the meaning of ‘bazm’, a Farsi word which translates as a gathering, a party or a way of navigating the aftermath of a period of conflict, where spontaneity permits anything to materialise.
- Radialsystem, Jul 23-26, details
V A S T A
DANCE Returning to the stage as a solo performer for the first time in 17 years, Lina Gómez explores the body as a living archive. In dialogue with her deceased grandmothers, she draws on Colombian and Brazilian dance traditions and hypnotic circular rhythms to navigate memory, time and resistance. With artistic collaboration from Ana Lessing Menjibar and live percussion by Aduni Guedes, this promises to be a powerful return.
- Radialsystem, Jul 24-26, details
Carnivale Royale
THEATRE Roll up, roll up! The queens and queers have entered the big top, aka the Chamäleon theatre, for a sizzling show focused on LGBTQIA+ representation and inclusivity. For more info, see our preview in the stage section.
- Chamäleon Berlin, through Aug 2, details
Berlin Circus Festival
CIRCUS Thankfully, circus continues to evolve as technologies advance. Long gone are the images of acrobats pirouetting on the backs of elephants. Berlin’s Circus Festival takes things further and purposely pushes the boundaries of what we perceive as big top circus shows. That’s not to say clowns have been banished entirely; they’ve simply adapted to meet contemporary ideas. This year’s 12th edition of the festival covers the full spectrum of contemporary performance, mixing cabaret, dance, acrobats, aerialists, jugglers and music with works about everything from feminism to fashion to food. Yes Person by Imogen Huzel and Inka Pehkonen stands out in the programming. Their show mixes punk-rock playfulness and physical comedy to explore concepts around friendship and freedom of speech. Another enticing piece is FOOD by Michael Zandl. This work is a feast of absurd silliness and delicious acrobatics. Using various food sources as material, it looks both unsettling and hilarious (perhaps we’ll never look at a banana the same way again). Finally, if you’re looking to get riled up, then join the Stockholm collective RAGE Working Group for RAGE Cabaret. The show promises to be a collection of powerful performances, using local voices to engage with artistic resistance. Solidarity in a somersault? Only one way to find out.
- Tempelhofer Feld, Aug 6-15, details
Tanz im August
DANCE Tanz im August has been running for an unbelievable 38 years. This yearly festival never fails to crank up the heat at a time when many of the big houses are between seasons. Founded in 1989, the festival lineup always includes contemporary dance performances, innovative choreographers and new formats from around the world. It continues to thrive under the direction of Ricardo Carmona for another year.
Among the 19 performances this year, Clap and Slap stands out. The piece by Agnietė Lisičkinaitė and Igor Shugaleev uses the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to explore the political tensions between Lithuania and Belarus. Through dance and media, the work evokes the nationalism, violence, responsibility and guilt that war can generate between people and nations. Closer to home, MASTERWORK FOR SIX DANCERS by Emese Cuhorka, Csaba Molnár and En–Knap revisits Bauhaus aesthetics and choreography using contemporary objects like yoga mats, playing with perception and form. Lastly, HORNFUCKERS by Diana Niepce involves seven performers navigating a post-apocalyptic world. On stage, the performers are suspended from, balancing on and moving around a floating platform, always at risk of losing their physical and psychological balance
- Various venues, Aug 13-29, details
MONUMENTO
DANCE Drawing on his rural upbringing in southern Chile and the displaced ways of thinking during the German colonisation of Latin America, MOMUMENTO is dancer and choreographer Felipe Fizkal’s memorial to a precolonial existence. The set design, created in collaboration with designer Pitt Kunath, is mammoth. Kunath will transform the DOCK11 building, theatre and stage into a vast, living monument, which includes a two-metre-high structure made of bone, skin, textiles, hair, light grids and cables. It’s from within this mass of interweaving materials that Fizkal can embody memories, knowledge and cultural perceptions with his movement. Cumbia and peasant songs will also be part of the performance in order to reflect the contemporary working class experience.
- DOCK11, Aug 27-30, details
Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The stage version
PERFORMANCE ART On April 15, the self-proclaimed “grandmother of performance art”, Marina Abramović, will arrive at Gropius Bau with her new work Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition. The cross-genre project marks Abramović’s first solo exhibition in Berlin since the 1990s. It serves as both a stand-alone exhibition and a precursor to Balkan Erotic Epic, the stage adaptation of the same name to be performed at Berliner Festspiele this October. As a leading figure of performance art since the 1970s, and one of the first women to define the field, Abramović has built a career around endurance, vulnerability and the body as artistic medium. Now, months before her 80th birthday, Abramović describes the new work as “the most ambitious project of my career”.
- Berliner Festspiele, Oct 14-17, details
