Performance Summer Laboratory 2026
16th – 30th August in Laubach/Germany
& 13th – 20th September in Bordeaux/France
This year, the Performance Summer Laboratory is held with the support of the Performing Arts Department at Bordeaux Montaigne University and warmly welcomes applications from its current students and alumni. The application deadline for French applicants has been extended to 31 May 2026.
Performance Summer Laboratory 2026 invites performers aged 18 to 30 who reside in either Hesse (Germany) or Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France) for a 21-day residency, cultural exchange and performative research. It offers a unique space for learning, research in improvisation and performance work, and personal growth.
It takes place from August 16th to 30th in Laubach, Germany and from September 13th to 20th in Bordeaux, France, as a consistant group, with a pause between the German and the French part of the project.
The participating performers have the opportunity to develop their skills in the following areas:
• communication, collaboration and facilitation within multicultural and multilingual group
• dance and movement based on somatic practices, contemporary dance and contact improvisation
• contemporary theatre based on improvisation and Franki Anderson’s research on the Fool
• solo and group performance-making based on body awareness, vocal and physical expression,
spatial composition (both indoors and outdoors), writing and ensemble training
Participants will exchange and collaborate with other passionate peers while living together in an immersive environment. Unlike many other ‘intensive’ programs, participation costs —including accommodation, meals and travels— are largely covered by the project funding (HMWK, DFJW).
The program welcomes young artists from Germany and France in the field of dance, performance, theater, music and the like. Young professionals, performing arts students as well as passionate individuals from other backgrounds with dedicated interest can apply.
The project provides accommodation, meals, and workshops for the entire duration of 21 days – with the registration fee of 250€ per person. Travel expenses of the participants will be supported by the project – up to 190€ per person.
Performance Summer Laboratory is a cultural exchange initiative centered around performance research and exploration. It is part of the partnership program between Hesse and Nouvelle-Aquitaine, organised by interdisciplinary theater initiative T-LAP (Frankfurt, Germany) and supported by the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts (HMWK) and the Franco-German Youth Office (DFJW/OFAJ).
Required Language Skill: English as well as either French or German
Facilitation:
Ferenc Kréti (T-LAP: Tanz | Theater | Laboratory | Cross-over Productions) www.t-lap.org
Jungyeon Kim (T-LAP: Tanz | Theater | Laboratory | Cross-over Productions) www.jungyeonkim.com
written documentary 2019 https://performancetransposition.wordpress.com/blog-2/
In our artistic laboratory we explore a distinctive approach that brings one's own personality as performer into a dialogue with the chosen theme. Through this process, individual perspectives and forms of expression emerge as creative material, evolving in an intensive personal journey within the ensemble. This material then serves as both inspiration and concrete content for the collective work, culminating in an instant composition — a performance shaped entirely through improvisation in the moment of meeting the audience.
Over the course of three weeks, we navigate this journey together, piece by piece, as a developing ensemble. To this end, we live as a community, engage with Franco-German culture and language, and learn about ourselves and each other on the basis of respect, heterogeneity and artistic creativity. In this way, our approach to performance art permeates and connects all areas of life, opening the door to authentic creation and expression.
Artistic Theme for 2026: "réflexions!on falling and rising"
What makes us fall—and what allows us to rise? The project explores these questions through dance/movement, words/text and music/sound, unfolding the theme
across physical, emotional, and social dimensions. Situated between movement exploration and personal as well as societal perspectives, the work moves between analysis and intuition, separation
and dialogue.
"Réflexions" refers both to reflection and to reflex: a distanced, research-oriented attitude, and at the same time an embodied,
responsive way of working. Participants develop their own artistic questions and research strategies, creating contemporary perspectives that reveal both individuality and connection.
The multilingual performance (French/German and English) approaches falling and rising as a shared experience—abstract in movement, concrete in language—inviting the audience into spaces of
resonance and thought.
Working with the performative approach of Empty Space Performance, the group creates an instant composition as the artistic culmination of the exchange, presenting the outcomes of the artistic
laboratory as part of an open, process-oriented performance.
A special focus lies on engaging with the natural environment as a space of experience, closely interwoven with the artistic work and the daily practice of the laboratory.
deadline for German applicants: 30th April 2026
deadline for French applicants: 31st May 2026
Please send us your application as a single PDF file containing the following information:
– Full name, age, city of residence, phone number, and email address
– CV
– Letter of motivation (approximately one to two pages)
to: applicationsummerlab(at)gmail(dot)com (Ferenc Kréti and Jungyeon Kim)
We welcome only those who can take part for the entire project duration.
Upon submission, applicants will receive a confirmation and may be invited to an online interview.
If you cannot make it in 2026, but wish to be informed for the project in 2027, simply leave a short message to kmjykmjy(at)gmail(dot)com (Jungyeon Kim).
Photos of this page: Ferenc Kréti