In July 2015, Tanzarchiv Leipzig e.V. and B_Tour GbR organised the festival B_Tours Leipzig — Bewegung im Stadtraum in cooperation with the Institute of Theatre Studies, Schauspiel Leipzig, Schaubühne Lindenfels, LOFFT, Jüdische Woche among others. The programme consisted of site-specific tours, performances, films and public discussion rounds (B_Talks) dealing with current perspectives on urban development, the diverse narratives of public space and the different types of individual and collective movement in Leipzig.

The international festival invited visitors to join, for example, Britta Wirthmüllers/Petra Zanki’s Silent Walk and cross the Waldstraßenviertel, once inhabited and shaped by Jewish citizens, to follow the traces of the Schlafleute (English: “sleep people”) in the former industrial area of Lindenau with friendly fire’s Nightwalkers, to seek the new Hypezig following the path of the Hipster Walk inspired by Leipzig’s literary figures, to experience the spatial order of a long-gone department stores’ together with Hermann Heisig at Kaufhaus Ury, to explore a movement choir together in LIGNA’s Tanz Aller or follow the former demonstrations on the Ring in plan b’s The Monday Walks guided by reports of contemporary witnesses.

The project was funded primarily by the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen (English: Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony), the Leipzig Stiftung (Leipzig Foundation), the Fonds Darstellende Künste (Performing Arts Fund) and the Nationale Performance Netz NPN (National Performance Network NPN).

What is the relationship between everyday forms of movement and their urban environment? What scope for action in the public sphere can be created through theatrical actions that engage with the city? For four days, the festival play! LEIPZIG invited visitors to (re)discover old and new places in Leipzig and to be inspired by artistic activities in urban space. Walks, audio tours and performances made politically and culturally significant places, memories and stories of the city and its citizens experienceable in an unusual way – through staged and choreographed movement. In the accompanying conference, international experts discussed current aspects of dance, movement and urban development as well as new forms of intervention.

An event by Tanzarchiv Leipzig e.V. in cooperation with Centraltheater, Leipzig University, Statens Teaterskole Copenhagen and Schaubühne Lindenfels. Supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Concept, artistic and organisational direction Prof. Dr Patrick Primavesi and Diana Wesser.