The Association of German Dance Archives consists of seven participating institutions. Since 2007, its mission has been to present the knowledge and diversity contained in dance archives to the public and to work together to promote the needs of dance archives and collections.

The association currently includes the following institutions: das Archiv Darstellende Kunst der Akademie der Künste Berlin (Performing Arts Archive of the Berlin Academy of Arts), das Archiv des Instituts für Zeitgenössischen Tanz der Folkwang Universität der Künste | Folkwang Tanzarchiv (Archive of the Institute for Contemporary Dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts | Folkwang Dance Archive), das Hochschularchiv der Palucca Hochschule (the University Archive of the Palucca University of Dance) in Dresden, das Deutsche Tanzarchiv Köln (the German Dance Archive Cologne), Deutsches Tanzfilminstitut Bremen (the German Dance Film Institute Bremen), die Mediathek für Tanz und Theater am Internationalen Theaterinstitut Deutschland (the Media Library for Dance and Theater at the International Theater Institute Germany), and das Tanzarchiv Leipzig (the Dance Archive Leipzig).

To this end, the dance archives in the network have been working together for many years on various initiatives and projects.

With the Round Table Dance Archives and Dance Collections, the network has been bringing together dance archives, collections, and initiatives in German-speaking countries since 2019 to exchange ideas on current topics.

Since 2022, the archives have been playing a key role in setting up the platform www.tanz-digital.de. This platform presents the history and present of dance in unique combinations of different materials, bringing it to life. The great diversity of content is thanks to a growing community that is actively involved in making dance creation digitally visible.

In 2023 and 2024, a study on the structural conditions and work processes in five dance archives and dance collections in Germany was conducted as part of the TANZ-GEDÄCHTNIS-DIGITALITÄT (Dance Memory Digitality) project, funded by the Cultural Foundation of the German States. The resulting recommendations for action can be viewed here.

As part of the Kulturerbe Tanz (Dance Cultural Heritage) project, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, five dance archives were able to work on selected digitization projects from 2023 to 2025: the inventory description of the Tatjana Gsovsky-Gert Reinholm Archive, the digitization and online publication of selected dance books from the 16th and 17th centuries, digital methods in the dance archive, film portraits of dance archives and dance artists, and dance in the GDR with a focus on Patricio Bunster and Gret Palucca. The projects were accompanied by workshops. You can find more information about the project results here.
At the closing event on January 15, 2026, in Berlin, questions about “Cultural Heritage Protection – Preserving Dance Together” will be discussed.

The network is coordinated by the office of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (German Dance Association).