The German Dance Film Institute in Bremen is Europe's largest audiovisual archive for dance. It houses over 40,000 documents, most of which are irreplaceable originals. Founded in 1989 at the historic site of West German post-war dance theater in Bremen, the institute is closely linked to the history of dance theater.

Under the artistic director Kurt Hübner, Bremen provided a space for different artistic positions in dance aesthetics from 1968 onwards, such as the political dance theater of Johann Kresnik. International careers such as those of Reinhild Hoffmann, Susanne Linke, and Urs Dietrich began here, accompanied early on by professional television documentaries.

In collaboration with cultural broadcasters such as 3sat, arte, and the Goethe Institutes, the institute developed into a central production, preservation, and communication center for audiovisual dance heritage.

Since 2012, the institute has been operating a professional digitization center with more than 20 video formats. Collections from municipal and state theaters in the field of classical ballet, as well as from independent dance producers, are secured, restored, and preserved for the long term.

The journalistic work includes reports, portrait series, and individual films—including the Tele-Tanzjournale—as well as decades of documentation of dance productions and series recordings of key dance events such as: the German Dance Award, the International Dance Fair NRW, the Dance Platform Germany, and festivals such as the Kampnagel Summer Festival. Long-standing collaborations complement the profile with lecture series, exhibitions, the monthly dance salon, and support for university courses.