TanzBildung & me

Friederike Reif

Dance researcher

Dance teacher

Social worker BA

Intercultural trainer

  • My career

    My love and expertise as a dancer lies in couple dancing. I have explored around 20 couple dances since 1998 - from the world dance programme to other Latin and Afro-American dances and contemporary couple dances.


    Since 2007 I have been teaching couple dancing and dedicating myself to dance research. I specialise in couple dance history and didactics. As a qualified social pedagogue, I successfully used couple dance in youth work and adult education from 2010 to 2019. Whether young, older or mixed-abled: Every target group was an enriching experience for me. A special thanks in my professional orientation and development goes to the dance teacher, intercultural trainer and process facilitator Nurka Casanova. Through my many years of involvement in her intercultural and inclusive couple dance project ‘Give me a dance’, I learnt a lot that still shapes my work today.


    In this context, I am also a qualified counsellor for the certificate of cultural competence and a trained intercultural trainer. From 2019, I completed further training as a dance teacher and several dance pedagogy and dance therapy qualifications. In 2024, I completed the dance pedagogy training series for dance, bodywork and personal development at TanzEnergie. The qualified psychologist, alternative practitioner for psychotherapy and dance therapist Irma Benndorf has been a lasting inspiration for my mediation practice.


    From my practical experience and my research, I developed an alternative couple dance concept with "Dance for two" and started my own business in 2020. From 2021 to 2023, I deepened my expertise in couple dance research while working at the Tanzarchiv Köln and now work in the library at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz. Next year I will also complete my master's degree in dance studies here, which I am also dedicating to couple dance research.


    Due to my illness with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2021, I have focussed my work even more on relaxed and health-oriented methods and an inclusive approach. 


    I am currently working on expanding my couple dance concept for blind and visually impaired people.

  • My teaching practice

    I have professional experience as a solo trainer for couple dance since 2007 and work with rock'n'roll, merengue, fusion and blues dance. 


    An essential element of my work are Afro-diasporic dance principles, which I culturally and historically categorise in my classes with the greatest appreciation. With the resulting intuitive and improvisational dance practice, I promote individual development in dance. I also teach authentic blues dance and dances of the 1920s based on the results of my research.


    The additional integration of intra- and interpersonal reflection and the teaching of body knowledge also enable students to appreciate and get to know their own body as well as its abilities and limitations. 


    In the sensitive context of interpersonal encounters, I offer a resource-oriented, safe space for individual expression and processual growth; away from the standardisation of dance movements. 


    My inclusive and diversity-sensitive teaching practice offers participants the opportunity to experience movements and take on roles that are good for them and support their development process. I offer a variety of approaches to this - be it through my needs-orientated, multi-method didactics, non-binary leading and following or a focus on physical variation away from right and wrong. For me, dance is not a boot camp.


    Special emphasis is placed on the qualities of musicality and connection in the dance couple. The connection to one's own body, the music and fellow dancers are central elements of my teaching.


    Based on these values, I favour teaching settings that allow participants time to arrive and develop. From calm to wild, as self-awareness or with the aim of a stage performance: 


    I look forward to dancing with you!


    Let us connect! 🎶

Contact

Videos

Here you can find some impressions of the styles and events I offer.

BluesFusion-Impro

In the video you can see me with Erik Nieland,

Feel free to visit his homepage

Slowdance-Impro

In the video you can see me with Erik Nieland,

Feel free to visit his homepage

Slowdance-Impro

according to the 'Dancing Together' concept

Dance Walk

City-Country-River Festival 2024

Windeck

Blues Dance-Impro

mit Didier Kneuss

A performance with the

Rock'n'Roll-Showgruppe Saltrock