In early October 2024, Jonathan Hollander, director of the Battery Dance Company, along with Teaching Artists Sarah Housepian and Zaki A’Jani Marshall, visited Breisach to introduce local teachers to the “Dancing to Connect” methodology through an initial teacher training session.

Before the dance workshop, the project team familiarized the dance team with the complex history of the Alsace-Baden region, an essential foundation for the choreographic work with students planned for the coming year. The group began their journey on Breisach’s Münsterberg, where the sweeping view of the Rhine, Alsace, and the Vosges Mountains on one side, and the Black Forest on the other, vividly illustrated the region’s turbulent history. The next stop was the Rhine Bridge in Breisach. This bridge, near the site of the wartime-destroyed railway bridge, was the departure point for the seven deportation trains that carried more than 5,600 Jews from 138 towns in southwestern Germany to the French internment camp at Gurs on October 23, 1940.

A commemorative dance performance is planned to take place on this bridge, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s capitulation and the liberation of occupied and annexed territories.

The group then visited the Franco-German cultural center Art’Rhena, where they were warmly welcomed by Jérémy Goltzéné and his team. Art’Rhena will host the dance performances in May. The New York-based group was highly impressed by the venue, expressing great enthusiasm for the upcoming performances in May 2025, which will feature students from schools in Alsace and Baden.