Cheers for Fears

What is Cheers for Fears?

An initiative, a network, a mobile academy

CHEERS FOR FEARS is an initiative that was founded in 2013 with the aim of intensifying the exchange between emerging artists in NRW and their academies and encouraging artistic collaboration. The initiative’s founding impulse resulted from the desire to exchange working strategies, aesthetics and perspectives across universities and disciplines.

This objective has been pursued regularly ever since: Young artists and art students from the fields of stage design, design, singing, instrumental music, composition, media art, film, physical theater, directing, scenic research, scenography, dance and dance education as well as dance and theater studies meet regularly to talk about their work and work statuses and to debate with changing guests about the study and working conditions in the arts. After many editions of Cheers for Fears on Tour, we rely on formats such as the CheersCamp, in which all participants contribute their specialist knowledge, or our dream formats, which enable interested parties to turn their own event ideas into reality with the support of CHEERS FOR FEARS. We regularly invite people to join us at events such as the sculpture projects in Münster or the tour of the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and to talk to the artists involved.

In addition to regular discussions, workshops and studio visits, a Cheers for Fears festival or an academy has been held annually since 2014 with changing partners such as the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Theater Oberhausen, FFT Düsseldorf, the IMPULSE Festival or TanzFaktur Köln. The festivals focus on the presentation and feedback of artistic works – in addition, we explore a pressing question in workshops with invited guests and in discussion formats. In 2014, we asked what experimental freedom exists at universities beyond the curricula; the following year, we looked at the role of music in works of performing and visual art; in 2016, we wanted to know what forms of performance play a role in theater training at NRW universities; at the 2017 Cheers Festival, we were interested in the significance and understanding of political “art between reflection and action” and in 2018, under the motto “Organize yourselves! (Working) together in the arts”, we addressed questions of collective creation. In 2019, as part of the Impulse Theater Festival, we invited young artists and theater makers to explore the fine line between empowerment and self-optimization in theater and the arts. In 2020, we invited under the title “Staging Complexity. A Lab on Culture and Theatre in the Digital Age” at the Academy for Theatre and Digitalization at Theater Dortmund. In 2022, students, teachers, young artists and their audiences came together as part of the Cheers for Fears Festival at tanzhaus nrw. Under the motto of interdisciplinary exchange and teaching in the arts, i nstallative, cinematic, scenic, dance as well as musical formats came together. Also Panel discussion “Together for the Theater of Tomorrow – Training in the Performing Arts” was held.

In addition to solidarity-based exchange, Cheers for Fears also repeatedly encourages interdisciplinary artistic collaboration. In co-production with the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, we were able to initiate three theater productions by young artists from various universities in 2014, which were presented at the Favoriten theater festival. At Favoriten 2016, we then realized the summer academy “Another Living Theatre”, which dealt with traditions of political art and political interventions and culminated in a performance in Dortmund’s urban space. In cooperation with the literature initiative Land in Sicht, we examine the theatrical potential of texts by young authors from German-speaking countries once a year at the Auftakt Festival für szenische Texte together with theater makers from the Cheers community. In 2018, we also relaunched the idea of a production platform with Cheers for Fears Transit – bringing together young artists and students at the end of their training to produce their first major work together. Transit was launched again in 2021 to encourage artistic teams across disciplines to create unconventional works.

In October 2015, the initiative set up a coordination office at the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, which serves as a space for coordinating the initiative’s work, is to be used as a meeting place for students and makes it easier to publicize requests and appeals. Your contacts there are the initiative coordinators Mona Sachße, Sina Schneller and Josefine Simonsen .
Das Kontakt- und Koordinationsbüro im Ringlokschuppen Ruhr ist Dienstags von 11 bis Uhr besetzt.

The CHEERS FOR FEARS initiative is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science. Strong partners include the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, the NRW Kultursekretariat, the FFT Düsseldorf and the Theater Dortmund. At academy level, we have special links with the Folkwang University of the Arts, the Academy of Media Arts and the Ruhr University Bochum.

The Team

Portrait Mona Sachße

Mona Sachße

At the beginning of 2022, I joined Cheers for Fears as project manager for the Cheers for Fears Festival at tanzhaus nrw and since then I have been continuously taking on project management tasks for the network, for example for the “Art & Coding” encounter laboratory in collaboration with the Academy for Theater and Digitality or the dream formats. I am delighted to be part of an initiative that aims to bring artists together and create spaces that are sensitive to fear.

Portrait Sina-Marie Schneller

Sina-Marie Schneller

Cheers for Fears already influenced me during my studies of theater and literature in Bochum. As a driving force and forum, Cheers for Fears has promoted my broad and unbiased view of the young arts scene in NRW and also personal contacts.
In 2015 I started as production manager of the Cheers for Fears Festival  Theater Oberhausen and since then have continued to work on networking the young art scene in NRW. In 2022 and 2024 I am also co-directing the FAVORITEN Festival.

Contact

Cheers for Fears Office

Tuesday 11–18 o’ clock
c/o Ringlokschuppen Ruhr
Am Schloß Broich 38
45479 Mülheim an der Ruhr
contact@cheersforfears.de
Tel.: 0208 9931678

Josefine Luka Simonsen

I have been working as a project manager at Cheers for Fears since September 2022. I was significantly involved in the project “Re_Generation” in collaboration with the FFT and organized the weekend “Training for political Imaginaries” in May 2023. During my studies at the Center for Contemporary Dance at the HfMT, I got to know the Cheers for Fears initiative as an important platform for artistic and interdisciplinary exchange. Now I am very happy to be part of this initiative myself. By continuing to work on formats and opportunities as well as creating spaces for encounters and visibility for young artists, it is possible to help shape the cultural landscape of NRW. The practical exchange of questions and knowledge also occupies me in my own dance and performance work.

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Jascha Sommer

In 2013, I founded the Cheers for Fears initiative together with Johanna-Yasirra Kluhs and with the support of Ringlokschuppen Ruhr out of a desire to contribute to the networking of scenic arts degree programs in NRW and to broaden students’ horizons beyond their respective universities through continuous and selective activities.

I studied theater studies and scenic research in Bochum and Paris, as well as media arts at the Kunsthochschule für Medien. Through my studies and my own artistic work, I am familiar with the young theater and art scene in NRW and am constantly thinking about collaborations between young artists with students and teachers at universities and theaters.

Press commentaries

Zusammen mit der Initiative Cheers for Fears veranstaltete die Akademie für Theater und Digitalität das Symposium Staging Complexity. Kunst und Theater im digitalen Zeitalter.

Das Symposium war eine sehr politische Veranstaltung. Es versammelte wichtige Gedanken und Fragen, mit denen sich Kunst- und Theaterschaffende heute beschäftigen und stellte Verbindungen zwischen der aktuellen Situation und historischen Bezügen her. Es zeigte, dass Digitalität und Theater sehr interessante Wechselwirkungen haben.

Deutschlandfunk Kultur im Gespräch mit Stefan Keim

"Erfolgreich und etwas größenwahnsinnig."

Die Netzwerkgründer von Cheers for Fears entwerfen in ihrem Labor neue Formen künstlerischer Zusammenarbeit.

Jeder kann irgendetwas besonders gut, jeder lernt etwas vom anderen – das ist die ­ambitionierte wie mutige These, die der Entwicklung von originellen und vielfältigen Formaten voransteht. […] Das Netzwerk wächst beständig und entwickelt sich entlang der eigenen Ziele ­weiter. Dabei fräst sich Cheers for Fears nicht nur in institutionelle Hochburgen der Kultur- und Wissenschaftslandschaft, sondern ­bricht auch verkrustete Gefüge der freien Szene lustvoll auf. Es bleibt gespannt abzuwarten, mit welchen neuen Fragen und Konstellationen Cheers for Fears aufwarten werden.

Theater der Zeit

„Warten auf die große Kunstparty“

Staging Complexity – Die Initiative Cheers for Fears veranstaltet ihr Symposium zu “Kunst und Theater im digitalen Zeitalter” online

Eigentlich sollte das von “Cheers for Fears” veranstaltete Symposium im Theater Dortmund stattfinden. Doch in Zeiten von Corona war das alles keine Option mehr. Wären die Umstände andere, könnte man beinahe von einer passenden Fügung sprechen. […] In der Videochat-Situation wird alles zur Inszenierung, die Bilder und Bücher im Hintergrund ebenso wie Gesten und Körperhaltungen der Sprechenden. Das Online-Publikum stellt automatisch, fast schon unbewusst, Bezüge her, analysiert und interpretiert. […] So hat dieses Online-Symposium etwas zum Vorschein gebracht, was im Theater nicht zum Tragen gekommen wäre. Es hat den digitalen Raum als riesige Bühne kenntlich gemacht.

nachtkritik.de

"Ein gewaltiges kuratorisches Projekt"

Es ging darum, nicht nur mit den Kommilitonen, sondern auch den Studenten von Folkwang, der Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln oder den Bühnenbildklassen in Düsseldorf ins Gespräch zu kommen. Zusammen mit dem Ringlokschuppen Ruhr entwarf Jascha Sommer die Begegnungsplattform „Cheers for Fears“, die kleine Produktionsstipendien ausschreibt, Dialogformate auflegt oder Arbeiten der Studierenden zur internen Diskussion stellt. Ein gewaltiges kuratorisches Projekt, das inzwischen sogar eine gewisse Nachhaltigkeit erreicht hat.

Die Deutsche Bühne