Abstract

The paper discusses the potential that dance and the aesthetic experience of “Tanztheater” bears for developing personality and general learning skills. In October 2006, I interviewed the dancer, choreographer and teacher Royston Maldoom on the topic. Maldoom, who is known for his numerous dance projects with children and adolescents of diverse cultural and social background, worked at the time the interview took place on “You can change your life in a dance class”, a performance with about 110 students (aged 5 to 28 years) from Cologne, Düsseldorf and Leverkusen (Germany) and the Bayer Philharmonic Orchestra. His perspective and ideas presented and reflected upon in the paper are still burning issues which can also be supported by research results from psychology and psycholinguistics as well as educational science.