/ International Culture Project
In the face of stirring global events, the civil society cultural project HUMAN [ˈhjuːmən] invites people to set varied, powerful and creative accents for more humanity. Initiator and artistic director of the project is the composer Helge Burggrabe (*1973).
"It is," says Helge Burggrabe, "absolutely necessary and at the same time a wonderful opportunity to use the universal language and power of music to set many distinctive and powerful signs for more humanity and peaceful coexistence across all borders."
On the way to the anniversary year 2023: 75 years of UN human rights (1948-2023).
To this end, he composed the "HUMAN Music Work for Orchestra and Percussion" (60') - as a "basic melody" and inspired by the 30 articles of the UN Convention on Human Rights.
The composition, conceived as a circle of life, uses the sound language of a chamber orchestra, expanded by a percussion ensemble and piano, to explore the basic processes and tensions of being human in a nuanced, forceful and powerful way: Birth (1), basic needs (2), freedom (3), equality (4), brotherhood (5), love (6), home (7), protection (8), work (9), recreation (10), creativity (11), community (12) and death (13). The respective opposites and tensions also resonate: Freedom and unfreedom, protection and defencelessness, equality and inequality, or as another central theme that concerns and touches every human being: home and foreign.
HUMAN music is moving - and also wants to move in the literal sense: "Because the essentials of UN human rights really have to 'move' everyone, so that they can become an attitude of their own and also really be lived. That is why I have also always had HUMAN music in dance, especially in community dance, in mind." (Helge Burggrabe)
The HUMAN Community Dance performances at the Bremen Theatre and the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels (summer 2021), directed by the international team of choreographers led by Wilfried van Poppel and Amaya Lubeigt, demonstrated how that can be possible (cf. film of the premiere). Starting in Bremen and Brussels, they realize numerous HUMAN school projects with their concept "Five days to dance".
If many people get involved, great things can happen!
Conductors, orchestras, dance companies, teachers, initiatives ... are also warmly invited to join in with HUMAN Music and to set expressive accents with HUMAN music and ideas. Selected ideas and tips can be found here.
An application is not necessary.
Of course we are happy to receive information about your HUMAN initiatives and HUMAN projects and will gladly publish them on the website.
Reach out to the project management:
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News
Grand HUMAN School Project at the Lessingtheater Wolfenbüttel
Erste gemeinsame Probe
For the first time, around 100 students met on the Lessing Theatre's studio stage on 7 March 2023. Beforehand, each group had chosen a theme from the HUMAN Suite and presented it in class.
read more
"THE LITTLE PRINCE"
The premiere is the day after tomorrow!
On Saturday, choreographer Bryan Arias and the Leipzig Ballet will present a completely new, poetic version of Antoine Saint-Exupéry's work.
The
Human encounter in movement, where the sparks fly before the dance begins. And suddenly we spectators are also part of this warm-hearted community of people who are all on the same way.”
Semya Ayoubi
Visitor of the HUMAN Community Dance performance at the Inclusive European Congress "Moving Borders" in Zurich on June 16, 2022
![IMG-20220410-WA0007[1]](https://www.human-project.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-20220410-wa00071-514x514.1666809007.jpg "IMG-20220410-WA0007[1]")
Our German-Polish student exchange week in cooperation with the HUMAN project days has been the most impressive event ever to take place at our secondary school. The 45 children from Germany, Ukraine, Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Hungary, Syria, Spain and Peru also really got beyond themselves in the Community Dance. It was a very touching and moving demonstration of humanity!
Gabriele Lechner
Rector of the Primary and Secondary School Pfeffenhausen/Lower Bavaria; the school has had a partnership for 20 years with Szkoła Podstawowa im. Marii Konopnickiej in Jaworzyna Slaska. For the 20th anniversary of the school partnership, the HUMAN Community Dance Workshop ended with a performance of the HUMAN themes "Home", "Protection" and "Love" (Choreographer: Wilfried van Poppel, Amaya Lubeig, Susan Barnett; 10/2022).
Music and dance express what cannot be said and about which it is impossible to remain silent. Man cannot be silent and should not be silenced. That is why we dance.
Mareike Windorf
General Manager, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin
In helping to shape them, the HUMAN European Culture Project pays tribute to human rights and all those involved.
Gerhard Ziener
Pedagogical-Theological Centre Stuttgart
Bremen and dance, Bremen and human rights - they all match in a wonderful way. I am very happy that this exciting and important project is starting here in Bremen and I wish that it will reach many young people and sensitise them to the value of human rights until it ends in the year after next.
Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte
Mayor, President of the Bremen Senate, Patron of the HUMAN dance premiere at the Bremen Theatre
For me, participating in a community dance project means being able to express myself without boundaries. In HUMAN, we thus present the basic rights of humanity, which unfortunately are not respected in many countries.
Sandra Calvo Pastor
Ensemble member, HUMAN Dance Premiere Bremen
A project such as HUMAN underlines what is common to all people and lets us reflect on the importance of human rights. I like to contribute to bringing more awareness of their importance to society.
Julio Fernández
conductor of the HUMAN dance premiere at the Bremen Theatre, founded the IntoNation Choir of the Bremen University of Applied Sciences in 2014 with the aim of developing choral works with singers from all over the world
People dancing together is the ideal way of engaging with each other in a spirit of openness, respect and acceptance.
Wilfried van Poppel
Choreography Team HUMAN Premiere and head of HUMAN school projects
The book Menschlichkeit JETZT! by Pierre Stutz and Helge Burggrabe is a wake up call, not to separate between caring good for one self and live with empathy for others. I discover in this book and in the HUMAN project something which is an impuls and inspiration for our work as publishing group: Have a good life and live the good!
Ulrich Peters
Director Verlagsgruppe Patmos
Participating in the Human International Cultural Dance Project in Pfeffenhausen has been an unforgettable adventure and a wonderful learning experience for the Polish students.
Barbara Dzikowska
The HUMAN International Cultural Project is a very touching community dance project and as a part of the school exchange it can hardly be topped. Barbara Dzikowska, teacher, Szkoła Podstawowa im. Marii Konopnickiej in Jaworzyna Slaska; the school has had a partnership for 20 years with ‘Grund- und Mittelschule’ Pfeffenhausen/Bayern. For the 20th anniversary of the school partnership, the HUMAN Community Dance Workshop ended with a performance of the HUMAN themes "Home", "Protection" and "Love" (Choreographer: Wilfried van Poppel, Amaya Lubeig, Susan Barnett; 10/2022).
More than ever, our world needs humanity. So I' m very happy that HUMAN wants to work with young people to overcome opposites in order to realise the dream of equality and unity of cultures in a loving and humane way.
Aldegonde Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn
Initiate the HUMAN performance in Brussels
The HUMAN project strives to encourage young people to develop their own strengths and visions so that they can make their own way as part of a free and tolerant society.
Kurt de Prins
Director of the IMELDA school in Brüssel-Molenbeek
Very special the opportunity to share with others and to bring forever in the body movements, images and claims of Human Rights like Liberty, Equality, Creativity ... through HUMAN and the dance-theatre.
Pablo García Bartolomé
Psicólogo colegiado M-33251 especialista en arte terapia, salud comunitaria y educación para la salud.
I am extremely proud of our students as well as the whole school family. The performance has demonstrated what our kids are capable of when given the chance. What was clearly noticable tonight: Our diversity unites us.
Florian Hölzl
Major of Pfeffenhausen/Bavaria, on the 20th jubilee of the school partnership of the primary and secondary school Pfeffenhausen and Szkoła Podstawowa in. Marii Konopnickiej in Jaworzyna Slaska
For me, HUMAN is about essentials: Beyond language and cultural barriers, we are people - with bodies that want to move. Community Dance can overcome walls and build bridges! So let us dance!
Nanni Kloke
Choreography Team HUMAN Premiere
The idea of the HUMAN project is to bring young people together and give them a voice so that they are heard as individuals and as a group.
Royston Maldoom
Artistic choreographic support
Young people who are interested in people in other countries develop a deep understanding of a Europe of diversity, of a Europe of peace and democracy. This is the great asset of this school partnership and the HUMAN performance is a powerful, distinctive sign of this.
Ruth Müller, MdL (SPD)
Second Vice Chairwoman of the SPD in the Bavarian State Parliament, District Councillor in the Landshut District, Municipal Councillor in Pfeffenhausen and Foundation Member of the Friends of Pfeffenhausen-Jaworzyna Slaska e. V.
For me, dance makes my world better. I tell stories and images with it. It's something very personal, intimate and at the same time very communal.
Mina Raschiatore
Ensemble member, HUMAN Dance Premiere Bremen
HUMAN is an inspiring and empowering opportunity for young people—and everyone else involved—to explore and create collectively. Its focus on humankind’s shared values, needs and wishes, through a creative and caring process, counterbalances the current flood of global issues that constantly threaten our inner sense of stability.
Susan Barnett
Choreography Team HUMAN Premiere
I’m so enthusiastic about HUMAN because this creative dance project brings my somewhat gutsy composure to the fore where there is no dividing line between a playful presence and depth, spirituality and human rights.
Pierre Stutz
Author of the HUMAN book "Menschlichkeit JETZT!"
For me, this HUMAN performance expressed a new human right, as essential as any other: the right to be who you are!
Yann Lenggenhager
History teacher, Lead Educator Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Switzerland
Dancing together is so wonderful. Dance is a great language that all people understand. For me, it is a great joy to express the 13 pieces on being human. I am really gripped by dance fever!
Yeroh Saw
Ensemble member, HUMAN Dance Premiere Bremen
The dance project was truly unique. It has been so nice to feel how much joy the impaired people had to be able to dance with us.
Anina Hartmann
Participant of the first inclusive HUMAN project in June 2021, Rudolf Steiner Schule Zürcher Oberland, Wetzikon
The purpose of the HUMAN project is to empower and allow young people to flourish.
Helge Burggrabe
HUMAN Initiator and Composer of the HUMAN Suite for orchestra
Edris - a young Afghan who joined in the dancing in this project - really won my heart! Between being desperate and having tears in his eyes from happiness, he let me live through the four days. At last he gave me a Turkish euro, which he probably kept with him as a talisman on his escape. It was as if someone was pressing a treasure of gold into my hand in thankfulness for his presence. THAT touched and impressed me deeply.
Nina Baldinger
Choreographer, director of a HUMAN Community Dance project in Freiburg (9/2022) with 20 people aged between 6 and 74 from seven nations (Madagascar, Turkey, South America etc.).
In this community dance project, the human right to cultural empowerment can be experienced. I am sure that the HUMAN performances will raise awareness of this important issue. We all have to commit to the concrete realisation of human rights!
Karoline Ott
Violinist and dramaturge of the Kammerensemble Konsonanz, HUMAN dance premiere at the Bremen Theatre
In a dance project like HUMAN, everyone can participate. One's own abilities are taken into account and the best is brought out.
Madita Brünjes
Ensemble member, HUMAN Dance Premiere Bremen
For me, HUMAN is the chance of an intercultural embrace by people who respect life.
David Cisternas
Violinist and dramaturge of the Kammerensemble Konsonanz
»[…] We are tonight in the HUMAN dance project spectators or participants of a new human-human relationship without ifs and buts. […] The only essential thing is the encounter at the same eye level in the presence of the full individuality of each other. […]«
Domenig Christian Gaegauf
initiate the first inclusive HUMAN dance project in Switzerland (June 2021; communicated via Supported Communication)
A great project! I wish all participants deeply lasting and happy impressions and experiences. I would love to dance along right away! And finally, I also hope that the message will get to places and people where it is most urgently needed, so that human rights can really be rights for all people.
Julia Jentsch
Film and theatre actress
To dance with other people is always very moving and fills the heart immensely, specially when you see so many people who didn't know each other before, dancing together a piece like HUMAN on stage.
Susanne Eule
Susanne Eule, choreographer, director of a HUMAN Community Dance project in Freiburg with 20 people aged between 6 and 74 and from seven nations (Madagascar, Turkey, South America etc.).
![Vera Griebert-Schröder- Munich[94].](https://www.human-project.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/vera-griebert-schroder-munich94.-e1670089363864-514x419.1670089422.jpeg "Vera Griebert-Schröder- Munich[94].")
It is a great joy and confidence to be able to work with other dancers in free dance to weave a loving, appreciative togetherness of the human family.
Vera Griebert-Schröder
Participant of the HUMAN project with free dance / Conscious Dance, Munich
I very much hope that many will be so inspired by the innovative and exciting HUMAN Culture Project and the young people's work for human rights. We are happy to contribute to this.
Prof. Dr. Karin Luckey
Rector Hochschule Bremen/City University of Applied Sciences
To express in freestyle dance what is manifested from moment to moment on these compositions by Helge Burggrabe on elementary themes of being human, unites us as a group and brings our individual expression of humanity into the world. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for this wonderful present!
Oranna Erb
Direction of the HUMAN dance project with freestyle dance in Munich
Well, I think human rights are an incredibly brilliant idea! The fact that human beings as a species, which is very much characterised by survival of the fittest, can conceive of such ideals of equality, freedom and solidarity is a phenomenal achievement.
Morten Reisemann
Ensemble member, HUMAN Dance Premiere Bremen
![Katharina Vollmer 22-005[64]](https://www.human-project.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/katharina-vollmer-22-00564-1-514x343.1679242946.jpg "Katharina Vollmer 22-005[64]")
A HUMAN performance that took us with it. Two-way unification and decoding of movement and music. Deep and joyful at the very same time. A touching reminder of human rights, so valuable and so much under threat.
Katharina Vollmer
Pastor, Swiss German Reformed Parish of Geneva, on the HUMAN performance on UN Human Rights Day, 10.12.2022 at the Temple de Madeleine (Direction by Prof. Nathalie Effenberger Dance School Youra Tcheremissinoff)
Being HUMAN is our reality, but feeling HUMAN is our right. Through this project and through dance we want to invite participants to love and express life, feeling, understanding and working together for a better world.
Amaya Lubeigt
Choreography Team HUMAN Premiere and head of HUMAN school projects
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HUMAN project is about us all. No matter your color, country of origin, age, background, disability, or culture … it is about you too. And it’s a privilege to be part of it!
Albino Moura
School director Escola de Dança Lugar Presente, Viseu/Portugal, Partner in the Erasmus+ project
Movement emerge from itself, thats how I dance. To do this with human rights holds archaic moments and touches my heart - its healing. To spread the movement of our VALUES into the world is just wonderful.
Andrea M. Nossem
Participant of the HUMAN rights conscious dance group, Munich
To us as a label, the HUMAN project means empathy and enthusiasm for interpreting the UN’s declaration of human rights in music and dance in a brand-new way.
Marcus Heinicke
Senior Product Manager, Edel Kultur/Berlin Classics
Even the first rehearsal we had together was full of touching, humorous, exciting moments. It was a great feeling to see how intensively the students had already engaged with human rights and music. I am looking forward to the big performance in June.
Lena Simon
Cultural Office of the City of Wolfenbüttel, Director of the HUMAN Project at the Lessingtheater Wolfenbüttel
The human rights are the minimum common framework on the grounds of which the individual can develop. Therefore, they must be collectively demanded and protected. In the workshop team formed by Amaya and Wilfred, we are all pieces of a beautiful puzzle whose elements join together to form a whole. But the message is never clear, it requires audience members who are challenged by what happens on stage.
Angélica López de la Manzanara
Jurist, participant in the HUMAN Community Dance project in Asturias in summer 2022
Taking part in the Human project has been an opportunity for me to recognise and transmit, through the expression of dance, universal feelings and sensations of human rights in a wonderful and unknown atmosphere for me. So much in the aspect of the artistic background as well as the group of people who have shared this project. A very warm embrace to all of you
Gloria Madrigal Mir
Participant in a HUMAN dance project in Asturias, summer 2022
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