b12: research or die: The festival for contemporary dance and performance art in Berlin, summer event, July 2022 [event review]

Beth Loughran, Lecturer in Dance & Movement at the University of Cumbria, UK, reviews this annual dance festival. b12: research or die is a dance festival running yearly in Berlin, Germany, and since 2017 based out of the Eden Studios and Eden Dock 11 performance space. The optimally equipped and cared for studios nestle among a leafy garden area to the back of the main building with hosting facilities and a café; a very hospitable and sociable environment for the international attendees. The original festival main event has usually run in the summer, yet its yearly development and growth means that there have been increasingly additional chances to take part. For example, the b12 Spring and Autumn iterations are now well established, and online participation has been maintained as an option stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic adaptations. In the case of the summer event, it runs as a series of workshops that organisers term as ‘researches’, with the opportunity for different lengths of experience from around 2-13 days. ‘No leader improvs’, morning yoga, talks and performances appear in the programme too, all stemming from the artists, leaders and participants involved, some of these free of charge and others at additional cost.