Making a Difference – Teaser in German Sign Language with German subtitles.

Making a Difference

Making a Difference is a Berlin-based network founded in 2018 to promote the independent work of disabled, d/Deaf and chronically ill artists in dance. Eight organisations have joined forces to create high-quality, accessible training and production opportunities through workshops, residencies and co-productions. The central guideline of the project is to fill all leadership and expert positions with disabled, d/Deaf and chronically ill people.

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Colorful, soft color gradient visual with the main colors yellow, violet, and pastel green. In the center of the image, the title is written in large black letters:
Un—Renewable Energies
Dance Festival

To the right are the date and location:
September 15 — October 17, 2025
Uferstudios Berlin

At the bottom left is the Making a Difference logo, with some letters slightly distorted and offset.

At the very bottom center is the website:
festival.making-a-difference-berlin.de

The design is bright, friendly, and organic, with soft color gradients and an overall calm impression.

“Unrenewable Energies”

September 15 – October 17, 2025

Making a Difference ist hosting the festival Unrenewable Energies. Unrenewable Energies is a dance festival that centers time, energy, and resources from disabled, Deaf, and chronically ill perspectives.

Navigating limited resources, unpredictable influences, and interdependencies – as well as practicing mutual care and collective time-taking – are crip expertises. Unrenewable Energies celebrates these as critical practices that resonate far beyond disability contexts.

The festival asks: What happens when artistic processes are radically shaped by the needs of disabled, Deaf, and chronically ill artists – and their audiences?

Over the course of four weeks, the festival stretches what is often squeezed into weekend marathons: Unrenewable Energies features two productions, two residencies, four practice sharings, three bed-side performances, peer-to-peer mentoring, exchange formats – and a final party. Boom! The festival also includes a symposium, which will take place in cooperation with the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin, at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

Apart from the Symposium, the program takes place consciously during the week – keeping weekends free for rest and recovery.

Unrenewable Energies challenges what is often taken for granted and creates space for crip perspectives and new experiences of shared time.

From mid-August, detailed information on the individual formats and the respective accessibility measures will be available at festival.making-a-difference-berlin.de.

Our publication is out!

Under the title „Making a Difference 2018-2024. Developing, cultivating, and strengthening anti-ableist practice in the field of dance”, we look back on the last six years. In the form of interviews with artists and reports on developments in the network’s partner organisations, Chapter 1 provides insights into project practice over the last six years. Chapter 2 “What it takes to act – a knowledge transfer” gives an overview of our perspectives on disability, ableism, privilege and audism as well as initial practical recommendations for anti-ableist working practices in the cultural sector and beyond.

Click here to open the digital publication as accessible PDF