K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg Residency Programme 2027/2028: Three Paid Eight-Month Choreography Residencies With a Monthly Scholarship, Studios and a Production Budget, Closing 12 August 2026 at 16:00 CEST

K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg Residency Programme 2027/2028: Three Paid Eight-Month Choreography Residencies With a Monthly Scholarship, Studios and a Production Budget, Closing 12 August 2026 at 16:00 CEST

Most opportunities described as “residencies” in contemporary dance give an artist two to six weeks of studio time and a small fee. K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg does something structurally different: it gives three choreographers eight consecutive months, a monthly scholarship large enough to live on in a major German city, a production budget, and a team of dramaturgs, technicians and producers attached to the work. The point, in the programme’s own words, is to provide “sufficient time and space for overcoming conventional rhythms of production” — that is, to fund the part of the process that project grants normally squeeze out.

Applications for the 2027/2028 cycle close on 12 August 2026 at 16:00 Central European Summer Time. The residency itself runs from August 2027 to April 2028, so this is a call you apply to roughly a year before you would move.

Key Details

What the Residency Actually Provides

The package has six components, and it is worth separating them because they answer different problems.

A monthly scholarship for living expenses and accommodation in Hamburg. K3 is explicit that the exact 2027/28 amount is still to be confirmed, and equally explicit about the reference point: in the 2025/26 season the scholarship was 2,500 euros per month. Treat that as the honest planning figure rather than a promise. Over eight months at that rate the scholarship alone is in the region of 20,000 euros. Note the framing — it is meant to cover both living costs and accommodation, so you should budget Hamburg rent out of it rather than expecting separate housing.

One-time travel from and to your place of residence. Return travel is covered once, not per trip. If you plan to go home mid-residency, that is on you.

Support with papers and visas, including the related costs. For non-EU applicants this is more valuable than it sounds. A German artist visa or residence permit for an eight-month stay is a real administrative project, and having an institution that has done it before is the difference between a workable plan and a collapsed one.

Use of the K3 studios. This is the piece most affected by circumstances specific to this cycle, discussed below.

A production budget. K3 describes it as “moderate” and scoped so that you can bring in a small team for the last few weeks of the residency. It is not a budget for a large cast carried across eight months. Design your project accordingly.

Accompanying support in dramaturgy, organisation, technical assistance and public relations. For an early-career choreographer this is often the most transformative part: sustained dramaturgical conversation is very hard to buy, and almost impossible to find on a project-by-project basis.

K3 also states that accessibility costs for the residency can be covered in most cases after consultation, and that it tries to support additional costs for care, including children or next of kin. If either applies to you, raise it early with the team rather than after selection.

The 2027/28 Renovation — Read This Before You Apply

During the 2027/28 season, K3 and Kampnagel are undergoing building renovations. K3 has been upfront about what that means: studios will be available throughout the residency, but the premieres will be shown in theatres across the city or in non-theatrical spaces rather than at the home venue.

This is a genuine planning variable, not fine print. A project conceived for a specific black-box configuration with a fixed grid and a fixed audience relationship may need to be adaptable. Conversely, a project that is already interested in site, public space, or non-theatrical settings is unusually well matched to this particular cycle. If your proposal can name that flexibility — or better, treat the condition as a productive constraint rather than a problem to be managed — you are answering a question the selection committee is certainly asking.

Who This Fits

The eligibility criteria describe a fairly precise career position, and reading them loosely is the most common way to waste an application.

You should be at the beginning of your career, between emerging and early mid-career, and you should already have realised several of your own projects outside an educational context. Graduation pieces and school productions do not establish this. K3 asks for up to four video links to full-length choreographies of your own, which is the practical test: if you cannot assemble that, you are early for this call.

You must be available to stay in Hamburg for the entire residency, August 2027 to April 2028. This is a residency in the literal sense. Applicants juggling a teaching post or a parallel touring commitment should be honest with themselves about whether they can actually clear eight months.

You must be an individual. K3 states plainly that applications by teams or ensembles cannot be taken into consideration. Collectives that work under a shared name will need to decide whether one member applies in their own right — and if so, the application should read as that person’s practice, not the group’s.

Beyond the formal criteria, K3 describes the kind of artist the programme is built for: someone interested in exchange with other artists and with an audience, willing to take part in K3’s outreach programme and other events, with some experience of or interest in engaging with choreography on a discursive level — reflecting on their own work — and comfortable working in a self-organised way. This is not decorative language. Eight months with two other residents and a dramaturgy team rewards artists who want to talk about the work; it can be uncomfortable for those who prefer to disappear into the studio.

K3 accepts applications in all choreographic fields, explicitly naming dance for young audiences, public space and film. It welcomes applications from every country, does not require formal dance education, and explicitly encourages applications from people who experience discrimination — including people who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, Sintizze and Romnja, Jewish, Muslim and/or refugees, people with a family history of migration or flight, and people with disabilities, who are deaf or hard of hearing, or with chronic illnesses. It also encourages choreographers with non-institutional training and different dance styles.

How the Selection Process Works

The application is a multi-step process through an online form, and knowing the shape of it changes how you should spend your effort now.

Round one — the current deadline. What is considered at this stage is a short project description, biographies, and videos of past works. That is all. You are not writing a full dossier in August 2026.

Round two — September 2026. Selected candidates are invited to write an extended application including a motivation, a project description, and a structure for the work.

External board review, then interviews. After review by an external board, a shortlist of candidates is invited to interviews via Zoom.

Final decision — expected by the end of 2026.

K3 states that applications are examined by the K3 team and an external committee, assessing artistic quality, political and artistic relevance, feasibility, and sustainability. Those four criteria are worth taking literally as a checklist for your material.

The practical implication of the staged structure is this: the first round is won or lost on the videos and a short, sharp project description. Do not spend August writing prose you will not be asked for. Spend it choosing and cutting video.

Preparing a Strong First-Round Application

Choose the videos as though nobody will watch them to the end. You may submit up to four links to full-length works. Full-length is what is asked for, so do not substitute a showreel — but make sure each link opens instantly, is correctly password-protected with the password supplied inline, and does not expire before December 2026. If your best evidence sits inside a longer piece, say in the link description where to look.

Write the short project description as a proposition, not a mood. The committee is reading for artistic quality and feasibility. A description that names what you want to investigate, what form it might take, and why eight uninterrupted months are the right container for it does more than atmospheric writing about themes.

Address the eight months directly. The residency’s stated goal is to strengthen the connections between choreographic practice, research, artistic production and qualification. An application that describes a project you could make in six weeks, stretched, is answering the wrong call.

Write in English, and start the form early. English is the only accepted application language. The online form can be filled in, edited and saved throughout the application period, which is the right way to use it. Applications not sent before the deadline are deleted, and K3 states clearly that the deadline cannot be extended.

Use the accessibility route if you need it. If for accessibility reasons you need help navigating the form, or need to submit in another format, K3 asks you to contact them by email or phone. Do that with time to spare, not on 12 August.

Common Mistakes

• Applying as a duo or collective. This is an automatic exclusion, and it happens every cycle.
• Submitting only student work. The criteria ask for projects realised outside an educational context.
• Saving and never sending. The form’s save function has caught out applicants who assumed a saved draft counted as submitted. It does not; unsent applications are deleted.
• Ignoring the renovation. A proposal that depends on a specific theatre configuration invites a feasibility objection you could have pre-empted.
• Over-scoping the production. The production budget is described as moderate and sized for a small team over the final weeks. A proposal implying eight dancers on contract for eight months reads as unfeasible.
• Treating outreach as optional. Willingness to take part in K3’s outreach programme is a stated requirement, not a bonus.
• Missing 16:00. The deadline is a mid-afternoon CEST time, not end of day. If you are applying from the Americas or East Asia, convert it before you plan your final week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many residencies are awarded? Three, annually.

Exactly how much is the scholarship? K3 has not confirmed the 2027/28 figure. The published reference point is 2,500 euros per month in the 2025/26 season, described as covering living expenses and accommodation in Hamburg.

Is accommodation provided separately? No. The monthly scholarship is framed as covering living expenses and accommodation.

Can I apply from outside Europe? Yes. Applications are welcomed from all countries, and K3 supports the visa process and covers related costs.

Do I need a dance degree? No. Formal dance education is not required, and choreographers with non-institutional education are explicitly encouraged.

Can two of us apply together? No. Only individual applications are accepted.

What do I have to submit right now? For the first round: a short project description, biographies, and videos of past works — up to four links to full-length choreographies of your own.

When will I hear? Extended applications are requested in September 2026, shortlisted candidates are interviewed by Zoom, and the final decision is expected by the end of 2026.

Will there be information sessions? K3 ran two information Zooms for this cycle, on 30 June 2026 at 10:00 CEST and 6 August 2026 at 17:00 CEST. Check the official page for registration links and any additions.

Next Steps and Official Links

If the eight-month commitment and the individual-applicant rule both work for you, the sequence between now and 12 August 2026 is short and concrete: confirm your four video links are live and will stay live through the end of 2026; draft the short project description and cut it until every sentence carries information; open the online form and save a draft early so you are not fighting the interface on deadline day; and send well before 16:00 CEST.

• Programme page and application details: k3-hamburg.de/en/professionals/residencies
• Full call for applications (PDF): CALL FOR APPLICATIONS K3 RESIDENCY
• Online application form: k3-hamburg.de/en/professionals/residencyapplicationform
• Frequently asked questions: k3-hamburg.de/en/professionals/faq
• General enquiries: [email protected] or +49 (0)40 270 949 45
• Programme contact: Niklaus Bein, [email protected], +49 (0)40 270 949 321

If you miss this cycle, the call is a recurring one: K3 states that the open call runs between mid-June and mid-August each year for the following season. An artist who is a year short of the “several projects outside an educational context” threshold in 2026 is a credible applicant in 2027 — and the intervening year is best spent making the work that becomes the video evidence.