The Berlin Dancewalk Essays

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The Berlin Dancewalk Essays

Trial A – Berlin RiverRun

A dance-traveling essay on Flüssigkeit, Fluidité, Fluidity, Wasser-like quality of movement along the canals and rivers, big and small, of Berlin, in contrast with the other dance-traveling essay along the historical Wall of Separation.

Part 1 : Süd Panke 

This solitary Dancewalking, as slow-paced as the Panke, was interrupted by roads and crossing roads, big and small, most of the time without a crossing walkway ! The river is bound by walls with many graffitis, framing the slow and shallow fluidity with signs and statements which I photographed some. The path’s paving is multiple going from soil to ciment through paving stones, gravel and big stone slabs. Lots of trees: Birches, Pines, Maples, Ifs, Poplars, Ash trees, und so weiter are companions along the route.

« The Panke is not an impressive river. It runs for 29km from near Bernau in Brandenburg to where it splits close to the fortressed headquarters of the BND on the border between Mitte and Wedding, emptying into the Spree from an underground tunnel close to the Berliner Ensemble, and via a series of waste- and debris-collecting locks into the Spandau Ship Canal just behind Hamburger Bahnhof. »

Author Paul Scraton on the Panke, the narrow, shallow river that has become his constant companion.
The Berliner