Discover Beatrix Joyce's Profile
On a side street of Hermannstrasse in Neukölln I’m welcomed by choreographer Beatrix Joyce in to what feels like a little gem where I can find sanctuary from the heat. Self-organised studio space Kraken was initiated by a translation collective who had some space to spare. Now it’s where fifteen plus members share a space that, with little means and a DIY vibe, includes a dance studio where mini residencies, workshops, sharings and various arts events take place.
“After being in Berlin for a while, I realised I wanted to invest in a community that you can actually sense. Here, we don’t share anything but the responsibility for this space and that turns out to be very binding. This practical approach enables the sharing of work, ideas, visions and approaches to happen in the in-between. We catch up on each other’s journeys quite organically and sometimes that can evolve into new collaborations. To be connected to this space is a real treasure.”
Beatrix has been living in Berlin for nine years now. She first got acquainted with the Berlin dance scene during her studies at Laban in London through choreographer Julek Kreutzer. At the time, Julek was on an exchange while studying at HZT.
“I saw Julek’s announcement for a one-on-one performance. I’d never seen anything like that before. I was so down for it. Wow, the audacity! I immediately signed up for it and she indeed performed just for me. That was my first taste of Berlin and it gave me a sense that it was a place for experimentation.”
After freelancing for a while in London, Beatrix started a masters in sociology at Goldsmiths University. As the UK was still a member of the EU, she made use of the then available Erasmus programme and found herself in Berlin.
“I started with a journalistic approach to get a broad feel for what was going on. I had an internship with the online arts magazine Berlin Art Link, and I loosely became their “dance correspondent”. The first show I went to see was at Dock11, a place I hold very dear in my heart. Last year, we performed the work GLADE there with my performance group WILD ACCESS, so I came full circle! After my internship I sort of got drawn into Berlin, like so many people do.”
In 2021, Beatrix founded WILD ACCESS (http://www.wildaccess.site/), a performance group focused on the creation of site-specific performance. From streets to gardens, running tracks, parks and memorial sites, the group makes use of public spaces which are otherwise highly regulated and gives an entry point to the dynamics of the city that we ordinarily only experience on the surface. We pass by parks and monuments, use sport facilities, enjoy some of the greenery our city provides, but what lies behind their everyday usage? From the bureaucracy to maintain them, the personal and collective histories they hold, to the uncontrollable; the wilderness that creeps in.
“I’m looking for places where the environment says: this is beyond your control. This is linked to the ephemeral, the things we cannot see or touch, but that is nonetheless based in the body and the senses. I realise more and more that I choreograph from an audience’s perspective. What do they sense and experience? I craft my work around their potential experiences on site.”
Working from a site-specific approach can be an interesting balancing act; between strictly guiding the performance and letting the situation on the spot influence the moment, between a strong artistic belief in the project and Berlin bureaucracy, between at the same time being the outsider in a space and inviting others in. That is were the fascination lies, even though it’s complicated at times.
“It’s equally interesting and exhausting to work in a public space. Sometimes I have to convince civil servants or neighbours that it really is a good idea to host a performance in a park or at a momument. But I do consider it my democratic right to find forms of expression in public space. Artistically, the craft lies in creating conditions for the multiple perspectives that coexist within a site to be revealed. How can we make the hidden visible? Where do human-made constructions and nature interact? How can we create a sensory experience for audiences to encounter the wild?”
Beatrix is currently working on bringing GLADE to Tanzfabrik’s off-shoot gallery space, Grüntaler 9 in Wedding. GLADE is going to be a warning sign.
“In our interaction with the environment we’re reminded that we’re still only human. And actually, I like to warn. To say to humankind that we shouldn’t fall prey to our own sense of superiority, because there is always something lurking in the distance. There is always something eerie on the way.”
Published in September 2025. Text by Annette van Zwoll.