Bernhard Richarz

Bernhard Richarz, M.D., is Co-Director of the Berlin initiative tanzfähig. He organizes dance projects, performs as a dancer in various productions, and teaches contemporary dance, with a particular focus on improvisation.

Born in Freiburg in 1958, he began dancing regularly at the age of 27 while pursuing his professional career as a physician and psychoanalyst. Having lived with a disability since childhood, he developed his own dance training through workshops and study with artists including Alito Alessi, Adam Benjamin, Jenny Haack, matanicola, Heini Nukari, and others.

In 2007, he founded tanzfähig in Berlin. Since 2010, he has co-directed the initiative together with Evelyne Walser-Wohlfarter, working to promote greater physical diversity in contemporary dance. In 2021, he founded the tanzfähig Company, Berlin’s only independent contemporary dance company that includes dancers with disabilities.

In addition to publishing on the work of tanzfähig, Richarz has written extensively on topics including Nazi psychiatry and the so-called "euthanasia" programme, Disability Studies, nonverbal forms of psychotherapy, and group analysis. His most recent book, Physical Transformation (Körperlicher Umbruch), was published in 2023.