FREIRAUM Salon #43
After Work Session

ECSTATIC DANCE with Ben J. Riepe
8 december 2025, 5-6:30 pm

Before we head into a short winter break, we invite you to join us for another Ecstatic Dance session with Ben J. Riepe and the sounds of [Seda]ction. Under the motto “leaving the year behind”, we’ll gather once more to recharge for the final stretch of the year: Leave everyday life at the door for a moment and flood your body with plenty of feel-good energy! After a short breathing practice, we’ll dive into shifting light and fog atmospheres and dance freely to ecstatic sounds and slowly building beats – in a drug-free safe space, without expectations and in a relaxed atmosphere.

Once more, with holiday feeling!

Tickets on rausgegangen.de (10€ / reduced 5€) – the number of participants is limited.

Feel free to reach out with any questions freiraum@benjriepe.com.

Latest news
No further funding from TANZPAKT from 2026 onward

The TANZPAKT jury informed us on Friday that funding for FREIRAUM will not be continued in 2026. Thanks to the City of Düsseldorf, FREIRAUM will remain open at least until the end of 2025; for now, the project will continue as usual through the end of this year. In light of these new developments, we now need to consider how and whether our conceptual work for the independent scene can continue, while all projects conceived by the BJR company will carry on as planned.

Find more detailed information here.

Start the day Moving

The “Bewegte Start in den Tag” is our morning format that offers a free training session twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for professionals as well as beginners.

December

2 + 4 dec Calli Laxy – Yoga
9 + 11 dec Elisa Marschall – Mobility
16 + 18 dec Kati Menze – Gyro
23 + 25 + 30 dec ***winter holidays***

Info & Registration

SOUND & BODY
Day Long Session with Ben J. Riepe and further speakers

From Listening to Feeling
Breath Work | Inputs on Sound Research | Intuitive Collective Concert & Dinner
Friday, Nov 28, 3–9 p.m.

With our After Work Sessions, we regularly start the week on Mondays — sometimes mindfully, sometimes energetically. In November, a special format awaits us: the first Day-long Session!

On Friday, Nov 28, from 3–9 p.m. (including dinner & open ending), we dedicate ourselves under the title “Sound & Body” to the experience of sound, body, and resonance. Alongside physical-practice impulses from various speakers, there will be short insights into the current artistic research of Ben J. Riepe, which deals with sound, listening, and their effect on the body. Together with guests from research and art, as well as workshop leader Walter von Lingen, we immerse ourselves in the world of sound — from breathing exercises and inputs to shared experience on the Sound Meadow, where intuitive music emerges and body, movement, and sound connect.

An afternoon and evening for listening, feeling, and exploring – Welcome to the Day-long Session: Sound & Body!

Tickets via rausgegangen.de (€15 / reduced €7 for pupils, students, retirees, people with disabilities, and all for whom the full price is currently not possible).

The ticket also includes a freshly cooked vegetarian dinner (around 7 p.m.).
No musical background is required; water and snacks will be provided during the day, but feel free to bring a drink of your choice. We recommend wearing clothing that allows you to move and lie down comfortably.

We look forward to seeing you!

School of Experiences 2025
“What About Reality?”

In May 2025, Ben J. Riepe—together with numerous key figures from the arts and sciences—invites you to the third edition of the School of Experience, an interdisciplinary format for students, artists, and an engaged public.

Under the title “What about Reality?”, we will explore current questions surrounding body, art, cognition, and AI—at a time when our realities and perceptions are constantly shifting. Between discourses, workshops, and lived experiences, a space opens up where thinking, sensing, and acting resonate with one another.

Module 1: May 2–3
Module 2: May 22–25

At various locations in Düsseldorf: FREIRAUM Düsseldorf, Weltkunstzimmer, and—in cooperation with the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts—in the Academy’s spaces!

The FREIRAUM community is especially warmly invited to attend all events and formats of the School of Experience “What about Reality?”.
You can find the full SoE 2025 program here!