How to festival?
A pre-festival get together hosted by Elena Lach & Ema Benčíková
Let’s break the ice – it’s spring! This pre-festival get-together will get us in the mood for the imagetanz festival by creating an environment that considers and supports a variety of access-related needs. During a touch-and-tell tour, we will get acquainted with the sensory regulation room, the resting room and the theatre space at brut nordwest. We might also meet other festivalgoers over tea and cake – maybe even a festival buddy.
This get-together is directed to all those who are keen to find out how to move through a festival – in an environment that actively caters to issues of accessibility and differing needs.
Our main focus will be the imagetanz, a festival designed to show what is new in choreography and performance and scheduled from 04 to 28 March mainly at brut nordwest. Let’s get acquainted with the various spaces at brut nordwest so we can use them safely and without assistance during the festival.
During a guided touch-and-tell tour, we will explore the sensory regulation room and the resting room – spaces to which we can retreat anytime to regulate ourselves – or just be! Playful, low-barrier formats will invite us to get to know each other and maybe have a little chat.
Eventually, we will try the festival curators’ favourite cakes while learning more about the upcoming programme. You might even meet a festival buddy who fancies to visit a show with you.
Let’s get together to see what happens. But most of all: Let’s have fun together!
Elena Lach (they/she) lives in Vienna and works as a performer, personal assistant and director’s assistant. They research the queer use of public spaces under the name of SPACE HOLDER, helping neurodivergent people to access queer parties, so far at flucc and 4lthangrund. As part of the Careful Collisions Collective, Elena Lach designs queer movement spaces for contact improvisation. They love questions and non-verbal communication and practice social idiosyncrasy as a survival strategy and a way to conduct relationships. In the autumn of 2025, Elena Lach, together with Ema Bencikova, hosted a workshop entitled Spacing in: Relaxed Performance Lab for autistic and neuroqueer persons as part of accessible brut.
Ema Bencikova (she/they) is a Vienna-based curator, theatre director and care worker. In their artistic research, they concentrate on a critical phenomenology of non-normative embodiment using methods of institutional constructivism and infrastructural analysis of assistance within trans and crip communities. From 2019 to 2024, they headed the Stopy Snov neurodivergent community theatre in Bratislava. In 2025, they curated exhibitions at the ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana and the Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna. Also, Ema Bencikova received a scholarship from the intersectional organisation ‘kültüř gemma!’ In the autumn of 2025, together with Elena Lach, they hosted a workshop entitled Spacing in: Relaxed Performance Lab for autistic and neuroqueer persons as part of accessible brut.
Accessibility
Registration for assistants, attendants and support dogs can be done via our registration form, by e-mailing barrierefreiheit@brut-wien or by calling +43 1 587 8774.
For everybody to find their way to brut nordwest, we offer a pick-up service at the close-by tram stations prior to the shows. Please give us a heads-up by e-mailing barrierefreiheit@brut-wien or calling +43 1 587 8774 and we will be happy to pick you up!
Tactile guidance system
Access friends
Alternative seating and lying options
Stim toys
Resting room
Sensory regulation room
In the case of questions, please contact us by e-mailing barrierefreiheit@brut-wien or calling +43 1 587 8774.
Dates & Tickets
Audio flyer for the brut accessible programme:
February 2026
Pay as you can. Registration via the ticket button
brut nordwest
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
accessible
Event recommendations
LIFT Tanzkollektiv (Liv Schellander, Irene Giró, Fia/Sophia Neises, Tanja Erhart)
BIOFUCK
Taking the time
hosted by Elena Lach, Ema Benčíková & LIFT Tanzkollektiv
brut all over Vienna
brut nordwest
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
accessible
studio brut
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
not accessible
Bears in the Park Art Place
not accessible
Eyzinggasse 12, 1110 Vienna
U-Bahn: U3 (Gasometer) Bus: 72A (Gasometer), 76A, 76B (Simoningplatz)
not accessible
WUK performing arts
barrierefrei
Währinger Straße 59, 1090 Vienna
Subway: U6 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), Tram: 40, 41, 42 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), 5, 33 (Spitalgasse), 37, 38, 40, 41, 42 (Spitalgasse / Währinger Straße)
Der Betrieb
accessible
Vogelweidplatz 13, 1150 Wien
Subway: U6 (Burggasse-Stadthalle) / Bus: 48A (Moeringgasse) / Tram: 9 (Camillo Sitte Gasse)