Klappsquad

Klapping is a new urban dance style for football players and dance fans that fuses movements from football with patterns from urban dances like hiphop or krump. It was developed by choreographer, theater maker and former semi-professional player Ahilan Ratnamohan, and Feras Shaheen, who most recently danced with Marrugeku at Summer Festival 2022. Their highly dynamic dance style samples all sorts of movements and tricks from football and incorporates individual goal celebrations and fan culture into Klapping-rituals. The collective transfers the idea of passing on knowledge, which is central to urban dance, into so-called "initiations" – workshops on the field in which footballers with an interest in dancing are taught the basic elements of Klapping. At Summer Festival, they offer a workshop for anyone who is curious, which ends with an initiation on the football field of SC Sternschanze. This kicks off a big dance project in the context of the Football & Culture program of the European Championship 2024: The biggest Klapping talents take part in workshops in Hamburg and nationwide throughout nine months in order to present a dance piece by Ahilan Ratnamohan for the big stage in several European Championship cities in spring 2024.