Lukas Onken
Lukas Onken studied Communication & Cultural Management at ZU, built up the Federal Youth Ballet as Organisational Director and is now a freelance cultural manager, mediator and coach.
How did your studies prepare you for your current occupation?
"ZU literally expanded my horizons and turned my searching and doubting into something positive. For me, the encouragement to see things differently and to question the status quo, even in an arts industry, is an asset. And it helps me in my current job in a newly founded ballet company. As an ensemble without our own stage, we have to find a new performance space every time we put on a show. That's why performances don't just take place on theater and festival stages but also in schools, swimming pools, clubs, and prisons. When former fellow students are involved as well it is always a great pleasure for me."
When I look back on my time at ZU…
"…I think about passion for learning and, above all, thirst for action. For me that doesn't just mean sitting in the library and doing homework – more than anything else it means making music, organizing tours and concerts, fighting to get a premises for the band, having parties, messing around, and always taking pleasure in life by the lake." ZU empowered me, it questioned me, it opened my eyes and it brought me a lot of happiness. I wouldn't like to have missed out on the perspectives that I gained there and, more than anything else, the friendships."
