We have therefore developed, and continue to develop, partnerships, as well as an interest in collaboration with the Croatian dance scene. We also nurture the continuity of a vision that connects Zagreb’s, and more broadly Croatia’s, dance professionals and institutions with the international scene, while encouraging the development of conditions for the contemporary dance scene within Croatia.
The festival traditionally introduces the Croatian dance public to new names who are stepping onto, and actively working within, the global scene — artists who represent the generation to come.
Part of the festival’s backbone is also formed by the connection between tradition, a relationship with and reflection on the tradition and culture of this region, and, within this context, artists such as those we now have the opportunity to present to our audience for the first time, precisely through collaboration with the EU projects of the Moving Balkans and Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery platforms.
The Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance, through the Dance Week Festival, which the organisation produces, enjoys an excellent reputation within the international context, also through numerous other projects we carry out throughout the year. As a result, there is a continuity of participation in EU projects, as well as a continuity of involving Croatian dancers in European and international initiatives.
This year, two exceptional EU projects are coming to an end: Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery and Moving Balkans, and part of the programme presents some of the successful outcomes of these projects. Through these projects, we also expand opportunities for Croatian dance professionals and continue to establish Zagreb as one of the centres of European contemporary dance.
The Moving Balkans platform was founded with the aim of encouraging collaboration among dance organisations operating in the Balkan region, enabling dance productions to have a longer life through regional tours, while also stimulating a new wave of interest in the wider European market for dance artists working in this area, opening up new opportunities for collaboration. This year, the platform is taking place in Novi Sad.
The earlier platform, which had a unique format of realisation through a partnership of five dance organisations from three cities and two countries — Ljubljana, Rijeka and Zagreb — brought more than 140 international promoters to Zagreb, once again confirming our connection with the international scene.
Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery is a continuation of a developmental path in which we also participated under the leadership of Matjaž Farič from 2008 onwards, when Dance Explorations Beyond Front@ was launched. Through this network, we connected the Central European dance circle with Europe.
The latest edition, now in its third year, connects the Central European region with Northern Europe, while the partners remain committed to strengthening local scenes and finding new and different forms of collaboration through new synergies. These synergies are the result of collaborative strategies developed through projects that build the capacities of regional dance organisations and artists, strengthen the visibility of Central European authors within wider European dance networks, and generally encourage a new generation of artists working in these regions.
When selecting choreographers for the festival, I look back, but with a view towards the future — considering the connections that the choreographers we present have with the groups we have come to know, or their importance for the development of contemporary dance within a global context.
Looking at the festival’s programming over all these years, the curatorial note reveals a kind of roadmap of the historical development of the European scene, and consequently of the Croatian dance scene, over the past forty years or so.
In addition to new names and works by authors from Croatia and seven other countries — Greece, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Canada, Slovenia and Switzerland — we once again have the opportunity to present the unusual world of the Swiss international star Rafaële Giovanola, whose company CocoonDance is appearing with its new performance, Choreia. This performance, like the Danish production BOXED, gives the audience the opportunity to participate directly in its realisation. Audience participation is another characteristic nurtured by the festival.
This year also sees collaboration with local organisations, this time in Zadar, where the Romanian production Dirty Dancing will be presented.
Hello Buffalo, a work by Canadian contemporary dance superstar Daina Ashbee, whose entire body of work was revived and honoured by the Montpellier dance festival — an unprecedented gesture for an artist who was not yet thirty years old at the time. Daina continues to captivate attention with her uncompromising approach to the body in dialogue with the world in which it exists.
Somatic Freaks from Romania, with its three-hour meditative installation that examines endurance, points to the fragility of the present moment.
Greek authors Christiana Kosiari and Chara Kotsali build their works around the body as a political, emotional and socially conditioned space.
Through the performance Shakespearia, Polish artists present a dance collage of alternative perspectives on the female protagonists of Shakespeare’s tragedies and their possible encounters within a shared space.
Through a hybrid dance-visual performance, using movement, animation, video and analogue visual interventions, artists Enya Belak and Kristýna Peldová explore the inner landscapes of the human psyche.
We are also celebrating domestic successes through the presentation of the Zadar Dance Ensemble, which this year marks its 35th anniversary.
This year, the Croatian Choreographic Platform presents three new works by young female authors: Mina Ugrin, Silvija Musić, Nataša Kustura and Nika Disney.
Workshops that offer the Zagreb dance community the opportunity to work with and become acquainted with new and different methodologies — DanceLab and Unthought Body — conversations with authors after performances, as well as an accompanying exhibition that bears witness to the development of the Zadar Dance Ensemble, are all part of the programme through which the Dance Week Festival once again offers citizens, and everyone who loves dance or works in dance, the opportunity to enrich their dance experiences through encounters and shared moments with dance.
