(Non)Aligned Movements is the project developed in the frame of the Balkan dance network called Nomad Dance Academy.
Partners of the project are:
Station Service for contemporary dance – Belgrade, Serbia
Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia – Ljubljana, Slovenia
Nomad Dance Academy Bulgaria – Sofia, Bulgaria
Tanzfabrik – Berlin Germany
Lokomotiva Center for new initiatives in arts and culture – Skopje, North Macedonia
The network Nomad Dance Academy was founded in 2005 by dance artists, producers, and theorists from the former Yugoslavia and from Bulgaria. After the turbulent political period following the break-up of the Yugoslav federation, the various dance actors endeavoured to create a dynamic and fluid artistic, cultural, and educational space in this part of Europe, to improve the creative and production conditions of dance and choreography, to create new production models, and to overcome the obstacles in regard to local and national, often nationalistic, cultural politics.
Since the beginning, Nomad Dance Academy has been active in the field of dance education, artistic creation, production, as well as dance promotion and advocacy for dance. Through its cultural activism, it seeks to strengthen the various creative and artistic forces in the local contemporary dance contexts of the Balkan region, in order to achieve the right conditions for professional, high-calibre, and exciting contemporary dance work. The Nomad Dance Academy members understand contemporary choreography as an artistic and social function, methodology and practice, which cares for good working conditions for artists. It reflects and makes visible various presences, absences or representations of the human body, individual or collective, as well as its traces, indications, and potentialities in the past, present and future.
(Non)Aligned Movements is the project that is designed to boost the creative and collaborative potential of contemporary dance in the Western Balkans. It reinforces the social impact of Balkan contemporary dance by raising its capacities for action and collaboration, by promoting its heritage and by inscribing it in future discourses and cultural practices.
There are 3 main pillars of our project:
– Present the past: it means preservation of dance heritage through research, conceptualization and presentation, enhancing the digitalisation know-how in the dance field.
– Reflect the presence: this means critical discourse and reflection on social, cultural and artistic value of contemporary dance in the Balkan societies.
– Create the future: we chose an eco-responsible way to provide good working conditions for artists and to connect them to other socially relevant contexts.
NAM project wants to share the experiences of self-organization, horizontal organizational structure, balance and openness for all likeminded dance and performing arts actors. With NAM we will create the Balkan Open Digital Dance Archive to introduce contemporary dance as an important cultural heritage of our region. We will reinforce the network of residency programme in the region to enable mobility of dance professionals in the region, and better connect the regional dance festivals.
NAM pays particular attention to the underprivileged communities within the Balkan contemporary dance scene: women, LGBTQI and body diverse artists, practices and experiences are given priority.
#CoopWesternBalkans
The project is part of the Cultural Cooperation Project in the Western Balkans program line of The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, EACEA delegated by the European Commission
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more about the project:
(Non)Aligned Movement Kickoff meeting in Belgrade
