Between Utopia and the Promise of a Embodied Solidarity

(the socio-political implications of Dance Week Festival

The context of the 30
th
Dance Week Festival, presents an ideal opportunity
not only for a restrospective, nor to just reminiscence nor to encapsulate the
impact the festival has had on the development of choreographic practice and
thought in Croatia and !ithin the region", #ut to reflect also on the immediate
moment in !hich dance not only underlined an aesthetic practice #ut also a
form of socio$political activism, a !ay of existing perhaps even a !ay of life, a
modus vivendi%" !ithin a controversial and damaged time of transition& 'n
impressive num#er of over (00 !orks that have #een presented #y the
Festival to date, numerous dance installation pieces, exhi#itions, !orkshops,
round$ta#le discussions and other projects not only in )agre# #ut also in
*ijeka, +arlovac and ,plit speak to !hat extent the Festival has positioned
dance as an art form !hich can activate different media theatrical as !ell as
visual" and !hich discovers its vitality through a continuous dynamic
escapades from conventions, norms and representations& The thought
#rought forth a decade ago #y -ata.a /ovedi0, !ho reflected on the first t!o
decades of the Festival, is still very true1 2Today3s dance scene in this context
is literally #orn out of the aesthetic 2!orkshop4 of Dance Week Festival& 5
6
Taking into consideration that the audiences !ere a#le to and, more
importantly Croatian dancers, choreographrers and their colla#orators" thanks
to this Festival, see many of the important dance productions at the turn of the
milliennium ranging from Trisha 7ro!n and ,usanne 8inke, Domini9ue
7agouet, :era ;antero, <mio /reco, =avier 8e *oy, ;eg ,tuart, Wayne
;c/regor, ;ette >ngvardsen, Willi Dorner, /illes ?o#in, 8a *i#ot, *ussell
;aliphant, *o#yn @rlin, 'kram +han, 8ouise 8ecavallier, ;arie Chouinard,
?onathan 7urro!s, ?osef -adj to companies such as ,ankai ?uku,
-ederlands Dans Theater, 7atsheva Dance Company, Aeeping Tom
Collective as !ell as those of non$!esterniBed origins1 ,alia ni ,eydou, +ettly
1
/ovedi0, -ata.a, Culture as a cy#ermachine of the 7ody on the contemporary dance
stage", u1 -ata.a /ovedi0 <dit&", Korpografije: 20 godina Tjedna suvremenog plesa, Crvatski
institut Ba ples i pokret, )agre#, D003&, str& EF&
1
-oGl, :incent ;antsoeHetc&, one can easily grasp the impact that the
Festival had in defining today3s choreographic landscape, !hich today is
vastly heterogenic, !ith numerous and diverse poetics, aesthetics and
politics&
Within the context of a non$existent academic education opportunity in dance
and in general its marginaliBed position of the art form in areas of funding as
!ell as in the axiological and political realm", the Festival has for years carried
the torch of ne! tendencies in dance as !ell as in theatre"& The moment in
!hich emerging dancers and choreographers !ere offered in insight into
contemporary !ork models, techni9ues and dance styles and voca#ularies
!as the moment in !hich the Festival #ecame not only relevant as an event
of transmitting, mediating and presenting dance productions #ut also as a
place and promoter of dissemination of choreographic kno!ledge and tools&
Through generating educational
D
paradigms !hich are perpetually lacking and
through the ac9uisition of these the dance community #ecame more
professional, more systematic and more responsi#le $ this perhaps is one of
the most important impacts the Festival has had in positioning contemporary
choreographic practice firmly !ithin the #roader cultural context& The
educational aspect should also #e considered !ithin the frame!ork and
context of engagement in the area of audience development for dance !hich
especially as in the case of the so called conceptual dance" fre9uently
remains devoid of the possi#ility to communicate or read dance& 'n important
step to!ards the creation of easier and #etter communication amongst the
scene and !ith the audiences !as the introduction of post performance talks,
carefully moderated and facilitated #y kno!ledgea#le specialists,
encouraging dialogue a#out the !ork e9ually among professionals as !ell as
#et!een professionals and audiences& This allo!ed for learning and
2
:ery important is the educational frame!ork of ;'A' ;oving 'cademy of Aerforming 'rts"
!hich has #een created !ith the help of Dutch mime artist >de van Ceiningen #y ;irna Iagar&
;any contemporary Croatian dancers, artists, actors, directors and choreographers Iak
:alenta, Denis ,esni0, >vana ;Jller, ;atko *aguK, 'ndreja 7oKi0, 7ranko CvjetiLanin, Dean
)ahtila, 'lexandar 'cev, ,anja Aetrovski, -ata.a ,taniLi0, <mil ;ate.i0, ;ila Muljak te #rojni
drugi" had the opportunity in )agre#, *ijeka, 8a#in, )adar, 'msterdam and 7erlinu to
colla#orate and !ork !ith some of the most distinguished dance and mime pedagogues, as
!ell as cultural managers&
2
#ecoming more familiar !ith the choreographer as !ell as the performer
offering a frame!ork, !ithin !hich insights to #e shared on not only !hat
motivates the artists #ut also a#out protocols, poetics and political aspects of
specific projects, as !ell as a#out diverse paratheatrical, parachoreographic,
even more private details, !hich fre9uently contri#ute even more to a #etter
understanding and contextualiBation of a !ork or a creative process&
@n the other hand, post performance dialogues could #e seen as
motivational displacements of dance into the sphere of discourse and
reflections& *ecalling here the idea of dance as a metaphor of thought, !hich
!as initialy formulated #y the French philosopher 'lain 7adiou1 4Dance in
particular #rings a#out the nakedness of the concept& Thus the eye of the
spectator must, !hen vie!ing the dancer3s #ody, seiBe to seek o#jects of
desire !hich #uild upon the ornamental and the fetishistic impulses& To #e
a#le to achieve the nakedness of the concept !e need the glance !hich N
li#erated from any !andering desire$seeking o#ject !hich is at the core of the
2vulgar4 #ody as -ietBsche !ould have it" $ !e come to the innocent and
primordeal #odyOmind, to the first found and made #ody& Co!ever, this is a
glance !hich no one has& "
3
Although through dialogue and discussion about
dance one cannot reconstruct the innocent glance that Badiou dreams of,
through articulation of statements on the occasion of or from dance, the
choreographic practice exposes its potential, its imperfections as well as an
openness not only to new interpretations but also to different models of
eduction, community and social order. Consequently, the actualization of
dance as a performative/embodied, yet also a discoursive-theoretical event, is
the context in which the Festival could be observed as a way to overcome the
skeletal dualism between theory and practice. At the same time, this
theoretical gesture is an invitation for an encounter and dialogue in a space
between the whirlwind of dance and its exactness and as such it means
movement towards a society, which in negotiating dance, negotiates the
differences and the heterogenic politics of its embodiment: Only different
truths exist writes Badiou, a chance division of a thought process. Dance,
3
7adiou, 'lain, Ples kao metafora miljenja, in1 Kretanja. asopis za plesnu umjetnost,
)agre#, 6DOD00E&, p& P&
3
throughout history allows itself to adopt this multiplicity. This assumes
perpetual redistribution of relations between exhaltation and exactness. It
must be stated over and over again that the body of today is capable to
perform as a thinking body. However, today these are only new truths. Dance
will dance a singular event motif of these truths. A new exhaltaion, a new
exactness."
4

-ot only did the Festival ena#le the presentation of numerous relevant
internationally acclaimed productions, it also gave an opportunity to young
Croatian authors to sho!case their !orks allo!ing and exposing them even
to comparison%" alongside internationally acclaimed artistsOchoreographers&
-umerous Croatian artists performed !ithin the frame!ork of this Festival and
over the years it #ecame part of the artistic and cultural capital, recogniBed
and valued not only in Croatia, #ut across <urope1 >vana ;Jller, 'ndreja
7oKi0, ?asna :inovr.ki 8ayes, 7orut Qeparovi0, ;arjana +rajaL, Aetra )anki,
,ilvia ;archig, Trafik, 7adCo&, DanceRla# collective, @@S*, ?asna :inovr.ki,
-atalija ;anojlovi0, Aetra Cra.Lanec, ;ila Muljak, Ieljka ,anLanin, Aetra
Cra.Lanec, ;atija Ferlin, 'na +reitmayer, ,anja Tropp FrJh!ald etc& These
names alone are !itness enough pointing to the extent the Festival through
an exceptional endeavour of its founder and director, as !ell as all the people
around !ho !ork !ith her in the organiBation of this event& Whether implied
or explicit the Festival has ena#led generations of Croatian choreographers
and dancers to successfully postion themselves on the national as !ell as the
international dance milieu& 'lternatively, !e have to #ear in mind, to an extent,
the #uilt in geneology of the history of dance development in Croatia !hich
the Festival em#odies& Cere > !ish to specifically mention the !orks of ;ilko
Qparem#lek and ;ilana 7ro. !ho, in addition to having their !orks
presented !ithin the frame!ork of the earlier editions, have al!ays #een
among the Festival3s most passionate and fervent of attendees and
supporters& >n this cotext the Festival can plausi#ly #e considered as that
thread !hich, despite negation, financial challenges, crises and transitions,
secured and still guarantees the continuity of development and the
4
7adiou, 'lain, i#id&, p& T&
4
egsistence of dance and theatre arts in this part of the !orld&
's an art form !hich at the core contains different practices, aesthetics
and political em#odiment, it can #e determined that in dance !e deal !ith a
medium !hich can detect on a somatic$corporeal level the social, economic,
and ideological transformation& 7y offering endless possi#ilities of different
#odily #eing and co$#eing, contemporary dance is a potent field for su#versive
action, !hich can #e seen in decentraliBation and deconstruction of
accepta#le standards in areas of gender, social or even national identity&
Follo!ing the trail of detecting the transgressive potential of dance, especially
in creating a defense against the dominant matrix of consumerisim typical for
capitalism, as 7raBilian theoretician 'ndrU 8epecki !ill state1 5DanceVs
ephemerality, the fact that dance does leaves #ehind no o#ject #ehind after
its performance, demonstrates the possi#ility of creating alternative
economies of o#jecthood in the arts, #y sho!ing that it is possi#le to create
art!orks a!ay from regimes of commodification and the fetishiBation of
tangi#le o#jects& DanceVs inescapa#le orporeality constantly demonstrates to
dancers and audiences alike concrete possi#ilities of em#odying$other!ise $
since dancerVs la#our is nothing else than to em#ody, disem#ody and re$
em#ody, thus refiguring corporeality and proposing impro#a#le
su#jectivities&5
F
>n the case of the Festival this notion is reflected in the
dynamic staging of em#odiment
P
!hich to the average Croatian spectator,
used to the disciplined and normative #alletic gesture, the Festival represents
a step a!ay from representation and from conventions& The political
dimension here is #est explained that this comes to fruition in the treatment of
the choreographic practice as a form of artistic practice, !hich critically
focuses on the deconstruction of the triumph of the neoli#eral economy and
glo#aliBation, !hose conse9uences are the ever more tangi#le egBistential
uncertainty& <ven if !e can agree 8epecki3s evaluation a#out the 2su#altern
5
8epecki, 'ndrU, !ntrodution. "ane as a Pratie of #ontemporaneity, in1 'ndrU 8epecki
ured&", "ane, Whitechapel /alleryO;>T Aress, 8ondon, D06D&, str& 6F&
6
@ne can recall the auratic #ody of ,ankai ?uku !hich oscillates #et!een humiliation and
ectasy, #et!een the victim and teh triumph of spirit inha#its the edge of presence, leading the
though to!ards the invisi#le, a region outside of this !orld #ut still in the #ody and of the
#ody&
5
position of in the general economy of arts4
T
, something that the Festival
throughout all these years has generated is the position of e9uity through
!hich dance speaks and proves that as an art form !hich capitlasm still
hasn3t disputed, rather it has motivated to an even more critical stance, one
more precise political engagement through taking on a more ethical
responsi#ility in the co"activities of a #roader community& The Festival !as
the first of similar events and efforts !ho pointed to the necessity to integrate
and invite persons !ith disa#ilities and special needs into an artistic practice
and into the sphere of dance1 ,T'A 7elgium", CandCo /reat 7ritain" and
later no! already here at )agre# Dance Centre the ,panish <l TinglaoW also
pointing out the need to engage !ith seniors or the role of Third 'ge artistsO
dance enthusiasts !orkshop #y 8uca ,ilvestrini, /reat 7ritain"& >t is
necessary to mention that these efforts continue& @nly recently, as part of an
overall effort to!ards sensitiBing the #roader community to!ards the
community of people !ith disa#ilities !e !ere a#le to see at the )agre#
Dance Centre a dance production !hich fully integrated disa#led dancers,
!ho !ere in an e9uita#le position in relation to the choreographer and other
professional dancers&
The Croatian >nstitute for ;ovement and Dance, initiated in 6EED, is an
institution !hich directly evolved from the Festival activity and !hich since
formation has helped sta#iliBed and structure its ongoing efforts and results&
's a platform it !as initiated !ith the o#jective of affirm and strengthen the
position o contemporary dance, #ut also other performing art forms& The
>nstitue in addition to archiving and documenting, is also an important
production platform !hose activity fre9uently transcends local and national
#orders and engages !ith international initiatives& Within a context in !hich
contemporary dance, unfortunately still 2functions4 !ithin a marginaliBed
status !hen considering financial, material, institutional, political #acking and
at a time !hen there still !as no academic education availa#le in this
discipline the >nstitute plays an important role of a dou#le agent that not only
offers a professional production frame!ork, it also offers educational
7
8epecki, 'ndrU, i#id&
6
opportunities&
The conservation and archiving of dance !orks !ithin such context
#ecomes even more relevant not only #ecause of preserving the fragile traces
of em#odiment !hich dance leaves #ehind, #ut also to!ards creating a
genealogy of dance providing a foundation for some future researchers to
reconstruct the transformation of the identify in a country !hich has gone
through a #loody and traumatic transition& The archives of the >nstitute can #e
vie!ed !ithin the context of an effort to provide the performing arts !ith a
distinguished status !hich, although not permanent and does not leave any
o#jects, still exists in time and still has the value of an artefact !hich can help
to appreciate and to understand a more glo#al context of current events, its
transformative po!er !ithin the various facets of em#odiment& The
importance of an archive !as clearly identified #y the living legend of Croatian
dance ;ilko Qparem#lek1 5To #e !ithout an archive means to #e !ithout a
parent, !ithout a culture& > cannot stress ho! important it is that this #e
initiated& >n an event that an >nstitute or an organiBation aims to consider this
even if only to compile a video li#rary !hich !ill include !orks featuring the
history of dance and !hich could help move along the discussions a#out
techni9ues and philosophies of dance, > !ould definitely #e involved&4
(
'
concrete example of ho! this should #e done is the example of the revival of
archival material, the production of the uni9ue D:D +aspomanija, a testament
to a period and the !ork of choreographer ;ilana 7ro.& >t3s not just a revival
that !as directed #y the author herself ten years after the Company seiBed to
exist, it !as in fact also a ne! re"creation offering a ne! perspective on ideas
proposed in the earlier !orks as !ell as from current position&
's a practice !hich 2speaks4 through an universal language although al!ays
also singular, uni9ue languages" through em#odied gestures, dance should
#e vie!ed !ithin also an intercultural context of engagement, !hich contrary
to an exclusive treatment of identities and community, esta#lishes the frame
of a territory of inclusive su#jectivities, in !hich gender, national, ethnic and
class differences are not homogenic and su#jected to a vertical su#ordination,
8
Qparem#lek, ;ilko, in1 -ata.a /ovedi0 <d&", i#id&, p& T(&
7
#ut rather open to differences and encounters !ith the otherO the different& >n
her text !hich considers dance !ithin a context of cultural studies, ?ane C&
Desmond comes to the follo!ing conclusion1 2>f dance styles and performative
practices are at the same time symptomatic and constituent vie!points of
societal relations, then the analysis of the history of dance styles and their
expansion and migration from one group or field to another, along !ith
changes that occur in these transmissions can help in the revealing of the
movements in ideological thoughts related to the discourse a#out the #ody
H" These practices and the discourse !hich surrounds the reveling of the
important role that the discourse around the #ody has in the continuing social
construct and in the structuring of the meaning of race, gender, class and
nationality as part of their hierarchy and order&5
E
This applied to the Festival
and its role in the cultural transmission of different #odies, !e still can ask the
9uestion in !hat !ays did these different #odies impact on the formation of
the Croatian dance sceneX What specific changes did !e !itness resulting
from the Festival from its inception to dateX While during the first t!o decades
the Festival presented the most relevant productions in contemporary Dutch
dance, as !ell as ,panish, Flamish, French, 7ritish the past couple of years
!e have also had the opportunity to see and our artists to !ork !ith nota#le
Aortugeuese artists1 :era ;antero, Aaolo *i#eiro, Clara 'ndermath, ?oao
Fiadeiro and even the more recent generation ,onia 7aptista, ,ofia Fitas"&
The past year !e also had the opportunity to see an overvie! of the 'ustrian
contemporary dance scene& 'lso 9uite intensive is the colla#oration !ith
major <uropean dance organiBations The Alace and /reen!ich Dance
'gency in 8ondon, Dans'telier and >ck 'msterdam in Colland, 7$;otion
Festival in >taly, *encontres ChorYgraphi9ue ,eine ,aint Denis in France, or
the TanB9uartier and d&i&d u 'ustria, Teatro :iriato in Aortugal, Trafo in
Cungary and closer even the ,loveni Flota and <nknap to mention only a fe!"
and these are the indication to the extent that the Festival as !ell as the
>nstitute are to #e ackno!ledged for the nurturing of a dynamic intercultural
mediation in dance #et!een the West and the <ast and contri#uting to the
9
Desmond C&, ?ane, $tjelovljenje razlike: ples i kulturalni studij, u1 -ata.a /ovedi0 Sred&",
i#id&, p& 6(P&
8
esta#lishment of conditions in !hich contemporary dance could #e and in
some cases already is" a significant export product in the sphere of culture&
60
>f !e consider that the >nstitute currently participates in 3 <S projects
#horeoroam% &P'(!), *eyond +ront,: *ridging -e. Territories% $nlimited
'ess, the >nstitute has participated in a total of ( projects over a period of
the past several years" !ith doBens of Croatian artists participating in a range
of roundta#le discussions, residencies, productions it #ecomes evident that
#oth the Festival and the >nstitute retain from the very #eginning a strong
international focus and can and do position their !ork !ithin such context &
The funding too of these activities !ithin the frame!ork of the >nstitute !ith
over P0Z rely the a#ility to generate revenue streams from non government
sources and increasingly also through <S funding& >n this regard the overall
operations of C>AA including Festival and )agre# Dance Centre" represent a
succeesful #usiness model in the cultural sphere !hich operates !ithout
deficits, seeks alternative revenue sources, engaging also the volunteer
sector and offering content !hich is not necessarily commercial and in
incorporates daring experimentation consisting of process, semantic
imperfections even and an openness to ne! influences and impacts&
,imultaniously these initiatves arising from this type of !ork !hich leans onto
international projects is a direction that others too !ithin the cultural sector,
!ho !ish to succeed, !ill have to em#ark on and especially the national
houses !hich 2consume4 the largest portion of pu#lic sector revenue thus
contri#uting to the marginaliBation of dance and not only dance, #ut all other
more unconvential, postdramatic performing arts" creating cultural products
!hose aesthetics especially politics" most fre9uently do not correspond to
current interests and as such cannot attract any significant foreign
investments or partners& *ecalling ;irna )agar3s statement from 6EEE, that
2Croatian dance !ill prevail, perhaps not though in Croatia5 > need to respond
!ith my o#servation that Croatian dance has, despite all, prevailed& Co!ever
10
Cere !e could mention the project /0est1/here that has #een realiBed through the
colla#oration #et!een Trafo 7udpest, Choreographic Centre @rleans, Croatian institute for
dance and movement and the Dance company ?asmina Arolic& The idea of the project !as to
display Crotian dance in Western <urope thorugh an intensive dialogue !ith dancers,
choreographers and theoreticians from Aortugal, Cungary, France and Croatia&
9
also thanks to its increasing presence on international stages and especially
#ecause it has throughout accepted to face the challenges of
contemporaneity leaving #ehind the doom of isolation and marginaliBation&
's an event !hich persistently and conse9uently transforms the collective
dance #ody in Croatia, the Festival must #e vie!ed !ithin a #roader societal
practice it actualiBes itself and then even faces the dramaOtension of a
heterogenic em#odiment, confronted !ith the normal, the norm the degeneric
impact of the ne!ly formed capital& @ffering the experience of the different at
times opposing even" dance voca#ularies, poetics, aesthetics, and politics,
the Festival maps the divergent and dispersed emo#odiment, !hose affecting
charges cannot #e confined to just one semiotic regime, #ut demands a
polivalentic frame in !hich the #orders #et!een theory and practice are
uncertain and the #lurry& 't the other spectrum, the #ody and the different
regimes and politics of em#odiment represent the point !here the
conventional forms of #eing #reak, and !herein the nondisciplined territories
of desire and affect of marginaliBed #odies are exposed, #odies !ho have
refused o#edience and the drill of consumerism and em#arked on a non
controla#le nomadic journey& [uoting the minimalist manifesto #y \vonne
*ainer from 6EP(, in !hich the artists states1 4;y #ody remains the enduring
reality&4, the 7ritish dance theoretician 7urt *amsay !ill state 5To say that
one3s dance #ody remains an enduring reality is to imply that #y enduring, it
can resist normative social and aesthetic ideologies& H" *ainer apparently
hoped that freedom from historical and political processes could #e achieved
through radical deconstruction of normative modes of dance performance&5
66

Whether !e try to locate the diso#edient, its continuing reality of effort in
the performances of Trafik from *ijeka, or in the !ork of >rma @merBo, ,elma
7anich, ,andra 7anic -aumovski, ;arjana +rajac, ;asa +olar, ;ontaBstroj
or ,ilvia ;archig, !e !ill #e confronted !ith a gesture of defiance !hich in
exhausting the #ody, li#erating the protocols of the singular physicality,
against the faceless and mechanical repetition of ,ame or the uniformed& >n
11
7urt, *amsay, 2enealogy and "ane 3istory, in1 'ndrU 8epcki <d&", )f the Presene of
the *ody. 4ssays on "ane and Performane Theory, Weseleyan Sniversity Aress,
;iddleto!nOConnecticut, D00]&, p& DE$3T&
10
this economy of the anti$spectacle and anti$production the female #ody comes
forth, !ith its un#ound energy it penetrates the system of representation and
opens up to!ards that of chance, contingent and unpredicta#le& >n opposition
of the stern partriachal matrix in !hich the female #ody is fixed, !e see the
fluid and unsta#le #odies !hose movements outline an invisi#le history of the
those deprived and marginaliBed&
' direct !itness of the transformation of identities and social relationas,
the Festival reflects the transfer from socialism to!ards a market #ased model
of deregalutaed production, !hose implications are the lack of any solidarity
and delivery to the !ild and cruel processes of privatiBation and
disassociation& *eflecting the crises of identy of the postmodern human #eing
in the crises of dance aesthetics and demise socialist politics, *andy ;artin
offers this argument1 28ive performance and socialism can #e paired as
remanants of a past that !e have no! finally #roken from& &&&" 7ut, in the
mediatedt society of spectacle, one !atches anonymously #ut constatnly for
the image !hich might finally give place to identity&5
6D
,till, continuing to miss
the identity !hich !ill #e fixed and !hich !ill support and reflect the order of a
political representation structured vertically and through the dynamic of class,
gender, national antagonisms and the underlying dualism, contemporary
choreographic practice are insepera#le from the autoreflective glance !hich
defines the selfOidentity through relation and interaction !ith the
@therODifferent& The intercultural model of the Festival at the level of the
politics of identity also represents an intervention into the nationalistic order, in
!hich the Festival took on the role of the role of the @ther and the Different in
relation to the dominant identifying matrix of the !hite, male, catholic citiBen&
For ;artin *andyn1 the identification !ith the other suggests as !ell that it is a
process of producing not only selves, #ut society $ a matter that lies at the
heart of #oth dance that makes itself out of thise !ho gather for it" and the
socialist project&5
63
This applied to the socio$economic dynamics and the
historical$political context in !hich the Festival is taking place, !e can notice
12
;artin, *andy, "ane and its )thers. Theory% &tate% -ation% and &oialism, in1 'ndrU
8epcki ured&", i#id&, p& F3&
13
;artin, *andy, i#id&, p& P3&
11
that this is a#out insisting to decrease the po!er of state monopol not only
over the resources for the production of culture, #ut also over the mechanisms
of identification !hich in essence have the intention to generate o#edient,
controlla#le and primarily extravagantOconsumer oriented su#jects&
'ccumulating diso#edient, nonprofita#le and re#elling #odies and staging
them in the communal, pu#lic spaces, the Croatian audience is a#le to
!itness the formation of ne! renditions of society not only in the sphere of the
aesthetics and poetics, #ut also at the level of the political$economical
structures& ,till, ho!ever this notion on the occasion of refelecting upon the
Festival may seem utopian, this generation has despite all challenges, crises
and restrictions for 30 years endured !ith a #ody !hich dances, moves,
motivating ne! generations !ho !ill find in dance a sanctuary, strength and
form an opinionated defiance against the nationalistic and capitalistic oriented
madness, !hich is afraid of movement and !hich aims to reduce any gesture
to a displined ironing of credit cards in a near#y shopping mall& Finally, #ut not
the least a 9uestion arises a#out ho! !ill a future choreography of society
look like, one that th Festival may as !ell #e staging in the years to comeX
Will it still #e an inclusive gesture !hose partition of the sensi#le favours
those invisi#le su#jects at the margins of culture, offering them a space in
!hich they can dance out their li#erated desiresX Will the #ody in future years
still #e capa#le to prevail on the fleshness of its defiance, opening ne!
horiBons and ne! possi#ilities for a more solidary and e9uita#le co$
ha#itationX
'ndrej ;irLev,
D063
12