The First Page: Contemporary Dance Festivals in the Former Yugoslav Space

THE FIRST PAGE

Contemporary Dance Festivals in the Former Yugoslav Space:
(in)dependent scenes

by Alexandra Baybutt

16 May 2024

The First Page presents the first page of books that are launched as part of the IAS Book Launch Programme. On 22 May 2024, Alexandra Baybutt, former IAS Postdoctoral Fellow, launches her first book Contemporary Dance Festivals in the Former Yugoslav Space: (in)dependent scenes that expands the understanding of conditions defining the creation and circulation of contemporary dance that differ across Europe. She focuses on festival-making connected with the Balkan regional project ‘Nomad Dance Academy’.

Introduction

List of acronyms and abbreviations
EC European Commission
EU European Union
BiH Bosnia-Herzegovina
NDA Nomad Dance Academy
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
SFRY Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1948-1992)
UK United Kingdom

April 2017, Vračar, Belgrade, Serbia
I’m in a greasy Chinese takeaway, just gone midnight.
The usual questions:
‘Where are you from?’ Sheffield. ‘You support Wednesday or United?’
Then:
‘Why are you in Belgrade?’
I’m here to research the art scene, I say.
‘I didn’t know we had one. Most people think we are savages. It’s nice that you come here and say this’.

This book investigates the politics of making contemporary dance festivals. It focuses on three examples, LocoMotion, Kondenz and PLESkavica. These festivals are all connected to the Nomad Dance Academy project, initiated in 2007 to support contemporary dance development in the Balkan region. LocoMotion festival was made by Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Lokomotiva – Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture in Skopje, North Macedonia annually from 2008 to 2015. Kondenz festival is made by NGO Stanica – Servis za savremeni ples (Station – Service for Contemporary Dance) in Belgrade, Serbia, annually from 2008. In Ljubljana, Slovenia, the PLESkavica festival was made by Fičo Balet/NDA Slovenia in 2011. Each mediates change specific to the former Yugoslav space whilst maintaining aspects of social life, and constitutes festival-making as a political practice. The quotation above illuminates two dimensions of these topics. Firstly, it…

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ALEXANDRA BAYBUTT (PhD, CMA, RSME) convenes performance practice modules (BA Creative Arts and Humanities, UCL East), and is a freelance somatic movement educator and artist. Research interests include politics of space and ethics. Recent commissions include ‘equity in working conditions in dance’ for the European Dance Development Network (2023).

Her book launch will take place on 22 May 2024 at the Institute of Advanced Studies. More information.

Lead Image (detail) by Ahmad Odeh.