PSR – NDI – Archiving – Critical Parqur

„Archiving of 80s dance – dance in musical and theatrical centre “Kulušić in the 80s”

IVA NERINA SIBILA

During the festival Platforma HR, in Pogon Jedinstvo on April 25^th 2016, Critical Parqur was held, moderated by Iva Nerina Sibila. The topic of the panel was “Dance in musical and theatrical centre “Kulušić””. It was an event whose main topic was the contemporary dance scene in Croatia in the 1980s. It was a live, interesting and diverse scene that alluded the School for rhythmic and dance that had in the time acted for three decades and educated dancers that continued their work in one of three ensembles with regular annual production of dance shows that were conducted of: Studio for Contemporary Dance, Chamber Ensemble of free Dance and Zagreb Dance Ensemble. Also, groups like Terpsichore, Gesta and others were founded.

Since previously mentioned Chamber Ensemble of Contemporary Dance didn’t have its own concrete space for work and performance of their shows, they performed them at Zagreb Youth Theatre, as well as in Theatre ITD. Zagreb Dance Ensemble finds a new performing space in the eighties, in the famous GSC “Kulušić”. In that same space, in 1984, the event „Week of Contemporary Dance“ is inaugurated. In that way contemporary dance in Zagreb became a part of subculture and coexists alongside rock concerts. Mondays were scheduled for dance shows of Zagreb Dance Ensemble that provided work possibilities to young choreographers like Jasminka Neufeld Imrović, Katja Šimunić, Ksenija Zec, with mandatory guests. Transferring to “Kulušić”, dance audience expands on young audience, partial to subculture and counterculture, which surely in return influences also on the definition of mere dance expression of Zagreb Dance Ensemble.
Critical Parqur 2016 is realized in collaboration with project Life Long Burning / Performance Situation Room / Nomad Dance Institute – Archive. People who spoke on the panel were Mirna Žagar, artistic producer of Zagreb Dance Center, Katja Šimunić, writer, director and choreographer and Tomas Krkač, musician. Documenting of historical periods and developments of dance scene are an important factor in dance development and education of young generations of dancers about experiences, strategies and problematic in contemporary dance development in each of its eras. Partly, these reasons are also a serious motive for further extension of work on archiving dance and within this project. The project questions and valorises events from the mentioned period through critical deliberation of situations and tendencies within the Zagreb dance scene of that time. Through video screenings of authentic materials and conversations with actors of that time, the audience and speakers developed communication that abounded with nostalgia, as well as with constructive suggestions for documentation and work within the dance scene in the future. The discussion on this topic attracted about sixty participants and showed a lively interest of the audience for realization of such topics.

In what way does the program contribute to the culture of Republic of Croatia

Nomad Dance Institute encourages regional artistic collaborations and stirs dialogues on all fields of contemporary dance, from performance to theoretical. It encourages quality projects with a performance, but also with a theoretical base. Part of these projects are carried out in Croatia and local artists and artistic organizations are involved in them. Knowledge exchange and opening to collaboration are necessary for city of Zagreb and Croatia, as one of the leading and main centres of contemporary dance in the region. Zagreb is already recognized as a place of quality and innovative contemporary art currents and it is important that it builds that status more clearly and more seriously. Archive as a project is of exceptional importance for cultural heritage and contemporary dance archive in Croatia.

Project goal

Goal of NDI is to support ideas and projects from region and abroad which are not within framed and dominant artistic aesthetics or strict methodological approaches to creation. NDI enables flow of ideas and networking of creators and organizations from the region and abroad. With its principals NDI creates a new surrounding for collaboration. Goal of NDI is also exchange of artistic experiences, analysis of approaches and movements of contemporary dance, encouragement of regional artistic collaboration and dialogue in all fields of contemporary dance, from performance to theoretical. Since 90% of NDA members are artists, after 9 years of collaboration and creation of educational projects, an art project is a natural sequel of mutual work and development. We want to encourage quality projects with performance, but also theoretical base. During the last three years, we have developed NDI BLOG, which systematically follows all projects, and it’s a mission for the future.