PSR – NDI – Archiving

The Archiving project is an on-going project, which is currently focused on researching and gathering documentation of dance and dance related practices in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in the Balkan region. Each team in each country has the opportunity to define and develop its own entrance point and methodology according to local context and dynamics of the project.

In Serbia, the local team has developed an online platform, which will be connected with online data of other countries, configuring a regional open source archive of the history of dance.

The first meeting of the Archiving teams took place in Ljubljana on December 1 & 2, 2015 in the frame of the Co-Festival. Prior to this one, there was a preparatory meeting in Sofia with only a few participants present, lots of online activities and researches conducted by local teams.
During this two days event in Sofia, the teams shared their research, documents, questions, and problems and defined future plans. The host was the Slovenian team Jasmina Založnik and Rok Vevar, who were organisers and moderators of this event. The Macedonian team was Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski and Slavčo Dimitrov, from Serbia Milica Ivić and Igor Koruga, and from Croatia Katja Šimunić and Iva Nerina Sibila. The NDI Archiving project is currently focusing on researching and gathering documentation of dance and dance related practises in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in the region. Each team has the opportunity to define and develop its own entrance point and methodology, according to the local context and dynamics of the project. 

This meeting took place in the Slovenian Theatre Institute and was open to interested public. The guest of the project and an expert in the field of archiving performing arts was Daniela Hahn from Berlin. She is currently on post-doc research project on Harvard University, USA, where she investigates the concepts of the document that underpin the documentary in art and its changing condition in the era of digital images.

The opening session was held by Rok Vevar, who presented his work on Ksenija Hribar and the Slovenian Contemporary Dance in the 1980s, and Jasmina, who works on alternative movements, sub-cultures and the performing scene in the 70ies and 80ies in Ljubljana. In the second session, Katja and Iva Nerina gave an insight in the dance scene in Zagreb from 1980 to 1990, showing the works from Studio for Contemporary

Dance, Zagreb Dance Company, Ljiljana Zagorac and Vlasta Kaurić.

Milica and Igor focused on the collaboration of institutional theatres and free-lance choreographers of a younger generation and Biljana Tanurovska and Slavčo Dimitrov presented the material from Macedonia that are tracing the development of experimental and critical performance and dance practises.

The question that was raised many times during the presentations and discussions is the relation of aesthetics and creative choices with production modes and socio-political context.

In 2017, the Archive activity will collaborate with MASKA – journal for contemporary performing arts and dedicate one edition of Archiving on contemporary dance.