PSR Advocacy Conference “Network of Residencies in South-East Europe#NORSE

Brain Store Project foundation and Tala Dance Center as partners in the network Nomad Dance Academy collaborated and took part in the Advocacy Conference “Network of Residencies in South-East Europe#NORSE” within the International Conference #NORSE. The Advocacy International Conference was directely link to the NORSE# Network of Residencies in South-East Europe - International Conference on Residencies in South-East Europe. The aims and some of the topics of both events were united with the wish to bring more visibility and awarness to the Nomad Dance Academy network and its advocacy work realized in the last seven years.  

Development of Advocacy Events:

Advocacy Conference is a part of series of advocacy events (Nomad Dance advocates), initiated by the Balkan Dance Network NOMAD Dance Academy. The advocacy events are in the area of ​​contemporary dance in the region. The Advocacy event in Ljubljana is the 4th in a row, following the events organized in Skopje 2012, Sofia 2015, Belgrade 2017. Through these events, NDA, together with its partners and collaborators, aims to develop an on-going advocacy platform for the contemporary performing arts scene in the Region (Balkan). The goal of these meetings is to establish dialogue and real cooperation between independent artists and cultural workers with policy and decision makers on local, national,regional and European level in order to develop mechanisms for support of the regional collaboration and development of this vivid and dynamic art field in the Balkans.

NOMAD Dance Academy is education, research, production and promotion programme of Balkan Dance Network that gathers all available potentials and resources in contemporary dance on local and regional level with the aim to contribute to improvement and professionalization of contemporary dance in the Balkans.

The first advocacy event was organized in Skopje on 8th and 9th November 2012. Nomad Dance Advocates Skopje 2012 enabled contacts and initiated dialogue between the artistic community and decision and policy makers; it presented how NDA works; through discussions and artistic events it mapped visions for the future of contemporary dance and of regional collaboration.  

Advocates of Dance: International Advocacy Meeting for Contemporary Dance is a second event in line of the advocacy activities of Nomad Dance Academy (NDA) organized in Sofia on 13, 14 and 15 May 2015. Advocates of Dance stepped on the experience in Skopje and wanted to bring it on a further level. It was aimed to establish more close and long-term collaborative relations between the artistic community, civil servants and decision makers in order to communicate the current and urgent needs of the sector, to provoke mutual discussion as well as exploration of cultural-political solutions and mechanisms of support for contemporary dance and for regional collaboration in this field. 

On 20 and 21 October 2017 was organized the 3rd event of Nomad Dance Advocates in Belgrade. Nomad Dance Advocates gathering in Belgrade engaged all the participants and guests into imagining the future where dance will not be an incident, but a social practice which brings people together and create space in which we can understand and support each other.

The fourth edition of Advocacy events happened in Slovenia from 7 till 10 April 21019 at the Kino Šiška, Ljubljana. The purpose of the Advocacy Conference and NORSE# was creating space for discussions around the need of institutions and creating spaces for production, presentation, promotion, education etc. for contemporary dance in the Balkan region. Important point for the both events was to build a network of residencies in Southeast Europe as a model of an institutionalized and decentralized contemporary dance center. The conference had the aim to rethink how can the conditions for work of the local artists and further their mobility can be improved, and mobility of the art program within the region, while creating practical conditions for fostering dance work on the level of infrastructure, finances and policy making.

On both united events participated decision makers and art professionals from following cities: Athens, Belgrade, Budapest, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Maribor, Novi Sad, Podgorica, Prishtina, Rijeka, Skopje, Sofia, Burgas, Timisoara, and Zagreb.

The Brain Store Project team participated at this conference: Iva Sveshtarova and Willy Prager, joined by the performing artist Stephan Shtereff, Doncho Hristev – representative of Sofia Minicipality and Petya Stoykova – representative of Burgas Minicipality.

Doncho Hristev and Petya Stoykova presented the cultural programmes of Sofia and Burgas Municipality and international cooperation with other cities of Southeast Europe in the panel „Map the Coordinates”. The performing artist Stephan Shtereff was moderator of the panel „Get inspired: What is our ideal art residency? And where do dreams become reality? Examples of good practices of art residencies.” Presentation of residency programs were made by MGLC/Švicarija (Miha Colnar), ICORN (Jasmina Rihar), resArtis (Clymene Christoforou) and Espaço do Tempo (Pia Krämer).

The programme of the Advocacy International Conferenceand NORSE # consisted of panel discussions, presentations, talks and workshop on types of residencies and shaping networks of residencies. In the evenings there were performances by regional artists. Brain Store Project co-financed the presentation of the productions „Out there and in here” by Anna Kreitmayer and Sonja Pregrad, Zagreb, and the dance performance „Rear Window” by Mateja Bučar, Ljubljana.

After the Advocacy conference and NORSE#, NOMAD Dance Academy continues with Decision Making Body meeting from, 10 – 13 April 2019. During the meeting the results were discussed and the feedback and the proposals given from the participants were analyzed. On the base of the conclusions from the both united events, the network draw out its future steps for possible new Advocacy events in the region.


View the experience report of Ana Letunic in the upper right column.