Belgrade Dance Festival, supported by the EU Delegation to Serbia for the fifth consecutive year, will in this year’s edition be held under the slogan “The Great Dance” from 24 March-11 April, bringing together artists from more than 10 countries and making Belgrade for the fourteenth time the centre of European and world art scene, said the organisers of the Festival.
The Festival will be opened by a Naples-based ballet superstar Giuseppe Piconne who together with Zubin Mehta heads the famous San Carlo theatre from Naples. Their show will be streamed live in Belgrade’s Republic Square.
Participants in the conference held in the Hall of the National Assembly of Serbia said that each year the Festival put Belgrade on the cultural map of the world.
National Assembly Speaker Maja Gojkovic spoke about the support the Festival and ballet art in general drew from the institution she was heading.
I am confident that this April we will once again see the Festival in the focus of European and world art scene, sending the message of positive artistic energy, she said at the conference held in the Hall of the National Assembly.
Art Director of the Festival, Aja Jung, said that without great art the culture loses its importance and announced that the Festival will be attended by 23,000 people in Belgrade and Novi Sad.
Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Oskar Benedikt reminded that the Delegation supported the Festival for the fifth consecutive year, helping it to build bridges of friendship between Serbia and Europe and the rest of the world.
Dutch Ambassador Henk van den Dool seized the opportunity to announce the performance by the Dutch dancing troupe Introdans, saying that he was proud of the long-standing cooperation with the Festival which he described as a unique event in this part of Europe.
Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Manzo announced the magnificent performance by Collettivo Cinetico from Ferrara – 10 miniballetti for the price of one.
France is represented by the troupe Pixel which according to French Ambassador Christine Moro put on 200 shows around the world, combining dance, hip-hop, digital and circus arts. The troupe will also host a workshop for young Serbian artists.
German Ambassador Axel Dittmann said his country would put on two shows: a show performed by a six-member ensemble and another one by a renowned Berlin artist Helena Waldmann titled “Good Passports Bad Passports,” a controversial political piece dealing with migrant crisis, on 5 April and 31 March, respectively.
“The same way Bitef and Fest mark autumn and winter in Belgrade, the Dance Festival marks spring and allows us to see the latest choreography trends,” said Gordan Markotic, the Ambassador of Croatia, which will for the first time take part in the Festival with two shows put on by young female artists.
After many decades, the ensemble of the National Theatre of Croatia will have an opportunity to perform in Belgrade and show what it’s made of, he said.
Israeli Ambassador Alona Fisher Kamm said that on 11 April Belgrade would have an opportunity to see “a dark and noisy, but at the same time cathartic” performance of one of the most authentic Israeli troupes led by Sharon Eyal, a multimedia choreographer, this year’s laureate of the Jovan Cirilov Award.
2017 marks the 100th anniversary of Finland’s independence and according to Ambassador Pertti Ikonen, a Finnish company Tero Saarinen will for the first perform in the Balkans by taking part in the Dance Festival.
Secretary of Culture of the City of Belgrade Ivona Jevtic said that the Festival had immense importance for the capital, adding that the City Administration will for the first time look up to Milan, New York and Vienna and arrange a live streaming of a cultural event, on 24 March at 20:00 in the Republic Square.
