Author: renate.dinu

The National Dance Center in Bucharest is looking for a colleague to join the technical department as a sound engineer for upcoming projects. If you’re passionate about the performing arts and want to help us bring the CNDB’s productions to life, come join us. You’ll find a friendly and dynamic environment and the opportunity to showcase your passion for dance.

For details, see the requirements below. Applications are due by September 1; please send a resume and a phone number to office@cndb.ro, with the subject line “Sound Technician Collaboration.” You can also request additional details at this email address. Following the application period, interviews will be conducted with those interested in joining us.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of experience in sound design
• Good command of English
• Willingness to work irregular hours, including evenings and weekends
• Ability to adapt to different types of people
• Attention to detail in performing job duties
• Ability to analyze and synthesize information, initiative, creativity, flexibility, and punctuality
• Solid knowledge of the equipment and technologies used in the field
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple tasks simultaneously

Benefits

• The opportunity to work as part of a creative and dynamic team.
• Opportunities for professional development and growth within CNDB.
• Participation in high-quality artistic productions.

The Academy of Dance and Performance Laboratories, an intensive training program initiated by the National Center for Dance in Bucharest (CNDB), will conclude with public presentations of the 11 performance and choreographic works created by this year’s participants on August 7, 21, and 22. These three days of performances mark the end of a process of research, experimentation, and creation that has unfolded over the course of an academic year and offer the public the opportunity to discover emerging artistic voices that have taken shape within the program.

Dedicated to movement, performance, and choreographic creation, the program aimed to provide a framework for professional development for artists interested in strengthening their own artistic practice and finding their place on the local and international contemporary scene. Structured as a series of intensive workshops, the program centered on the body as a space for research, the generation of knowledge through practice, and the development of personal artistic perspectives.

Over the course of the two semesters, participants followed a comprehensive curriculum, supplemented by individual mentoring sessions, workshops, and courses taught by artists, choreographers, and theorists from Romania and abroad. The dialogue between practice and reflection, between experimentation and artistic rigor, created the necessary context for the development of original projects that explore themes and questions relevant to contemporary society.

The 11 works presented at the end of the program represent not only the result of an educational process but also the beginning of independent artistic journeys. Each piece reflects the artists’ universe, concerns, and working methods, offering distinct perspectives on the body, relationships with others, memory, space, identity, and transformation. Together, these creations highlight the diversity of practices and research directions cultivated within the Dance and Performance Academy Laboratories.

Inspired by European educational models such as TanzFabrik Berlin, PARTS Brussels, ELAN – Centre National de la Danse Paris, and e.x.e.r.c.e. Montpellier, the Academy’s Laboratories aim to continue developing an alternative space for learning and creation, based on knowledge sharing, collaboration, and artistic experimentation. The program thus contributes not only to training a new generation of artists but also to strengthening Romania’s contemporary dance ecosystem.

The presentation of the 11 works invites the public to discover the results of a year of research, questioning, and exploration, while also marking the beginning of new artistic journeys. The conclusion of the Dance and Performance Academy Laboratories represents not only the end of a process but also the opening of new creative directions that will continue to develop beyond the scope of the program.

Entrance is free, subject to availability.

PROGRAM 

7.08 | ora 19:30 | Durată totală: 130 minute – detalii despre piese și biografii artiști AICI

Desynchronosis A.K.A. Jet Lag de Cristina Tudor
O crevasă inundată de Ilinca Budeanu
TESERACT de Iustin Danalache
Belonging Bodies de Teodora Tudose
Treshold de Iulia Andro

21.08 | ora 19:30 | Durată totală: 105 minute – detalii despre piese și biografii artiști AICI

IN/HER/IT de Ana Costache
Voice Legacy de Alexandra Necula
ICSPRES IORSELF de Daiana Sargan

22.08 | ora 19:30 | Durată totală: 135 minute – detalii despre piese și biografii artiști AICI

Every house has a door de Bianca Ardeleanu
What if today…? de Ada Anghel
Wow! You’re a dancer?! Can you show me a split? de Sofia Sitaru-Onofrei

August 7 | 7:30 p.m. | Total runtime: 130 minutes – details about the plays and artist biographies HERE

Desynchronosis A.K.A. Jet Lag by Cristina Tudor
O crevasă inundată by Ilinca Budeanu
TESERACT by Iustin Danalache
Belonging Bodies by Teodora Tudose
Threshold by Iulia Andro

August 21 | 7:30 p.m. | Total duration: 105 minutes – details about the plays and artist biographies HERE

IN/HER/IT by Ana Costache
Voice Legacy by Alexandra Necula
ICSPRES IORSELF by Daiana Sargan

August 22 | 7:30 PM | Total runtime: 135 minutes – details about the pieces and artist biographies HERE

Every house has a door by Bianca Ardeleanu
What if today…? by Ada Anghel
Wow! You’re a dancer?! Can you show me a split? by Sofia Sitaru-Onofrei

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Produced by
The National Centre for Dance Bucharest

A cultural program co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The program does not necessarily reflect the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the program’s results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grant recipient.

With the support of: Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest, Goethe-Institut Romania, French Institute in Romania, Polish Institute Bucharest

“Unauthorized Movements” and “Under Pressure” premiere at CNDB on June 27–28

History, social norms, technology, the pressure to perform, and the need for self-regulation leave their traces in the body long before they become ideas. On June 27 and 28, the National Center for Dance Bucharest presents the premieres of Unauthorized Movements, by Mihai Mihalcea in collaboration with Mara Bugarin, and Under Pressure, by Ana Costea. Approaching the body from different perspectives, the two works explore how the world shapes movement, perception, and presence.

History Reaches the Body Before It Reaches Books

After more than three decades of artistic practice spanning contemporary dance, performance, and visual arts, Mihai Mihalcea returns to one of the central concerns of his work: the relationship between power and the ways historical eras leave their marks on the body.

Recently presented at the Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance in Sofia, Unauthorized Movements begins from the premise that history reaches the body before it reaches books. The performance explores how time, labour, political imagination, and promises about the future continue to shape gestures, reflexes, and ways of being.

Developed from the lecture-performance Unauthorized Movements: from Taylorism to Dance and Digital Surveillance, the work asks a simple yet unsettling question: how can bodies and movement escape the systems through which they are observed, analysed, measured, and optimized? And what dominant logic underlies these processes?

At the heart of the performance lies the encounter between Mihai Mihalcea and Mara Bugarin, who create a performative landscape where fragments of different historical periods overlap like a hallucination. The beginnings of industrialisation, the domestic optimism of the 1950s, and a present increasingly shaped by technologies capable of recognising and interpreting our movements and behaviours coexist within a world populated by advertisements, discourses of efficiency, archival traces, and collective fantasies of progress.

How does a body learn what we now consider natural? How are gestures and behaviours shaped by the ways different eras organised life, labour, and ideas of success? And what might a body do if it no longer wished to be understood and anticipated?

A Woman Moving Through Different Eras

At the centre of this universe stands a woman moving through multiple historical periods and multiple promises about the future. A woman undressing herself from history. Her body becomes a living archive of the forms of power that have written their stories onto it, but also of the futures that have been promised to us.

Mara Bugarin’s fragility, humour, and stage presence transform this body into a terrain where different eras continue to negotiate ideas of discipline, conformity, progress, and freedom.

The Body That Self-Regulates

Presented on the same evening, Under Pressure, Ana Costea’s new work, brings into focus the experience of a person on the autism spectrum and the often invisible effort required to function within environments that do not always recognise their needs, rhythms, and ways of being.

The work explores questions of adaptation, masking, overstimulation, and exhaustion, as well as the strategies through which the body attempts to regain balance. One of these strategies is stimming: the repetitive gestures, movements, sounds, and behaviours through which many autistic people regulate their relationship with the world.

Often misunderstood, viewed with suspicion, or hidden in order to avoid stigma, these forms of self-regulation appear here not as symptoms but as resources. As ways through which the body manages anxiety, sensory overload, social pressure, and the need for safety.

Against the backdrop of a society that glorifies efficiency, performance, and constant availability, Under Pressure questions the everyday imperatives that urge us to keep going regardless of the cost. Between exhaustion and self-regulation, between the pressure to conform and the need to exist at one’s own pace, the performance reflects on vulnerability, rest, and the right not to turn every difficulty into yet another achievement.

Two Perspectives on the Body’s Autonomy

Although they emerge from different contexts, the two works meet around a shared concern: the ways social, economic, and cultural norms shape the body, and the ways the body attempts to preserve its autonomy.

If Unauthorized Movements looks at the body through the lenses of history, labour, and technologies of control, Under Pressure foregrounds neurodivergence and the often invisible cost of adapting to a world built for others.

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Unauthorized Movements

text and artistic direction: Mihai Mihalcea
co-creation and performance: Mara Bugarin
sound and video environment: Mihai Mihalcea*
duration: 60 min
performed in English with Romanian surtitles

Under Pressure

a work by/with: Ana Costea
sound design: Lala Misosniky
mastering: Dan Bărbulescu
duration: 42 min

Master: Dan Bărbulescu
Durată: 42 minute

June 27 and 28, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Stere Popescu Hall – National Center for Dance Bucharest

The two performances are presented within the framework of Unauthorized Movements, a project initiated and curated by Mihai Mihalcea and produced by Solitude Project Cultural Association, in partnership with the National Center for Dance Bucharest.

Partners: Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance and Reactor for Creation and Experiment.

Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN).

This project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for the ways in which its results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.

As part of the fifth edition of Iridescent—International Festival of Contemporary Dance and Other Reconfigurations of the Sensible, held in November, the National Center for Dance Bucharest (CNDB) is launching a new section, a broader framework for dialogue and interaction with the local dance and performance scene, as it exists today, with its differences, contradictions, fragilities, and highly diverse forms of practice and expression.

In addition to the selection curated by the CNDB team, this new section aims to reflect the ways in which dance, movement and choreographic practices, as well as performative practices in the broadest sense, can emerge and circulate beyond the conventional performance space (black-box), precisely to define a more complex ecology of practices, corporealities, and relationships.

Andreea Novac and Valentina De Piante, choreographers on the independent contemporary dance scene and also members of the CNDB Artistic Council in 2026, have the mission to engage in dialogue with artists, artistic groups and collectives, and organizations active in dance and performance to identify content and formats to be included in this new section.

We hope that the festival will thus become an expanded framework across multiple locations in the city and bring together diverse content and formats that highlight different ways of understanding dance, the body, presence, and the relationship with the audience, the space, and the city.

How to Apply

Those who are working on new or recently completed projects and are interested in this framework are asked to send their proposals, in as much detail as possible, to novacandreea@hotmail.com by June 28, 2026.

The proposal must include a detailed description of the project, not exceeding two Word pages. Please also provide links to relevant video materials (not attached files), as well as any other materials you consider relevant to understanding the proposal (photos, audio files, etc.), exclusively in the form of links.

Second Skin — a performance centered on the body and movement, a collective creation conceived and directed by Ferenc Sinkó—can be seen at the National Dance Center in Bucharest on June 14 at 7:30 p.m.

In Second Skin, a group of performers explores the imprints that work, exposure, and daily life leave on their own bodies. The tensions between the intimate body, the social body, and the professional body emerge through accumulations of gestures, impulses, and self-reflections. The body’s memory is revisited and reconstructed in real time.

Passing through an endless series of situations that demand its presence, the body reacts as best it can: it adjusts, freezes, withdraws, repeats familiar patterns. It resists. A thin, identity-defining, transparent membrane keeps it alive and in tension. Under the pressure to perform, states oscillate between pleasure and insecurity, vulnerability and control. The body protests and learns to adapt with strength and determination. It wants to express itself sincerely and, at the same time, to be accepted. Surrendering to the visceral, it sometimes discovers a fragile balance and unexpected forms of freedom.

“I don’t know in which category to place the show; it’s certainly not a dance performance, and perhaps not even theater. I would rather call it a hybrid performance that combines atmospheres, images, and performers who question their bodies and their presence on stage, with situations that aren’t very concrete and without a well-defined story. I don’t have my own aesthetic; I always leave that up to others, and I like to adapt to the suggestions of the people I work with. Instead, I have my own approach to the process I use in creating my shows. I try to create an environment conducive to a collaborative process. I work a lot with group exercises; I try to explore the theme indirectly through many discussions and exercises that don’t necessarily seem to have anything to do with building the show.” (Ferenc Sinkó, the show’s director)

“As with any performance, I hope the audience comes with an open mind and without too many expectations. In Second Skin, the focus isn’t on the text, but on a different kind of language—one they’ll easily recognize and decode. Anyone can relate to the theme of the body through the lens of their own experiences. In fact, it seems there is a kind of ‘empathy’ that arises when we observe a body in motion, which activates the motor system and causes what we see to be mirrored and reproduced internally.” (Oana Hodade, who is responsible for the play’s dramaturgy and soundscape)

The performance premiered in Cluj-Napoca on June 7 and is part of the project Instances of Labor – Contemporary Body, which aims to explore the concept of labor and its role in society, starting from the individual’s relationship with social and professional constructs, as well as with their own body and how it is affected.

A cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the project’s results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

Second Skin
– collaborative creation –

Concept and Direction: Ferenc Sinkó
Dramaturgy and Sound Design: Oana Hodade
Set Design: Mihai Păcurar
Assistant Director: Mihai Gligan
Sound and Lighting: Cătălin Filip and Alex Maftei
Cast: Ana Maria Marin, Calița Nantu, Alexandra Harapu, Cătălin Filip, Tavi Voina
Poster Illustration and Animation: MAT

Duration: 90 min
Age: All Ages

Subject: body body body
Genre: meta-leak
Atmosphere: liminal

Tickets are available on eventbook.ro.

For more information about the Reactor program, please visit www.reactor-cluj.com, www.facebook.com/ReactorCluj, or www.instagram.com/reactor.cluj.

Artists working in the fields of contemporary dance and new technologies are invited to apply to MOVIDA Labs, a European program dedicated to exploring the relationship between dance, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies. The call is open to 16 interdisciplinary duos consisting of dance artists and technology specialists, and the deadline for applications is August 3, 2026.

About the project: MOVIDA (Movement and Virtual Intelligence for the Development and Accessibility of Artists and Audiences) is a European project running from 2026 to 2029 and co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program. The initiative aims to support artistic development through the use of artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, and other innovative technologies, while also contributing to increased accessibility and public engagement in the performing arts.

Eligibility requirements: duos consisting of two participants residing in Europe, at least one of whom has experience in contemporary dance, and the other in technology, media arts, or computational creativity. Applicants must demonstrate the ability to develop and integrate technologies into artistic practice.

Selection criteria: the relevance of the artistic proposal to the theme of the chosen lab, its contribution to the professional development of the participants, as well as the portfolios of the two team members in the fields of contemporary dance and creative technologies.

Application process: Applicants must submit an artist’s statement (maximum two pages), CVs for both participants, and links to relevant online portfolios. Applications must be submitted by August 3, 2026, and selection results will be announced by September 15, 2026.

Selected participants will benefit from masterclasses led by international experts, artistic and technical mentoring, access to studios and equipment, financial support for participation, and opportunities for European networking

For complete information on the eligibility requirements, selection criteria, workshop schedule, and application process, please visit the official MOVIDA project website here.

As part of the project, four international workshops will be organized, hosted in Romania, Estonia, Germany, and Portugal. The National Center for Dance Bucharest (CNDB) is a partner in the project and, together with UNATC “I.L. Caragiale” will host the workshop on “AI, Accessibility, and Dance”, which will take place in Bucharest from December 3–11, 2026.

Curious and talented, our young dancers are wrapping up another school year! Before summer break, the children at the Children’s Performing Arts School invite parents, friends, and loved ones to discover the fruits of a year of exploration, play, movement, and creativity. The end-of-year event will take place on June 5, at 7:00 PM, and will feature performances by the students alongside teachers Eva Danciu, Catrinel Catană, Vava Ștefănescu, Andreea Belu, and Eduard Gabia.

Throughout the year, the children explored the relationship between body, mind, and emotion, learning to better understand their own means of expression. Through movement and creative exercises, they discovered that understanding one’s own body also means becoming aware of possibilities, limitations, and how these transform through experience. At the Performing art school for children, movement becomes a tool for knowledge and freedom, a space where the body and imagination work together to open up new perspectives on the world.

The evening’s program also includes a special segment conceived by choreographer Vava Ștefănescu, dedicated to the Year of Constantin Brâncuși and the 150th anniversary of the great artist’s birth. The performance draws on one of the lesser-known stories from Brâncuși’s world: the collaboration between Constantin Brâncuși and the dancer and choreographer Lizica Codreanu. In 1922, Brâncuși created a special costume for her and invited her to dance among the sculptures in his studio, to the music of Erik Satie, a moment he documented photographically in seven images that have become, today, precious testimonies of the encounter between sculpture and dance.

Based on these images, Lizica Codreanu’s dance was reconstructed in 1995 by Vava Ștefănescu for a documentary dedicated to Brâncuși, and in 2014 it became the starting point for the performance “Reenacting Lizica Codreanu,” created in collaboration with students from the Bucharest Choreography High School. This year, the story continues with a new reinterpretation, created alongside the children from the CNDB Performing art school for children, who carry forward the spirit of experimentation and freedom from the encounter between Brâncuși and Lizica Codreanu.

The event marks not only the end of a year of classes but also the beginning of a well-deserved vacation, celebrating curiosity, imagination, and the joy of learning through art. Parents and friends of the students are invited to join them for an evening dedicated to discovery and creativity through movement.

The 16th edition of Romania’s smallest major jazz festival, Green Hours JAZZ Fest, is fast approaching.

From June 4 to 7, the bohemian garden of the veteran jazz club on Calea Victoriei will host eight concerts featuring local and international artists.

Yumi Ito, a distinctive voice in contemporary jazz; Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi, with his uniquely poetic sound; the Romanian trio Mindthegap, which stands out strongly on the local scene, French cellist Vincent Courtois and Italian saxophonist Francesco Bearzatti—both appearing for the second time in the festival’s program—alongside other talented artists from the European jazz scene, will delight us and—perhaps—reimagine our inner worlds.

The visual identity of this year’s edition is designed by Victor Bartiș, the same designer who created the festival’s symbol—the seven-fingered trumpet man—and is inspired by René Magritte. We are living in surreal times; a touch to match is called for.

Green Hours JAZZ Fest XVI could not have taken shape without the extraordinary support and carte blanche of our institutional partners who have stood by us year after year and to whom we are grateful: EUNIC, the Swiss Embassy in Romania and the Swiss Sponsors’ Fund, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the French Institute, the Liszt Institute, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Goethe-Institut, Austrian Cultural Forum.

The festival is supported by GDS, Green Sound Team, JAZZ.RO, and Bistro by Green Hours.

For the second consecutive year, Leviatan Group proves itself to be the ultimate jazz lover and supports us in organizing the festival.

The media partner for this year’s GHJFest is Radio Guerrilla.

That said, we eagerly await the energy of the audience—the true driving force behind the festival—with equal parts joy and excitement, in Bucharest’s most musical garden.

Rozana Mihalache,
Artistic Director of Green Hours

Bucharest, May 22, 2026

Aerowaves is a hub for dance discovery in Europe with a network of partners in 34 countries. The network is looking for twenty emerging choreographers based in Europe to promote in 2027.

You can now apply to become an Aerowaves artist with the opportunity to have yourwork presented at the Spring Forward festival from 14-17 April 2027 in Limerick (IE), and also by many of our Aerowaves partners around Europe.

All eligible applications will be reviewed before the end of October 2026.

The selection of Aerowaves Twenty artists will be finalised in the week following the Partners meeting, and the successful candidates will be notified by email by mid November. 

Deadline: 15 July 2026, 5pm CEST.

Find more information and the application form HERE.

For further queries, please contact us: info@aerowaves.org

The “Convergences: Dance & Film” event, taking place on May 29 and June 4, brings together the National Center for Dance in Bucharest (CNDB) and the Eforie Cinema through a program dedicated to the dialogue between the two arts.

From archival films accompanied live by Karpov not Kasparov to the cinematic portrait of choreographer Miriam Răducanu, the event showcases how movement becomes image, and how the image preserves the traces of dance.

The schedule for the two days is as follows:

May 29 | 7:30 p.m. @ CNDB | Karpov not Kasparov Cine(Dance) Concert

A selection of archival short films exploring diverse histories of dance within niche areas of Romanian cinema will be presented in a Cine(Dance)Concert accompanied by the band Karpov not Kasparov. We invite you to listen to them live and watch an in-depth look at dance film, presented through archival productions made between 1927 and 1972.

Karpov Not Kasparov is an electronic/synth-pop/new-wave duo from Bucharest, consisting of Valeriu Borcos and Eduard Gabia. One of Romania’s finest synth-pop/dance/electronic exports, Karpov Not Kasparov has performed in recent years at clubs and festivals across Europe.

The film footage comes from the ANF Archive and the CNDB Archive
Film curator: Corina Cimpoieru, CNDB Archive
Admission to the concert is free for students.

June 4 | 6:00 p.m. @ Cinemateca Eforie | Documentary film “Miriam Răducanu – Rigor and senZe” | Q&A with Alexandra Gulea | Catalog launch

A black-and-white portrait of the centenarian artist who transformed dance into a language of the soul and opened new horizons for movement and creation in Romania – Miriam Răducanu. She explored diverse music through movement – from Handel and Messiaen to Maria Tănase and Johnny Răducanu, bringing depth and expressiveness to every gesture. The film visually and aurally reconstructs her life and artistic journey, guiding the viewer not through a chronological history, but through a cinematic experience of her choreographic thinking, reflecting her creative spirit, between rigor, improvisation, and “movement without movement.” A cultural legacy that continues to inspire entire generations of artists.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Alexandra Gulea and the launch of the catalog “Miriam Răducanu: An Exhibition—Archive with senZe”, in the presence of editor Corina Cimpoieru.

Made on the occasion of the centenary of choreographer and dancer Miriam Răducanu, the film brings together for the first time archival documents that reconstruct the artist’s biographical and creative journey, revealing the extraordinary way in which Miriam Răducanu combined dance, music, and poetry.

Concept, direction: Alexandra Gulea
Audio restoration, sound design, music: Vlaicu Golcea
Research and archive consultant: Corina Cimpoieru
Script consultant: Vava Ștefănescu
Editing/graphics consultant: Ciprian Cimpoi
Colourisation: Andrei Oană

Parteneri media: Radio Guerilla , Zile și nopți, Scena9, Agerpress, Elle, Happ.ro, Liternet, TVR Cultural, Radio România Cultural, Revista Arta, The Institute, Zeppelin, ISCOADA, Feeder, Visit Bucharest, Ziarul Metropolis,  IQads, Ceașca de Cultură, Modernism.ro, Haute Culture Magazine, munteanurecomanda.ro, Daily Magazine 

On the occasion of International Dance Day, celebrated annually on April 29, the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), a UNESCO partner, invites, as it does every year, a leading figure in the field to deliver a global message dedicated to the art of dance. You can read it at the end, but the National Dance Center wishes to place this day in a context it deems necessary.

In Romania, this symbolic day comes amid major difficulties for professionals in the sector. On March 2, 2026, over 300 artists, cultural managers, and supporters of contemporary dance submitted a comprehensive petition to the Ministry of Culture, highlighting serious structural issues affecting the field’s development. To date, the Ministry of Culture has not responded to those who submitted the petition.

The document draws attention to a persistent reality: dance remains one of the few arts in Romania without adequate infrastructure. From training institutions, such as choreography high schools, to leading organizations like the National Dance Center in Bucharest, artists face an acute shortage of spaces for rehearsal, creation, and performance.

This situation directly affects independent artists, as well as nongovernmental organizations and artistic collectives, which often operate under precarious or makeshift conditions. The lack of infrastructure limits not only artistic production but also the public’s access to this form of cultural expression. The full statement can be viewed here.

In an international context where dance is celebrated as an essential form of expression and cultural dialogue, Romania’s artistic community is calling for concrete and urgent measures to support a field that is on the brink of survival.

To mark International Dance Day, the CNDB has decided to celebrate the occasion with a full day of free events that celebrate movement, connection, and dance as a universal language. The events, brought together under the name DANSOTECA, offer the public four workshops: Enter the Flux, led by George Pleșca; It Takes Two (Iulia Andro & Mihai Petrini); Dancing through rep (Laura Murariu); and Waacking Workshop (Waana Neagu). At the end of the day, the public is invited to a DJ set (Sillyconductor & Rekabu), where leftfield disco glides seamlessly into rhythms drawn from entirely different latitudes. Details about the event and registration can be found here.

Message for International Dance Day – April 29
International Theatre Institute (ITI)
World Organisation of the Performing Arts
Author of the message: Crystal PITE, Canada

Humans move – our arms reach out, our knees collapse, our heads nod, our chests cave in, our backs arch, we jump, we shrug, we clench our fists, we pick each other up and push each other away. This is language as much as it is action. This is what the body has to say about need, defeat, courage, despair, desire, joy, ambivalence, frustration, love. These images flash with meaning in the mind because we have felt these things so purely in the body – we have been moved.

We are dancers, all of us. Life moves us; life dances us. Ephemeral as breath, concrete as bone, a dance is made of us. We sculpt space. We write with our bodies in a wordless language that is deeply understood. We grace the space within and around us when we dance. 

Like life, a dance creates and destroys itself in every moment. Like love, it is beyond reason. 

I like to think of the body as a location; a place where being is held and shaped. When we dance, we are profoundly engaged in being there.

I’m writing this in early 2026, when there seems to be no end to the oppression, upheaval and suffering in our world. Daily, as we witness the horror of what humans are capable of doing to each other and the machinery of power that funds and fuels unspeakable violence to people and planet, dance feels like a facile, useless response. It’s hard to imagine what a dance artist can do in a world that so badly needs radical change and healing. 

And yet – art, like hope, is a form of love. Defiantly generative in the face of desecration, art is a solvent for the calcifying mind and a balm to heal it. Art is a vessel to hold us while we grapple with questions – together – in a way that is different from news, different from documentary and education, different from opinion and social media, different from activism and protest, but not incompatible.

Through creativity, we accumulate resistance and hope through small acts of courage, curiosity, kindness and collaboration. In dance, and in dance-making, we find proof that humanity is more than our latest heartbreaking global failure.

But dance needs no justification, no explanation. It’s made of us yet owes us nothing. It only needs to inhabit a willing body. From that location, it can translate the ineffable; acting as an intermediary between us and the unknown. 

We are moved by these vanishing traces of beauty in the present moment. And as we embody both the dance and its disappearance, we are reminded of our impermanence. At the same time, if we are paying attention, dance will give us an occasional glimpse of the soul.

Biography

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt.

In a choreographic career spanning 35 years, Pite has created more than sixty works for companies such as The Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, The Paris Opera Ballet, and The National Ballet of Canada. She is known for works that courageously address themes such as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness and mortality; her bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists.

She is an Associate Artist at three institutions: Nederlands Dans Theater, Sadler’s Wells (London) and Canada’s National Arts Centre. She has an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, is a Member of the Order of Canada and holds the honour of Officier de l’Ordre of Arts et des Lettres from France.

In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver, a company that strives to distill and translate universal questions into artworks that connect us to essential parts of humanity. World-renowned for radical hybrids of dance and theatre, Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically-acclaimed works such as Betroffenheit, Revisor, and Assembly Hall (co-created with Jonathon Young), The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action, and The You Show.

Pite’s many awards include the 2022 Governor General of Canada’s Performing Arts Award, the 2011 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and the Canada Council’s 2012 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. In 2017, she received the Benois de la Danse for her creation The Seasons’ Canon at the Paris Opera Ballet. In 2018, she received the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal. She is the recipient of five Sir Laurence Olivier awards for creations with Kidd Pivot and The Royal Ballet.

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Parteneri
Radio Guerilla, Scena9, Zile și Nopți, Adevărul, Agerpress, Elle, Happ.ro, Liternet, TVR Cultural, Radio România Cultural, Revista Arta, The Institute, Zeppelin, ISCOADA, Revista Golan, Feeder, Visit Bucharest, Ziarul Metropolis, IQads, Ceașca de Cultură, Modernism.ro, Daily Magazine, Munteanu Recomandă.

The CNDB Media Library’s April recommendation features two books by dance theorist André Lepecki and a presentation by him on April 21, from 3 to 5 p.m., as part of the ICCD 2026 conference. More information about the event can be found HERE.

Exhausting dance. Performance and the Politics of Movement//Routledge 2006

The translation of dance theorist André Lepecki’s exceptional book, even 20 years after its publication, is particularly important for the development of dance studies in Romania—a field that has received little attention—and serves to inform choreographers, dancers, and researchers in the performing arts.

In the book’s seven chapters, Lepecki develops his argument regarding the ontological connection between dance and movement, analyzing a series of performance works by choreographers and visual artists who transformed the contemporary dance scene in the early 1990s in Europe and the United States: Jérôme Bel (France), Juan Dominguez (Spain), Trisha Brown (USA), La Ribot (Spain), Xavier Le Roy (France-Germany), Vera Mantero (Portugal), Bruce Nauman (USA), and William Pope.L (USA). Through their dynamic and explicit dialogue with the performing arts, visual arts, and critical theory over the past thirty years, this new generation of choreographers challenges our understanding of dance by exhausting the concept of movement.

“The Act of Stillness shows how, in modernity, the dust of history can be stirred up to blur the artificial divisions between the sensory and the social, the somatic and the mnemonic, the linguistic and the corporeal, the mobile and the immobile. Historical dust is not merely a metaphor. Taken literally, it shows us how historical forces penetrate deep into the inner layers of the body: by settling within the body, the dust stiffens the smooth rotation of the wrists and joints, fixing the subject in ever-prescribed directions and steps, fixing movement within certain politics of time and place. Through the paradoxical act-of-stillness, experimental choreography examines the tension within the subject, the tension within the subjectivity subjected to the force of the historical dust settling within the body.” (André Lepecki)

The book is available for consultation at the CNDB Media Library and can also be purchased from the CNDB, Stere Popescu Hall, 80–82 Mărășești Boulevard. Price: 50 lei.

The senses in performance// Eds. Sally Banes și André Lepecki//Routledge//2007

The Senses in Performance examines the subtle workings of the human senses—including taste, touch, smell, and sight—across a diverse range of performances from Western and non-Western traditions, spanning from ritual to theater, from dance to interactive architecture, and from performance art to historical opera. With eighteen original essays by renowned scholars and artists, including Richard Schechner and Philip Zarrilli, the anthology spans a variety of disciplinary fields, from critical studies to performance studies, from food studies to ethnography, from drama to architecture.

“Sensory performances reveal histories—they propose practices, highlight certain materials, reflect social conditions, and employ techniques. And in each of these stages, a body is constructed—even if only for a moment—even if only for the duration of a single performance.” (Sally Banes and André Lepecki)

Find more information about the resources available at the CNDB Media Library HERE.

There are movements we make without thinking, and others we learn to control. Sometimes, there is an unstable zone in between, where the body no longer fully follows the rules. That is where “Unauthorized Movements” begins.

Project Concept

The focus on analyzing, measuring, and optimizing human movement runs through industrial modernity. Within scientific management and other practices developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, movement became a central object of study and intervention. Human activity was reorganized according to criteria of efficiency and productivity. Whatever did not fit these norms became, by default, unauthorized. The body was thus integrated into a precise, repetitive, and controlled system of operation.

Mișcarea este astăzi cartografiată, codificată și limitată printr-o varietate de mecanisme, de la frontiere geopolitice și infrastructuri urbane, la tehnologii de supraveghere, dispozitive de tracking și norme sociale internalizate. În acest context corpul funcționează simultan ca obiect de control și ca mediu de negociere. Cum evită corpurile, identitățile și gesturile taxonomiile puterii?

Cele 4 lucrări semnate de Eduard Gabia, Paula Dunker, Ana Costea, Mihai Mihalcea & Mara Bugarin în cadrul proiectului Mișcări neautorizate se înscriu în acest câmp de reflecție și îl abordează dintr-o perspectivă performativă. Proiectul investighează potențialul eliberator al mișcării și al dansului de a genera spații de gândire în care ceea ce scapă codificării, clasificării sau recunoașterii ne inspiră.

Într-un context din ce în ce mai problematic în care autoritarismul și controlul se intensifică și insistă asupra sistematizării și supravegherii fiecărui aspect al existenței, proiectul Mișcări neautorizate reclamă dreptul la libertatea de mișcare în forme care nu pot fi capturate și controlate. A te mișca fără permisiune înseamnă a revendica spațiu într-o lume care caută să îl delimiteze. A crea mișcare înseamnă a afirma prezența imprevizibilului, a necunoscutului, a libertății.

About the performances and artists

“Unauthorized Movements” brings together four works that view the body as a site of tension between control and deviation, between what is permitted and what slips away.

Eduard Gabia works with the idea of translation (between language and body, between instruction and action) in a process where meaning is constantly lost and reconstructed.

Paula Dunker starts with text and pushes it into the body, in an accumulation that becomes physical, intense, hard to stop, almost impossible to keep in shape.

Ana Costea brings to the forefront gestures that are usually viewed as “outside the norm” (adjusting, repetitive, intimate movements) and proposes them as a form of presence and expression.

Mihai Mihalcea & Mara Bugarin together construct a space where history, fiction, and the present overlap, and the body becomes the place where these layers meet and destabilize one another.

Împreună, aceste lucrări nu oferă o singură direcție, ci mai degrabă deschid un câmp: moduri diferite în care mișcarea poate ieși din ceea ce e previzibil.

Schedule

On April 19 and 26, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., the National Center for Dance in Bucharest will host the first performances as part of the Unauthorized Movements project.

The two works—CODE-SWITCH by Eduard Gabia and this is a lot, but there is more and more is more by Paula Dunker—will be presented as a double bill on both evenings.

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CODE-SWITCH
by Eduard Gabia
Duration: 46 min

The performance explores the relationship between language, movement, and action through a process of translation between different systems. Starting from the structure of a lecture on effective communication, the performer’s body attempts to translate verbal instructions into gestures and choreographed actions, generating a space in which meaning is not fixed but continuously negotiated.

this is a lot, but there is more and more is more
by Paula Dunker
Set design: Mălina Ionescu
Music: Alex Bălă
Duration: approx. 40 min

The work begins with a poetic text that is brought to life through performance, in a journey where voice, body, and action construct a space of exposure and transformation. In this context, the proposed gestures and images become ways of exploring the relationship between vulnerability, labor, and emotion.

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Organization and partners

Production
A project by the Solitude Project Cultural Association, in partnership with the National Centre for Dance in Bucharest.

Co-funded by
The Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the project’s results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grant recipient.

Partners
Brain Store Project, Antistatic International Contemporary Dance Festival, Reactor for Creation and Experimentation

Starting today, April 1, the MOVIDA project (Movement and Virtual Intelligence for the Development and Accessibility of Artists and Audiences) is officially launched, with the National Dance Center Bucharest (CNDB) among its partners, and aims to explore how artificial intelligence can support contemporary dance, from artist development and audience engagement to increasing accessibility for people with disabilities and mental health challenges.

Movement and Virtual Intelligence for the Development and Accessibility of Artists and Audiences (MOVIDA) aims to explore the possibilities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies in contemporary dance to: build capacity for artists; use these technologies for audience development and engagement; and improve accessibility for persons with disabilities and mental health issues. The project starts 1st April 2026 and runs for 3 years. MOVIDA partners will run multiple activities to engage with artists and audiences: Labs, Residencies, Showcases, Forums, Podcasts and an online Knowledge & Tools Hub. 

To promote synergies between art and technology, the consortium is composed of 11 partners: 5 dance centers; 4 academic institutions with expertise in AI; and 2 institutions in the field of mental health and disability (accessibility partners); across 5 countries. The dance centers are Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL, Estonia), Tanzhaus NRW (Germany), O Espaço do Tempo (OEDT, Portugal), Centrul Național al Dansului București (CNDB, Romania) and Antistatic (Bulgaria). The academic institutions are: Tallinn University (TLU, Estonia), Hochschule Düsseldorf (HSD, Germany), Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI, Portugal) and Universitatea Naţională de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică “I.L. Caragiale” din București (UNATC, Romania). The 2 institutions in the field of mental health and disability (associated partners) are: Peaasi (Estonia) and Entuziart (Romania).

MOVIDA is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. MOVIDA is a follow-up project to the recently concluded MODINA (2023-26), which had the same duration and EU funding, and with the same coordination.

Links:

• movida.dance
• instagram.com/movida.eu
• facebook.com/movida.eu

with Simona Deaconescu & Simona Dabija
May 25th – May 30th, 2026
Application deadline: April 6th, 2026

Tangaj Collective opens a repertoire laboratory in Bucharest for dancers ready to enter our working process and ongoing projects. The laboratory is conceived as a shared space of practice and selection. At the end of the process, at least two dancers will be invited into collaborations within the collective’s upcoming projects.

Apply HERE.

SCHEDULE
Submission deadline: April 6, 2026
Announcement of selected participants: April 15, 2026
Repertoire workshop: May 25th – May 30th, 2026
Workshop timetable:
May 25th – May 29th, 2026: 10:00—16:00
May 30th, 2026: 13:00—19:00
Location: Linotip – Independent Choreographic Centre, Bucharest, RO

CONDITIONS
A total of 16 participants will be selected — 10 dancers from Romania and 6 dancers from other European countries.
Participation in the workshop is free of charge.
International participants will receive travel and accommodation support of up to 550 EUR.
At the end of the workshop, at least two dancers will be selected for upcoming projects, with prospective periods outlined in the application form.

The laboratory is addressed to dancers engaged in research-driven practices and interested in long-term collaboration.

ABOUT THE LAB

Tangaj Collective, founded by Simona Deaconescu, has been developing choreographic works at the intersection of dance, speculative research, and interdisciplinary collaboration for over 12 years. The company creates atmospheric, concept-driven performances that explore how bodies relate to real and imagined ecosystems, while critically engaging with forms of collective behavior. Its works are developed through international collaborations and presented across festivals and venues in Europe and beyond.

The Body Image Method is the movement research practice that underpins Tangaj’s work. It approaches the body as a shifting system, working through perception and temporality to reorganize movement. Through tools that stretch, compress, and dislocate time, dancers explore alternative physical states and image-driven transformations of the body.

During this repertoire laboratory, participants will enter Tangaj Collective’s choreographic process, working with fragments of repertoire while engaging with compositional tools that generate new movement material and collective experimentation.

The workshop is facilitated by Simona Deaconescu, accompanied by Simona Dabija, performer and emerging choreographer, one of the longest collaborators of the company.

Read more HERE.

This workshop is part of the project Extended Bodies. Performative Routes, co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The program does not necessarily represent the official position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN shall not be held liable for the program’s content or any use to which the program outcome might be put. These are the sole responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.

24–29 June 2026, Sofia

Are you a producer or cultural manager working in contemporary dance and the performing arts? Do you have at least 2 years of professional experience and want to strengthen your skills in fundraising, project development, touring, festival and artist management while expanding your international network? We invite you to apply for a 5-day residential workshop in Sofia (Bulgaria), complemented by online sessions taking place prior to the on-site program. Hosted by Derida Dance Center.

Application deadline: 3 April 2026 at 23:59 CET
Application form: HERE

The workshop will host professionals from the contemporary dance field, including producers, arts managers, project/operational managers, cultural entrepreneurs, curators, agents; professionals with minimum 2 years of experience in production/cultural management in performing arts. There is no age limit.

Eligibility: nationals or legal residents of: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo*, Romania, Bulgaria, Türkiye.

Derida Dance Center (the host organization) will financially cover the workshop, travel expenses and accommodation.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

The participants will gain practical tools and frameworks for fundraising & project writing, skills in cultural diplomacy and international networking, insights into festival management, business development for producers (touring, partnerships, artist & tour management), hands-on exercises, group work, real-life case studies, peer exchange in a multicultural environment.

Mentors:
Kathrin Deventer – European Festivals Association, Secretary General
Giulia Poltronieri – Cultural Manager
Magnus Nordberg – Nordberg Movement, Founder
Maria Popović – SKCNS, Cultural Manager & Fundraiser
Atanas Maev – Derida Dance Center, CEO & Co-founder
More info about the mentors are available HERE.

ABOUT THE APPLICATION

Please prepare a CV and a motivation statement describing your experience, interests, and what you want to develop through this program. Submit via Google Forms.

Additional questions: admin@derida-dance.com and carmen.cotofana@cndb.ro