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30.7.2024

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Balkan Ballerinas – a show about Balkan subcultures & open call

Balkan Ballerinas – a show about Balkan subcultures & open call

“Balkan Ballerinas”, a multidisciplinary artistic project dedicated to Balkanism! “Balkan Ballerinas” will include a regional touring performance, a documentary film and an anthropological study.

Starting in August, choreographers & performers Anca Stoica, Sergiu Diță, Sofia Sitaru-Onofrei and Andreea Vălean start working on Balkan Ballerinas, a multidisciplinary project investigating the Balkan identity & the situation of the Balkan dancer and aiming to dispel stereotypes associated with the idea of Balkanism.

Initiated by Platforma 13, an artistic collective founded by Anca Stoica and Sergiu Diță, the project includes a dance performance, a documentary film and an anthropological study.

The eponymous performance will center on a body reactive to borders, prejudices and normative models, will explore the various Balkan subcultures in post-communism and will enjoy a regional tour, as follows:

September 2 / Bucharest: National Center for Dance Bucharest
September 4 / Sofia: Toplocentrala
September 7 / Belgrade: Magacin
September 13 / Timisoara: Hungarian State Theater “Csiky Gergely”
October 6 / Sfântu Gheorghe: “Andrei Mureșanu” Theater

Open call
To begin with, the team of artists is launching an open call to students and professionals in contemporary dance and performing arts. The latter are invited on August 5, 6 and 7 at the National Center for Dance in Bucharest for informal meetings designed as movement workshops.

The performative exchange of ideas on the 5th, 6th and 7th will open the movement trails that will form the basis of the performance. Details here.

A multidisciplinary & on-going project
Following the tour, the multidisciplinary project will be completed in October with two other related events: the documentary film Balkan Ballerinas and the anthropological study.

Directed by Mihnea Toma and with Beatrice Păun as cinematographer, the documentary will present the entire journey of the artistic team in the project, from research and rehearsals to the tour and the Q&A sessions with the audience at each performance.

The anthropological study will be conducted by anthropologist Laura-Maria Ilie, who will accompany the dancers in their performative research and publish the resulting material in ISCOADA.

Unique in the field of performing arts, the project consolidates the residency on the same theme carried out by Anca Stoica and Sergiu Diță at AREAL in 2023 and aims to be a framework for a broader conversation:

“The body is closely linked to society. We hold and react to all the social mores we are brought up with. So the society we live in also conditions the way we move. That on the one hand; on the other hand, the project also gives an x-ray, through dance, of the cultural point in which we find ourselves, of the interests that exist in the artistic world. But perhaps more than anything, Balkan Ballerinas asks a question about our cultural identity: how does the way we move show who we are?” – Anca Stoica

More information about Balkan Ballerinas can be found by following Platform 13.

Institutional partners: National Book Center – Romanian Cultural Institute, National Center for Dance Bucharest, “Andrei Mureșanu” Theatre Sfântu Gheorghe, Hungarian State Theatre “Csiky Gergely” Timișoara, KC Magacin, Toplocentrala Center for Contemporary Arts

Media partners: ISCOADA, Happening, Teatrul Azi

The project is co-funded by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project results can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary.

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