SLO | EN






SLO | EN

SOFIA / BULGARIA

May 2015

 More information In 2012, Nomad Dance Academy gathered partners, supporters, decision-makers, and the broader artistic community from the Balkans and its neighborhood in Skopje, North Macedonia, to discuss and explore possibilities for improving cultural policies, ensuring sustainable development of local scenes, and strengthening cooperation within the region and beyond. To continue these efforts, the Balkan network Nomad Dance Academy organized Dance Advocates – the second contemporary dance advocacy meeting, which took place from May 13th to 15th, 2015, in Sofia.

Why Sofia? The independent performing arts scene in Sofia had been rapidly developing in the decade prior and, in 2015, reached a crucial phase of negotiating and redefining its position within national and local cultural policies. At the meeting, we shared the achievements and urgent needs of contemporary dance, emphasizing its role in contemporary culture and the importance of regional cooperation. Dance Advocates Sofia 2015 provided a space for meetings and dialogue among cultural professionals, decision-makers, politicians, cultural operators, and contemporary dance artists from Bulgaria, the Balkans, and Europe.

Our message was: we need your support to preserve this dynamic sector and to ensure that this region becomes one of the leading ones on the European scene. We call on all decision-makers to improve instruments for the development of contemporary dance at the local, national, and regional levels, and to enhance conditions for cultural cooperation and exchange in the Balkans by: providing permanent spaces for the production, creation, presentation, and development of audiences for contemporary dance; developing regional grant schemes for collaboration in contemporary dance that support the exchange of experiences, knowledge, productions, and co-productions; allocating adequate percentages of cultural program budgets within EU frameworks; and enabling multi-year project support at national and local levels.

In 2019, as a result of the dialogue with the municipal authorities – partly thanks also to this conference – Sofia gained its first public institution dedicated exclusively to contemporary performing arts: Toplocentrala.