BODIES OF DANCE: ASPECTS OF DANCE AS CULTURAL, POLITICAL, AND ART WORK IN YUGOSLAVIA AND AFTER
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Editors: Nika Arhar in dr. Jasmina Založnik
Texts and research by: dr: Slavcho Dimitrov, dr. Milica Ivić, Tea Kantoci, Igor Koruga, dr. Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski, Rok Vevar in dr. Jasmina Založnik
Guest contributor: Gal Kirn
Proofreading: Ana Čavič, Jana Jevtović
Design and layout: Niko Lapkovski, assisted by Ana Labudović
Published by: Stanica servis za savremeni ples
Co-published by: Nomad Dance Academy Slovenija and Lokomotiva - Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture
Published with the financial support of the (NON)ALIGNED MOVEMENTS project, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, Culture for Democracy, Heartefact Fund, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, and Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia.
Belgrade, 2024
ISBN 978-86-900670-7-7 (SSCD)
COBISS.SR-ID 156200201
A group of researchers – Slavčo Dimitrov, Milica Ivić, Tea Kantoci, Igor Koruga, Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski, Rok Vevar, and Jasmina Založnik – approached the chosen topic from various perspectives in order to highlight differences across different time periods and among the mentioned countries, and to accept the necessity of presenting a selection of cases and their accompanying materials.
The book presents the complexity of the processes of archiving and historicizing dance in the region, while also creating space for the invited theorist Gal Kirn to present the context of the former Yugoslavia and its key innovative structural elements, which still live on in the working methods and organizational models of some organizations.
The main body of the book consists of three chapters. The first, The Plurality of Bodies and Their Voices, follows the perspective of the Other as a symptom of the patriarchy and its order. Such a perspective addresses the marginalized position of dance and highlights its struggle to change the existing order. Otherness emphasizes beyond aesthetic tendencies and seeks the instruments and logic of embodiment, where dance moves towards life, emphasizing everydayness, strategies of extending the body beyond form, working with different social groups, highlighting feminism as a driving force of contemporary dance, and opening up the perspective of queer choreography.
In the second chapter, Dance Formations – referencing Raymond Williams's term 'formations' as configurations of organizing and self-organizing of communities in art and culture – the authors adapt this term to the dance landscape of the region in order to showcase different forms of organizations, schools, spaces, initiatives, and festivals, their constantly changing configurations and reinventions, including the necessity of practicing solidarity within and outside the scene.
The third chapter, Transforming the Spaces of Art and Culture, focuses on dance, choreography, and the body as mediators of change, and examines dance within other artistic media as well as the presence of dance in the public sphere through them. The book is a living document of the efforts of numerous individuals and groups who have built our dance history up to the present day. It is also a reflection of the interconnectedness and differences among the researchers and the result of a complex and long-term process of knowledge exchange and deepening of local specificities by the researchers. The book's aim is not to totalize, but to open up some possible ways of thinking about dance, its tenacity and rebelliousness, while simultaneously building a reflexive theoretical foundation that could help us direct potential/possible future interests.
The book Bodies of Dance as Cultural, Political and Artistic Work in Yugoslavia and After, created within the framework of the EU project (Non)Aligned Movements, is the result of the collective work of the Nomad Dance Academy, which researched various contemporary dance practices in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and North Macedonia from the beginning of the 20th century. Through this work, the Nomad Dance Academy network and its local organizations strive to provide conditions for the historicization of contemporary dance in the region based on various historical documents, not only on pre-existing and partial historical interpretations, anecdotes, and memories."