Critical Movement Residencies have been organized in a way to give the opportunity to the regional artists, curators, researchers to have the time and space for work in another part of the Region. The idea behind it is to allow new collaborations and provide opportunities for the exchange of work around the region.
Dr Alexandra Baybutt – December 2022, NDA Slovenia
The residency in collaboration with JSKD by the English theorist, dramaturge and dance practitioner Dr Alexandra Baybutt whose PhD research focused on Nomad network and their selected festivals (launched and created by the local organizations due to the lack of dance-focused festival in the region). She was supposed to present her newly coming book but also wished to come to Ljubljana to work with Ivan Mijačević, musician, dancer and choreographer that is based in Ljubljana. Their creative process was focused on the research of dance and music, on which they desire to create a toolbox and a form of workshop that could serve the wider international community. As the last month of the year was intensified by the events, and the book by Baybutt was not yet published, the presentation will be organized in 2023.
Pia Brezavšček – 2022, NDA Bulgaria
This Critical Movement residency was organized during the 2022 Antistatic festival with Pia Brezavšček, the editor of the Maska Journal from Slovenia. During her residency Pia Brezavšček intended to meet the Bulgarian contemporary dance scene better, to watch recent dance works on the Platform and the Antistatic festival, getting to know the local and international crowd and possibly get in touch with interesting writers, artists and theoreticians working in the field of ecology and performance (the next issue of Maska magazine), futurology, deceleration and other topics Maska is currently dealing with. An article of the text that Pia Brezavšček wrote for dramaturgynew.eu as a result of her NAM residency in Sofia during the Bulgarian Dance Platform and Antistatic Festival. (dramaturgynew.eu)
Milisava Petković, Jelena Vuksanović, Marko Milić – October 2022, NDA Slovenia
This residency took place in Ljubljana in collaboration with JSKD (Public fund for cultural activities), where three artists Milisava Petković, Jelena Vuksanović, Marko Milić from Serbia gathered with an aim to develop further their previous research on the topic of Choreographies of Writing entitled DITHYRAMBS. The artists invited Jasmina Založnik (as PEU) who was present already at their presentation of the videowork on the topic to join their creative process and join them as the fourth member in the structuring and presentation.
Critical Movement Residency and workshops by Elena Rose Light – August/September 2022, Lokomotiva
In the period from August 29 to September 3, 2022 in Struga, Lokomotiva hosted 2 Critical Movement Residency as part of the project (Non)Aligned Movement. The choreographer, performer, and writer Elena Rose Light was invited by Lokomotiva to have their residence in Struga and hold workshops on 30th of August. Their participatory workshop “Trans Practices for Everyday Life” is developed in collaboration with six other trans and nonbinary people and their creative practice is rooted in the potential of antiracist, queer, and non-binary somatics to reorganize systems of thought and social codes. The workshop was held together with the students of the open course “Curatorial Practices in Context”, part of the summer school “Curating in Context”.
Critical Movement Residency with Nina Gojić, Darío Barreto Damas, Viktorija Ilioska, and Aleksandar Georgiev – April 2022, Lokomotiva
In the period from 16 to 24 April 2022 in the Youth Cultural Center, Lokomotiva organized the second Critical Movements residence as part of the project. The residency was focused on the choreography and dance practices of the authors, throughout the process of discussion, thinking and writing together through dramaturgical collaboration and sharing. During the residency four authors also met local artists and cultural workers and will extend their collaborative network.
Critical Movement Residency in Zagreb with Dejan Srhoj (Slovenia), Iskra Šukarova (Macedonia) and Tamara Curić (Croatia) – February 7-11, 2022, Zagreb, Tala Dance Center, Stanica
During this residency, the “Curiosity” projects of the Nomad Dance Academy and the “The Emerging Performance” of the Nomad Dance Academy Croatia met and overlapped. Since projects were based on similar ideas, participants were interested in entering into an experiment with an even wider group of people who do not know each other. The work process was open to the public with a presentation on the fourth day of the residency with the collaboration of musicians Marin Živković and Hrvoje Jelinčić. “Curiosity” (artistic research): Nomad Dance Academy has been since its beginning striving to connect contemporary dancers, choreographers and other cultural workers from the Balkan region to share their knowledge, work together and organize educational platforms for artists in the field. Four choreographers and dancers Iskra Šukarova (Macedonia), Tamara Curić (Croatia), Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld (Croatia/Belgium), Dejan Srhoj (Slovenia) that have been involved in Nomad network since its beginnings met in Zagreb with the main aim to share their artistic and teaching practices to each other and other participants from Croatia. The topics that they shared are connected to terms of social choreography and question of individual within community.
Melita Spahić Bezjak and Larisa Lipovac Navojec – 2022, NDA Bulgaria
The Critical Movement residence in Sofia, organized as part of the 2021 Antistatic for the following artists: Melita Spahić Bezjak and Larisa Lipovac Navojec from Croatia. Festival Antistatic was the background for this residency. The artists worked in the space in the Etude Gallery, the local partner, and were dedicated to the new performance idea Magnetic Field of Play, co-produced by Free Dance and Dance Center TALA (Croatia).
Slavčo Dimitrov (North Macedonia), Angelina Georgieva (Bulgaria), Hana Sirovica (Croatia), Rok Bozovičar, Pia Brezavšček, Rok Vevar and Jasmina Založnik (Slovenia) – Ljubljana, December 2021, NDA Slovenia
The meeting of experts (theorists, editors) from the region with an aim to map potential further partners for the Balkan platform for theory and criticism in a partnership with NGO Maska and their platform of critical reflection entitled Neodvisni.art. Due to the lack of finances and not successful application (Maska and NDA Slovenia) the structure and realization of this important endeavour was postponed until 2023. Present experts Slavčo Dimitrov (North Macedonia), Angelina Georgieva (Bulgaria), Hana Sirovica (Croatia), Rok Bozovičar, Pia Brezavšček, Rok Vevar and Jasmina Založnik (Slovenia).
Critical movements residency and presentation of “Connective tissue” by Viktorija Ilioska, Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld and Aleksandar Georgiev – November 2021, Lokomotiva
During the residency the three choreographers and dancers were researching and rethinking the processes of self-governing and self-institutionalization, using the body (Connective Tissue) they have constituted as an organ – decision-making body of the NOMAD network. By constituting an operative body within an already existing and functional network structure, Viktorija Ilioska, Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld and Aleksandar Georgiev explored, thought and rethought, reflected and discussed the format, functionality and operation of such a body inside organisational structures in the field of dance, choreography and performance.
At the end, the process was publicly shared with the wider audience through an event that took place on November 19 at the Youth Cultural Center.
As part of the residency, artists met local professionals from the field of dance and choreography as well as the larger artistic and cultural scene and Viktorija Ilioska and Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld also hold a workshop “Co-teaching: dots of sheltering bodies” for the wider community as part of Lokomotiva’s program titled “Kultrening”.
NAM ChoreoLab – October 2021, Stanica
The group of artists got together to work on the issues of the NonAligned Movement. Ana Dubljević (Serbia), Sonja Pregrad (Croatia), Viktorija Ilioska (Macedonia), Dražen Dragojević (Slovenia) worked in Belgrade for one week and presented their work in progress in the frame of the Kondenz Festival, trying their format of a participatory performance with the local audience.
NAM ChoreoLab is a modular research choreography lab with the aim of re-reading the Non-Aligned Movement/s (Pokret/i nesvrstanih) – through the historicity of ‘days of future past’ as well as the urgency of current alignments and antagonisms, in relation to the ongoing decolonial and feminist critiques and struggles, and with regard to political and cultural, but also choreographic (self-)governance. NAM ChoreoLab has been conceived and developed by the curatorial team of the (Non) Aligned Movements project: choreographers Sonja Pregrad (Zagreb), Viktoria Ilioska (Skopje) and Ana Dubljević (Beograd), together with independent researcher and performer Dražen Dragojević (Berlin/Ljubljana). The team aligns at the intersection of feminist dramaturgies, contextualised somatic practices, choreographic subjects, speculative and performative theory, decolonial historicism and futurism to reassess – and realign – the Non-Aligned for contemporary audiences and polities through a choreography installation meets lecture performance.
Dragana Alfirević, NDA Bulgaria
Dragana Alfirević from Slovenia was invited to the residency program with the aim to reestablish links and meet local artists. Her approach as co-curator and dance artist lead to two successful collaborations.