The Embassy of France hosted a press conference on the occasion of the start of the 17th Belgrade Dance Festival, which will be held under the slogan “Pure Sensation” from 21 March to 12 April 2020, with the general sponsorship of NIS.
05.03.2020The conference was attended by ambassadors and chargé d’affaires of the countries whose artistic troupes will participate in the festival – France, Canada, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Croatia, Israel and Spain, as well as the Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Serbia, representatives of the City of Belgrade, NIS, Visa and the Belgrade Dance Festival.
This year the program will as always, be diverse, rich and original, with twelve participating countries, and the festival will be opened by the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company accompanied by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, with a piece specifically created for the Belgrade audience. Among other performers, during the three weeks of the festival’s duration, Company 111 from Toulouse will perform their piece “Ash” featuring Shantala Shivalingappa, an internationally acclaimed classical Indian dance artist. Fans of Leonard Cohen will be delighted with the piece “Dance with Me” performed by the Montreal Ballet Jazz troupe, as a tribute to the famous poet and songwriter. The audience will also be introduced to the work of the Argentinean troupe Un Poyo Rojo, famous for experimenting with acrobatics, Broadway step champions Divine Rhythm Productions and many others.
As a company that supports excellence and efforts to achieve top-notch results in all segments, NIS is honoured to support the Belgrade Dance Festival this year, an event that is crucial to the promotion of art in Serbia, affirmation of young artists and popularization of our country in the world, ensuring it a prominent place in the global cultural scene. The support of projects that are aimed towards promoting culture and true values represents an important segment of the social responsibility of NIS, which has recognized the key significance of this event in the field of culture and will continue to invest in activities that contribute to a better quality of life for citizens.
“The proof that our choice is the right one and that the direction of investments that we are thinking of as a socially responsible company is the right one is that the festival has been running very successfully for seventeen years and that artists from across Europe and the world gather here. The general sponsorship of this festival is a logical step for our company, as, during the previous years, we have continuously invested in the development of culture and in raising the quality of life in our community for the benefit of all. NIS does not view the support for this event solely as support for the Dance Festival, but also as support to and promotion of Serbia and investment in youth, and this is yet another one of NIS’ projects where our focus is on the younger population, whereby we are also investing in professional arts”
Aja Jung, Director of the Belgrade Dance Festival, said that organizing this festival is her greatest pleasure and responsibility.
“If the choice is average or bad, then all the tremendous effort and work is in vain. I firmly believe in the power of artists and their work, because that is what brings us together, whether we are producers, organizers, sponsors, journalists or members of the audience. When you introduce top-of-the-line creations, then you have a goal and a justification. We are certain that, what we all have before us, is a programme of pure sensations, unrepeatable experiences, which no one can recount to you”, said Aja Jung.
Thanks to this festival, Belgrade has become an important station in the biography of artists who create trends in the field of artistic dancing and theatre. It is a gathering place for established and non-established artists which provides immeasurable support to interested dancers, educators, choreographers and representatives of all artistic fields in Serbia and the region. Its existence also enables contacts with foreign dance troupes, which is always a good opportunity for scholarships and engagement of young dancers. The strategic commitment of NIS is to invest in young people and to motivate individuals to create a better and more favourable future for all of us, in line with the corporate slogan – The Future at Work.
During its seventeen-year-long tradition, the Belgrade Dance Festival has attracted numerous followers, and since its founding, it has presented over 400 choreographic pieces, while the latest editions were viewed by somewhere around 23,000 spectators and 120 accredited journalists from the country and abroad.
The official launch of the festival is preceded by the traditional Dance Days movie festival, held in February at the Belgrade Cinemateque and the Novi Sad Cultural Centre, and as an overture to what awaits us during the festival, the audience will have the opportunity to see New York City Ballet champions and soloists, fourteen dancers and two musicians, led by stars Sterling Hyltin and Daniel Ulbricht.
New York City Ballet Champions and soloists will appear before our audience during their tour which includes Tel Aviv, Haifa and Budapest and which will be the only tour of this famous troupe during the current theatrical season. Their appearance in Serbia, which is also their first appearance in this part of Europe, is planned for 13 March at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad and 14 March at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade.
