NOMAD DANCE ADVOCACY | about

Nomad Dance Advocates is an initiative of the Nomad Dance Academy platform, initiated in 2012 as a permanent program advocating for a more stable position and work conditions in the field of contemporary dance within the Balkan region.

Advocacy events take place in various cities throughout the region and gather artists and policy-makers with the intent to enable them to meet directly, communicate, and exchange experiences around the field of contemporary dance and the politics which concern it. With the help of performative and less formalized communication and discussions, games and art works, representatives of ministries of culture, city administrations, as well as other decision-making and funding bodies encounter artists, discover the world behind the stage, and gain a better insight into the potential of contemporary dance in today’s cultural landscape.

Previous Nomad Dance Advocacy events happened in Skopje (2012), Sofia (2015), Belgrade (2017), on tour in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd, Skopje, and Sofija (2017), and in Ljubljana (2019).

Why Zagreb in 2024?

2024 marks the centenary of Rudolf Laban’s dance group performance at the Arts Pavilion in Zagreb, which had an immense impact on modernising dance in the region. Ever since, the continuity of innovative, avant-garde, and critical contemporary dance has been part of Zagreb’s rich artistic and cultural life.

Since the late 1990s, we have witnessed an expansion of artist-led collectives and initiatives that have fostered a unique contemporary dance scene. These efforts introduced self-organisation, experimentation, and networking, all while advocating for better social status for artists. This has established Zagreb a leader in the region and a notable contemporary dance scene in Europe, despite its precarious status and unstable working conditions.

Several generations of independent dance makers have not only pursued their creative visions but have also worked tirelessly as organisers, producers, educators, and communicators on national, regional, and international levels. While maintaining the continuity of their choreographic innovation, they have also opened new spaces, fought for better working conditions, and developed their audience and public discourse.

One of the greatest achievements was the opening of the BA in Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb ten years ago, granting dance art academic status, and allowing new generations of dance professionals to study in Croatia.

Despite this continuity of artistic innovation and tireless work on structures that support that innovation, dance in Croatia remains the only professional performing art form without an institution. One hundred years after Laban’s performance, dance still continues to exist entirely within the independent sector.

Behind the scenes of our productions, festivals, and international tours, dance artists continue to live in constant precarity and financial and social instability, which leads to burnout, early exits from the profession, and compromised artistic visions.

We, a group of lifelong dance artists and experts based in Croatia, supported by our colleagues from the Nomad Dance Academy and other regions in Europe, are activating our knowledge, energy, passion, and visions. We are committed to finding new models for institutionalising dance in a sustainable, stable, dynamic, decentralised, and intergenerational way so that dance can continue to grow, move, and create new values.

We hold the position that the dance profession in Croatia needs urgent recognition as a multilayered and fully developed art within the cultural sector. Without institutionalised and stable structures, our knowledge, experience, artistic achievements, and understanding of the importance of continuity—as well as the long-term efforts and labour invested by both the dance scene and cultural policymakers—will erode, leaving no real capital or heritage for future generations.

Therefore, we invite you to join us in developing new structures for contemporary dance and performing arts, prioritising:  

  • Foundation of a stable and professional platform for dance theory, archive, and practice research

Dance art has produced a vast amount of practical and theoretical knowledge. What is needed is a robust support system to archive this expertise. A database for students and scholars is essential, enabling them to feed their discourse and academic work while preserving our rich history for the future. Practice-based research is a key necessity for any further development in the dance field. The future institute would support and provide a solid and safe environment for artists to research, protecting the creative process from the liberal pressure of quantitative evaluations.

  • Stable and professional structure and strategy for emerging artists

The future of the dance field requires a serious strategy: the circumstances in the international context are changing rapidly, the number of new artists emerging from the educational system is growing, and the existing models of production and public funding are not responding adequately to the needs of the future scene. A stable structure would provide a framework for developing new strategies and models of production for the emerging scene 

  • Long-term policy for regional and international collaborations

The Croatian dance scene (as well as other regional scenes) is connected to the international scene almost exclusively through individual efforts and initiatives. We need institutional support that fosters a long-term policy for connecting and networking. To achieve this, we need to professionalise the work of producers, curators, and managers.