Dancing Together, Again! Creative Residencies Programme

  1-12 August 2024 Final presentations in Warszawa, Poland. The "Dancing Together Again! Creative Residencies Programme, a project implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw (Poland), the Arts Research Institute of Georgia in Tbilisi (Georgia), Movimento Danza in Naples (Italy) and TRAFIK Dance/Theatre Company in Rijeka (Croatia), took place in 2023-2024 under the Creative Europe Programme, under the Culture strand. The overall objective of the project was to promote cultural exchange and collaboration between dance professionals from Poland, Georgia, Italy and Croatia, with a focus on the creative process and its integration into local communities. The programme aimed to create a new framework for the exchange of ideas, creative methods and practices between artists, curators, arts managers and researchers working in the field of dance. It focused on audience development through direct engagement with local communities, sustainability in the context of dan...

Finally Warsaw I am very grateful that I was chosen to be a participant in this project. It was an immense pleasure to meet colleagues from other countries again after a year. It was also an excellent idea to meet Croatian artists from other residencies who made it easier for us to get to know their partners and meet new artists. In fact, very soon after the first meeting and we quickly caught up again. The whole project was brilliantly organized. The accommodation was nice and in a convenient location, as well as all other necessary things such as shops, food, etc. I was, honestly, a little scared at the beginning because of the size of Warsaw. All the streets are very spacious, and if you get out of the subway on the wrong side, you must walk for 10 minutes until you find your way again. But we overcame that very quickly and found our way to the Dance School and the Film Institute. One of the goals of this project was networking, that is, getting to know artists from Your own as we...

I'm very grateful I could take part in this residency as a researcher and author, because in this way I could have explored the movement in the environment of different artists, dancers and performers in new ambient and situations within a multicultural approach. The first meeting and work in Rijeka culminated in our All together point in Warsaw, where we all met and did our performances. We finally met each other in movement and dance. In the beautiful city of Warsaw we had our rehearsals at a Ballet dance school and the last few days of preparation and performances in front of the audience were in FINA, a very good audiovisual institute with a good team of people who helped us to put everything exactly on the stage. I love the creative process we went through. We had a lot of physical dance work but also with interactions and communication between each other, so we learned a lot. Also we were so friendly, supportive and caring for each other all the time. This very pleasant and ...

My final residency in Warsaw was a truly unique journey. It was a great pleasure to reconnect with my colleagues from different countries and share daily life moments with them. I had the opportunity to work on something new, including a small homage to Kieslowski's work. Traveling and being in different places is always a powerful experience for me—exchanging ideas and artistic visions with other artists is invaluable, especially for my personal growth. As I reflect on this time, I find myself hopeful that some collaborative projects among us artists will emerge in the near future. By Toni Flego

I remember: Toni's birthday party almost immediately after arriving. A bunch of people, some I know, and some entirely new dancing in front of the Student Centre. Soplica. Life bursting. Satisfying exhaustion. Lots of creativity, energies, ideas, some familiar, some completely new. Big, beautiful but somewhat cold city. Impressive and unfamiliar. Enjoying walking its huge streets. Resetting, recharging, rethinking, redancing. Again. I remember: rehearsals, a chair placed in the window at the Ballet School, two days of final productions, more impressions than I can hold, deciding to let it go, lingering with what stays in naturally. Somehow feeling like returning to some familiar but completely new ground, travelling through a movement of thought that finally danced into consciousness. By Josipa Bubaš

Re-connecting in final residency in Warsaw It was a great opportunity for me to be a part of dance residency EU Project "Dancing together again" and to connect to other colleagues from participating countries, first in Napoli, then finally meeting all colleagues in Warsaw who have participated in previous residencies in Tbilisi, Rijeka and Napoli. I am very grateful to be able to participate in this project as the residencies were a rare opportunity for me to be able to focus only on dance artistic process, without needing to take care of other everyday duties. The weather in Warsaw was much cooler than in my hometown Zagreb during summer, which I really liked. However, this time it affected me in such a way that after the first few days of residency I got sick with a high fever and was forced to spend a few days in my room before I recovered. This unexpected situation allowed me enough space to process all the new information about first impressions of Warsaw residency on ...

Doll house In the grand tapestry of human experience, we are all in search of something. For some, it's a sense of purpose, for others, it’s love or success. But underneath it all, there lies a universal desire: the need to find where we belong—a place that feels like home, where we fit in perfectly, where we are accepted and understood. This journey to finding our place can often feel like being trapped inside a box, one that both defines and confines us. Imagine life as a dollhouse. Each room represents a different aspect of society, with its own set of rules, expectations, and behaviors. As you move through the rooms, you try to find the one that feels right, that resonates with who you are. But what happens when none of the rooms seem to fit? When you can’t find the one space where you feel comfortable, seen, and valued? This is the struggle of trying to find a place where you belong. It’s a challenge many face—feeling like an outsider, like a square peg in a world full of roun...

What if I like Joanna Łuczkowska photos from final presentations… What if I write about famous ballet The Rite of Spring… *inspired by the Ogólnokształcąca Szkoła Baletowa im. Romana Turczynowicza w Warszawie The first performance of the famous ballet The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) remains to this day the most scandalous ballet performance ever. The ballet premiered in 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) and performed by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The music for the ballet was composed by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). At that time, Stravinsky was exploring the theme of pagan Russian rituals, and inspired by the paintings of the Russian artist Roerich, he composed powerful, rhythmically complex music. Nijinsky's ballet is subtitled Scenes from Pagan Russia. The ballet follows a legend from pagan (pre-Christian) Russia, which tells the story of the ritual sacrifice of a virgin who must dance to death to ...

This morning we ended our one year creative journey and process of exploring, creating and dancing out our ideas that we created each of us in different environments and residencies. My dancing together, again journey started in Georgia, Tbilisi, beautiful country with beautiful culture and artists. I had an opportunity to work and dance with the best ones and I can only say that I am grateful for those moments in my life. However, that journey continues 12 days ago in Poland, Warsaw where I had opportunity to meet all wonderful souls and movement artists from all residencies at once. That was the most beautiful moment in my life when I realized with how many people I am melting throughout the day and exchanging ideas and knowledge on movement and dance. I met wonderful dancers, artist, ballerina. I tried pierogi, I walked around the whole city and enjoyed the best place in town Łazienki park (according to my opinion) I am so grateful to that opportunities and for sure I will never for...

Things happen Each project has its strengths and weaknesses. The artistic residency in Poland was meant to take up the project each of us worked on in the previous step. In my case, I was ahead of schedule (used to my company's production time) and found myself free enough to take part in other projects such as Nicola Campanelli's project, which I enjoyed. Creation, and art in general, does not have set timeframes that are equally applicable to every artist, so you have to make your own arrangements with your material and the artists you work with. Certainly there has been an overabundance of projects and thus there has been a dispersion of energy: not everyone is born a staged creator (professionally speaking). This is a reflection that also relates the very fast times of the contemporary world, which, however, do not match with the serious artist's times. Art needs its own space/time. I was happy to meet other people by giving them my energy with great pleasure. The beau...

Some images captured by Nyko Piscopo, showing moments from the rehearsals for Violet, a choreography by Giulia Roversi for Justyna Warelis and me. It has been an honor to share this creative journey with them, a process of ongoing personal and artistic discovery, as we co-created stories and characters in a deeply collaborative way. By Claudia Verdat

A vintage looking picture captured a beautiful moment of sharing and exploring artistic processes together. Living and creating together cancels those boundaries geographical spaces, making this experience unique and absolutely unforgettable. I bring all those people in my heart, hoping to see them soon, to create, dream and dance together again. By Giulia Roversi

I took some time to reflect on the period I spent waiting for my residency in Warsaw. During this project, I have made friends with whom I have started a new journey. This made me realize how challenging it is, especially for freelance artists, to establish and maintain trustworthy and honest collaborations over time, especially when dealing with distance. This project has allowed all of us to feel like a team during this difficult time when we are all working independently. I also had the opportunity to work on my new piece and I was impressed by the warm reception from the audience and the valuable feedback I received to improve my work. I am excited about the possibility of collaborating again and creating a trustworthy environment to work and grow together. By Iole La Sala

“The skill of adjusting” Despite the difficulties encountered in getting to Warsaw, I had decided to undertake a work that was in continuity with the one presented in Georgia in 2023 about "Subversive Bodies". I continued to work on the physicality and ritual of clubbing as subversive imagery. However, I delved into the queer, instinctive figure of the faun, inspired by Nijinsky's "L'après-midi d'un faune". I did not follow a straight path, but made continuous inversions and detours, trying to realise a reenactment of the famous play. The faun is a mythological, hybrid being, outside social norms: he lives in a dream state, in an intermediate stage between surrendered lassitude and uncontrollable euphoria. The faun rejects the economy of success, production and excellence, living in an eternal ‘prelude’ that does not need an ending - an orgasm, a revolution - but only a moment full of life, as if living eternally in a party, in a club. I am very gratefu...

The days spent in Warsaw were really intense. Mateusz welcomed us and explained everything we needed to know about our stay in Poland. The day after our arrival, each of us immediately started to work on the choreography created in the previous residency or to rehearsal the pieces we had danced in. From my residency in Tblisi, I had the opportunity to think for more than one year about my choreography and the things I would have liked to change in order to make a better version of it. We had the availability of amazing studios were we used to go every day for rehearsals, so we managed to do our work. Beata and Eleonora helped us a lot with all our needs and our schedule problems. The two days of performances were quite exiting. Beside Trauma Express, the piece of choreography I presented, I was also involved as dancer in Kosta Liparteliani’s performance and in the panels about the shows we attended. I really enjoyed the experience and artistic creation with other talented artists. By N...

Before the first of August arrived, I thought and fantasised a lot about this residency in Poland. This concerns my personal situation, as never before this ‘occasion’ have I left my son for so long without me. While the first residency in Naples was perfectly compatible with my private planning, I knew that this experience would be completely new. And so it turned out to be. Being alone, I was able to deepen countless aspects that this project brings. Deepening all aspects of being an artist who has decided to have a family and still struggles to find her individual space. During the days in Warsaw, I explored first and foremost the relational sphere, which is no less important than the artistic sphere and which acts as a glue to everything else. The fact that I slept together with all my colleagues in the same building, that we organised ourselves together for the project and non-project activities, created a community atmosphere and allowed me to enjoy the time I had, with others an...

From the first moment Warsaw touched my hearth, the city brought me to visions of Berlin, east Berlin too, in the wall period. The research experience was like a Dance Fever, we danced in the studios, in the main square and sometimes during our nights meetings down the Student Depot. Inspiring bodies Inspiring souls........and still so much of this energy flows inside me. I must say the research is not only concerning the dance and performing art field, but of course about the way people connect, and try together to create, of course also with some difficulties. I am still in contact with some people of this wonderful experience, simply with some of them we say we miss each other and in some cases also we are going on with our collaborations. That is GREAT!! One special moment i would like to report is our impro dance with Natia Bunturi in the main old square Stare Miasto, where we collected some offers from the public, and then we gave to an homeless, it was just a way to enter deepl...

I didn't expect Warsaw to be so modern. There are many commercial screens on big skyscrapers! I remember being excited on the way from the train station to the Apartment, having my nose stuck on the car window, observing the city. When I got to the house it was quite late, I couldn't find the entrance to the building! And when I eventually found it, I figured that the key they had given me didn't work since they had changed the lock to the door of my apartment and they didn't have the new key. After a few calls to the manager, they decided to open a big bag of keys and start looking for the right one. They wouldn't allow me to help them so while they were doing that, I went outside to salute my peers whom I hadn't seen in 5 months. It was exciting to meet everyone again. The conditions in Poland were very different than in Napoli and I realised how the basic living conditions can influence so much the work itself. It felt a bit like being a student again: having...

Why is still an endless process of studies and discussions about the subject of Inclusion, are we all so different on personal level, or that are societies that develop the tribes and nations towards the diversity or is it just geography and nature? Is this diversity so scary or is that similarity in cruelty is more remarkable, revealing the most fundamental similarity in all humankind world? So, when has that all started and how deep is that in ALL of us, our “body machine” - divine, animal and monster? By Ana Nikolashvili