About
Slovak Dance Platform
We invite you to the Slovak Dance Platform – the second edition of the showcase of Slovak contemporary dance. After the first pandemic edition in May 2021, when Slovak dance was presented to an international professional audience only online, we look forward to face-to-face meetings in Bratislava and Banská Bystrica.
The platform will present a generationally and conceptually diverse range of creative practices of Slovak contemporary dance. From the 36 works submitted, the dramaturgical board has selected 9 dance productions that have been created in the last two years and will be presented to the audience over the course of three evenings. The platform also includes discussions and formats for international and national professionals, promoters, curators and artists, while the performances are open to the general public.
The Slovak Dance Platform was initiated by four organisations working in the field of contemporary dance in Slovakia – Association Bratislava in Movement, Platform for Contemporary Dance (PlaST), Contemporary Dance Association and Theatre Institute.
Bratislava in Movement Association and PlaST are the main organisers of the platform, whose aim is to organise it regularly every two years.
We invite you to discover the Slovak dance. Up close.
Artistic Director of the Bratislava in Motion Festival. A graduate of the University of Economics and the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in dance pedagogy, where she completed her post-graduate studies as well. She was ballet master at the Slovak National Theatre, and later teacher and choreographer at the Nová Scéna Theatre. Since 1993 she has been faculty member at the Dance creation department of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts, 2015 – 2023 she was the head of the department. She worked as a ballet master at the Slovak National Theatre, later as a dance teacher and choreographer at the Nova Scena Theatre. In the years 2006 – 2010 she was the chief dramaturge of the ballet ensemble of the Slovak National Theatre. She was dramaturge and executive director of the dance company Balet Bratislava and head of the dance company of the Nová Scéna Theatre. She is a practitioner of the Feldenkrais method as a lecturer and therapist. She was at the founding of the Association of Contemporary Dance (1996), founded the Association Bratislava in Motion (2000). Since 1997 she has been the artistic and until 2020 the executive director of the international festival of contemporary dance Bratislava in Motion.
She is a core member of the physical theatre Debris Company in Bratislava, where she works as a choreographer and performer. Debris Company and its creators have been awarded at the Slovak theatre scene and abroad (DOSKY, OST-RA-VAR, Tatra Banka Award for Art). They regularly perform at home and abroad (France, England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Belarus, Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey, Brazil, India, Singapore, USA). Since 2011, she has been working as an assistant professor at the Department of Acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where she focuses on contemporary movement techniques. She regularly collaborates with theatre, opera and film personalities, directors Jozef Vlk, Marián Amsler, Rastislav Ballek, Lukáš Brutovský, Sláva Daubnerová, Roman Polák. As a choreographer she has participated in a number of theatre productions: Oresteia (ND, Praha) The Cunning Little Vixen (SND, Bratislava), Kocúrkovo (SND, Bratislava) The Wheels (SKD Martin), Amateurs (Peter Mankovecký Theatre, Bratislava), Genial Girlfriend (ABC Theatre, Praha), Little Women (SND, Bratislava), Hecube and The Shepherd’s Wife (SKD Martin), Hunger (Debris Company) e.g. Stanislava Vlčeková puts emphasis on the precision of solving theatre situations and movement qualities. She supports the individuality of performers, based on the strength of their natural expression, in which she seeks the possibilities of different movement patterns and their rhythmic structures. Through her activity and work she has contributed to the systematic development of the genre of dance theatre on domestic and foreign stages.
Author, stage director, musician, composer, light designer, and producer. In 1990 he founded the physical theatre theatre Hubris Company which was transformed into Debris Company in 1995. With a break from 1999 to 2004, the Debris Company has been on stage for more than 30 years. After the foundation of the Hubris Company, Mr Vlk received a number of music-theatre scholarships (Graz, Amsterdam, Stuttgart). With the Debris Company he created over 25 productions that featured at international festivals and showcases (Festival Hybaj Ho!, Prague; Divadelní Flora Olomouc, Czech Republic; International Theatre Festival of Kerala, India; Festival Magie der Sprache, Wien, Austria; International de Danca de Recife, Brazil; Tanzschrittweise Graz, Austria; Off Europe, Leipzig, Germany; Theatre Festival Minsk, Belarus; 4front@ Murska Sobota, Slovenia; Singapore Fringe Festival; L1 Fest MU Színház Budapest, Hungary, Istanbul Fringe Turkey, etc.) As stage director and composer he worked with some of the leading names and theatres on a range of local and international music, stage and film projects. As a musician he tends to work within acoustic and electronic new music, sound installation and mapping. He is convenor of stage and multigenre events and festivals. In 2013 Slovak Radio premièred Mr Vlk’s adaptation of the James Joyce novel Ulysses, for which he also composed the music. The play was nominated for the 2014 PRIX EUROPE in the category Radio Fiction in Berlin. In 2014 he made another radio play, Wryneck’s journey to the moon based on the title by Gustáv Reuss, pioneer of Slovak sci-fi. Other radio work: Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway (2023) and Julius Barc-Ivan: The End (2023), Robert Musil The Man Without Qualities (2025). As stage director and composer Mr Vlk was often nominated and received a number of awards e.g. DOSKY, Tatra Bank Prize for Arts, OST-RA-VAR, SLNKO V SIETI.
Organizers
THE BRATISLAVA IN MOVEMENT ASSOCIATION is a civic association working in the field of professional contemporary dance development. The main activity of BMA is to organize the Bratislava in Movement – International Festival of Contemporary Dance every year.
Except for performances the festival brings a program activating the community – workshops, lectures, discussions, film screenings and exhibitions. The festival represents Slovak dance scene in an international context and develops international cooperation.
During the 24 years of its existence, it presented 226 ensembles and artists from 28 countries, organized 74 accompanying events / 4 international interdisciplinary artistic projects, 2 art-educational projects, 10 site-specific projects, 42 workshops, 5 lectures, 4 exhibitions of dance photographs, 4 screenings, 2 international conferences /.
The festival presented the following important choreographers and companies: Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Peeping Tom, Russel Maliphant, José Navas, Marie Chouinard, Xavier Le Roy, Susanne Linke, Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Rui Horta, Cie. Drift, Ballet Preljocaj, Joseph Nadj, Granhøj Dans, Steve Paxton, Stephen Petronio Company.
THE BRATISLAVA IN MOVEMENT FESTIVAL was established in 1997 and shaped by a community of dancers and teachers from the Contemporary Dance Association founded in 1996. The aim of the association was to organize activities for the dance community and encompassed three areas: education, presentation of contemporary dance and its reflection. In 2000 the festival detached itself from the activities of the Contemporary Dance Association and its organization was taken over by the newly established BRATISLAVA IN MOVEMENT ASSOCIATION.
ASOCIÁCIA BRATISLAVA V POHYBE / BRATISLAVA IN MOVEMENT ASSOCIATION
Šancova 43
831 04 Bratislava
Slovakia
festivalba@gmail.com
www.abp.sk
Contemporary Dance Platform (Slovak acronym: PLAST) is an independent umbrella organisation of more than 60 artist members and 9 organisations as honorary members which systematically works on creation of sustainable infrastructure and good conditions for contemporary dance, its growing visibility as a respected art form and a vital part of society. It was created in Bratislava in 2016 out of need of artists to protest against politically motivated interventions negatively influencing the contemporary dance scene but it slowly grew to become a larger initiative initiating strategic steps for better funding and stronger inclusion of contemporary dance into national cultural strategies. In 2017 Contemporary Dance Platform launched and published a complex analysis of the state of financing and production conditions for dance creators in Slovakia within the period of years 2010 – 2016. Many of the latter activities of the organisation came as a result of conclusions of given mapping. Currently its activities include organizing discussions and seminars on up to date problems, mapping and informing about current dance production, a project of systematic analysis, reviewing and discussions about current productions and informing the general public about Slovak dance scene as such by means of a web portal www.plast.dance. In co-operation with Bratislava Self-Governing Region and cultural organisation Nadácia Cvernovka it is currently building a project of a Residential Centre for contemporary dance and performance art Telocvicna in Bratislava and in co-operation with partner institutions it is enganging in international promotion of Slovak contemporary dance. Since 2024 PLAST has been a member of the EDN – European Dance Development Network.
PLATFORMA PRE SÚČASNÝ TANEC – PLAST / CONTEMPORARY DANCE PLATFORM
Račianska 78
831 02 Bratislava
sucasnytanec@gmail.com
www.plast.dance
Divadlo Štúdio tanca is the only professional theatre in Slovakia dedicated to contemporary dance with a permanent artistic cast. For almost a quarter of a century it has been creating original dance productions, organizing dance festivals and workshops, providing artistic residencies and producing a number of activities and events that bring contemporary dance closer to the public in Banská Bystrica.
Its varied repertoire, consisting of works for both the demanding and the children’s audience, is performed on the domestic stage, as well as on tours at home and abroad. It is based, creates and performs in its own fully equipped building, which is home to an international artistic company of dancers. Throughout its existence, it has brought up-to-date art, people and atmosphere from all over the world to the city.
The aim of Divadlo Štúdio tanca is to create an unmissable point – a dynamic crossroads linking the cultural and artistic trajectories of Slovakia, where quality contemporary dance is presented year-round. A dance that represents current world trends while maintaining its unique identity. The mission of Divadlo Štúdio tanca is to maintain the organization as a stable point for the dance scene, to produce quality original work and to expand the community around contemporary dance.
Divadlo Štúdio tanca is a contributory organization of the Banská Bystrica self-governing region.
Divadlo Štúdio tanca
Komenského 12
Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
www.studiotanca.sk
The Theatre Institute (est. 1961) is an expert institution with a country-wide scope, which administers the Slovak theatre culture heritage including contemporary dance. The Theatre Institute manages the information system etheatre.sk, documentation funds, archive funds and collections, audiovisual and multimedia funds, and collections of gallery and museum value, all connected to theatre productions, significant figures, theatres and independent theatre and dance companies and is the biggest publisher of expert theatre literature in Slovakia. The Institute’s editing plan covers a wide range of publications regarding dance culture. They are accessible at the Information centre PROSPERO – Rudolf von Laban: Life for Dance. Memories, Richard Schechner: Performance: theory, practice, rituals, Eva Gajdošová: Súčasný tanec/Contemporary Dance. Made in Slovakia II. extended edition, Emil Tomáš Bartko: Slovak Dance Theatre Art Forms 1920 – 2010, Miklós Vojtek: Terpsichora Istropolitana. Dance in Pressburg of the 18th Century, Marta Poláková: The Freedom to Explore Dance.
The Theatre Institute collaborates with its partner institutions in Slovakia and abroad, especially with partner institutes and museums in the V4 countries. In international cooperation, the Theatre Institute can take advantage of its membership in international non-governmental organizations ITI, ENCIPA, IETM, SIBMAS and ICOM. An important mission of the Institute is to present Slovak theatre and dance abroad via supporting stands at fairs (Tanzmesse, PQ) as well as international exhibitions (theatre.sk) or hosting performances at festivals (Presentation of Slovak contemporary dance and theatre Slov: motion in Brussels, Rehearsal for Truth in New York, etc.).
The research and presentational project 10 Choreographers of Slovak Contemporary Dance aims to introduce a selection of dance projects reflecting a wide spectrum of original Slovak dance works. Individual profiles are based on an analysis of three productions from different periods of the given choreographer. Online catalogue captures the work of contemporary Slovak choreographers up to year 2019 and presents the diversity of the creative capacity within European context. Within the framework of project The Slovak Artists Abroad Fund, the Theatre Research Centre lays the groundwork for a complex research covering the work of Slovak dance artists abroad.
DIVADELNÝ ÚSTAV / THE THEATRE INSTITUTE
Jakubovo nám. 12
813 57 Bratislava
Slovakia
+421 220 487 102
du@theatre.sk
www.theatre.sk