Taneční aktuality organised an international workshop on dance criticism

Taneční aktuality organised an international workshop on dance criticism

In the course of four days, experienced dance critics Petra Dotlačilová and Josef Bartoš from Dance News and Anette Therese Pettersen from Performing Arts Hub Norway delivered lectures addressing various challenges facing dance critics today. The talks were followed by collaborative activities, inspiring discussions as well as individual mentoring and text editing. The writing tasks included a 500-character review, 2700-character review and even a review of a piece that was a mismatch.

Petra Dotlačilová said about the workshop: “We welcomed exceptional personalities from around the world, including Australia and Columbia, all of them currently based in Europe. They were active artists, critics, production managers, but also a philosopher and a dance anthropologist, which contributed to much deeper conversations and brought a variety of points of view. For me, it was an extremely enriching and inspiring experience.”

Ivana Balabanova, choreographer and dancer from North Macedonia, summed up the event as follows: “I learned a lot of new things and I hope this experience will be useful for me.” The Berlin-based theatre maker and reviewer Richard Pettifer, originally from Australia,  appreciated “good organisation and openness of the cooperation”. Mónica Jaramillo Sanjuán from Columbia, currently studying Dance Anthropology in London under the Choreomundus programme, added: “ It was enriching to share with all of you, plus this encounter gave me a needed boost to come back to my writing outside the thesis. That is always good!”

The workshop participants reviewed selected productions by young promising authors as well as works of prominent choreographers, such as Crystal Pite and Hofesh Schechter. New works were selected from the Aerowaves 20/20 collection, from the current programmes of the Ravnedans and KoresponDance festivals, and included winners of the Dance Film Festival. The articles written during the workshop will be published in the English section of the Dance News magazine.

Source: Taneční aktuality