VERTICAL DANCE PLATFORM • HRVATSKA (2015-2018)

Vertical Dance Platform 2018 (VDP Croatia) is a sociological and cultural development project aimed at networking dance artists and associations in the Republic of Croatia that use or want to use "aerial" dance elements in their choreographic creations. The first beginnings of work on this idea began in the Paklenica National Park, where Histeria Nova developed and maintained the first vertical dance project called The Gates of Velebit, created and produced by Marija Šćekić.

In 2015, Histeria Nova became a member of the International Vertical Dance Forum co-financed by the European Commission (Creative Europe 2017-2019 program), which is also the official beginning of the development of the idea of establishing the first vertical dance center in Croatia. In December 2015, the entire international team of VDF visited Starigrad-Paklenica and presented the key idea of promoting vertical dance in New Territories – a country where this type of dance art does not yet exist. Lectures, presentations and workshops of vertical dance led by Marija Scekic and financed by Histeria Nova were held in Osijek, Zagreb, Karlovac, Rijeka, Zadar, Starigrad-Paklenica, Sinj, Knin and Split.

GOAL

The goal of the VDP-Croatia project is to enable all representatives and beneficiaries of the project a concrete and easier exchange of their artistic visions, knowledge and experiences in order to encourage faster and more adequate cooperation strategy and development of creativity and experimental, multimedia and interactive research in this marginalized field of contemporary dance.

ASSOCIATIONS

The associations that responded to the call for cooperation were:

WORK STRATEGY

Each individual meeting of Croatian partners would include a plan and elaboration of the project idea through three basic modules / aspects:

A) public presentation of the VDP project and promotion of vertical dance throughout the country

– exchange of experiences, ideas, problems and discussions on a given topic in order to train artists and professional associates to understand the importance of setting professional, adequate conditions for the development and promotion of vertical dance as an extremely life-threatening dance art that without compliance with safety protocol practice in some countries of the European Union and Canada is not allowed. Each Croatian partner is obliged to co-organize a public presentation of the VDP project in their city / institution / association (logistics, research of local partners, cooperation, presentations, education…), noting that each of the eight members of the VDP group proposes a specific research topic.

B) practical workshops of vertical dance for the general public

– workshops for the general public that are open to external participants + public events and forums for the establishment of long-term professional cooperation in the country and abroad. Artistic collaborations between the coordinators and members of the VDP project can arise as a natural course of development of the programs themselves but are not the goal of this project. This module also includes making a decision on the location and implementation of the plan for the establishment and development of the first vertical dance center in the Republic of Croatia.

C) artistic research work / artistic production or project

– time of checking the effectiveness of the work of all members and checking ideologies through the practical elaboration of topics listed in the "Annual Action Plan". All ideas on the application, expansion or upgrade of already visiting events, festivals, artistic ideas or program ideologies are presented, presented and demonstrated by the methods and creative approaches of each member of the VDP project.