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This May, the Croatian Cultural Centre [Hrvatski kulturni dom] on Sušak in Rijeka becomes a vibrant hub for contemporary dance. Alongside the now well-established Port of Dance contemporary dance festival—held for the sixth year in a row—another exciting event for dance lovers is coming to town: the Moving Balkans Showcase.
Moving Balkans, of which the Croatian Cultural Centre is a member, is a new European initiative bringing together dance organizations from across the Balkans. Its mission is to elevate contemporary dance in the region, empower dance professionals, and raise awareness of the Balkans’ rich dance scene.
The first Moving Balkans Showcase will take place from May 10 to 13 in Ljubljana, Rijeka, and Zagreb, featuring a carefully curated program of 10 performances. These range from intimate to spectacular, offering a unique glimpse into the dynamic contemporary dance scene of the Balkans. In Rijeka, on May 12, audiences can see two performances: DILF by Serbian artist Marko Milić and Silence by the Greek collective RootlessRoot.
Following that, the sixth edition of Rijeka’s Port of Dance festival will run from May 14 to 17, showcasing a top-tier selection of recent European dance productions, a virtual reality performance, workshops, and screenings of dance films.
This year’s Port of Dance will feature the Italian-Croatian co-production ALL’ARME by Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi in collaboration with the Studio for Contemporary Dance, as well as BLOT by the Romanian-Canadian duo Simona Deaconescu and Vanessa Goodman. A unique fusion of dance and combat will be presented in Where the Boys Are by Yotam Peled and the Free Radicals from Germany, which will be performed—fittingly—not on a theater stage but in the gym of the Civil Engineering Technical School.
The festival will close with Shiraz, a performance by Armin Hokmi. Also returning this year is a virtual reality performance: the critically acclaimed Dancehall Blues by Ireland’s CoisCéim Dance Theatre.
The film program, Body Landscapes, will screen five short films dedicated to dance. Additionally, workshops will be held for young dancers and beginners alike, offering the chance to learn new movement styles. These include BodyImage Techniques: Morphing by Simona Deaconescu and Between Dancing and Fighting by Nicolas Knipping and Andrius Nekrasoff from the Free Radicals.
