The Foundation initiative has been successfully implemented through ‘Tanz Platz’ festival of contemporary dance, which captured audience attention from day one
During the first year of implementation of the European Capital of Culture project, the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation organised and supported over 60 different cultural programmes, the most important ones being ‘Dve.Nove’, ‘Non-Classical Festival of Classical Music’, ‘Water Hologram’ in the Danube Park, performance of ‘World Youth Choir’ and many others. Simultaneously with programmes from the bid-book, the Foundation is successfully working on implementation of infrastructural projects that are of great importance for the city, such as ‘Nova Mesta’ i.e. improvement of neighbourhoods according to citizens’ wishes, then construction of Cultural Stations. The Foundation has also taken a role of mediator in establishing the culture of dialogue in the project of transformation of the former ‘Petar Drapšin’ factory into Youth Creative Polis (YPC). Foundation has already given its support to cultural programmes in the future YPC, and this resulted in cooperation within the ‘Tanz Platz’ festival of contemporary dance, which is only one segment of a bigger project from the bid-book called ‘Freedom – Culture Factory 360 Degrees’.
On Friday 15 September, ‘Fabrika’ Student Cultural Centre hosted the opening of the first edition of the ‘Tanz Platz’ festival of contemporary dance in Novi Sad founded and produced by the Student Cultural Centre of Novi Sad. The citizens of Novi Sad accepted the new festival with long applauses and encores, so it is expected that the festival programme will have a big audience. The festival was opened by Nemanja Milenković, CEO of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation, and by Nemanja Vuković, producer of the Student Cultural Centre, followed by a spectacle. The first edition of the ‘Tanz Platz’ was marked by Oona Doherty, award winning young dancer and choreographer in the play ‘Hope Hunt’, which was the best dance play in Europe in 2017 according to the selection of the ‘Aerowaves’ network. Furthermore, Petra Hrašćanec presented Croatian scene with the play ‘Anatomy of a Cat’, which was created in cooperation with the choreographer Stanislava Zec. This year’s edition of the manifestation will be closed with a play called ‘Striptease’ by Pere Faura, choreographer and dancer from Spain, on Saturday 16 September.
‘Tanz Platz’ is a new manifestation whose goal is to present young members of the European scene and trends in contemporary dance. The festival was organised with the support of the ‘Aerowaves’, European dance platform whose main postulate are young and up-and-coming dancers of contemporary dance, choreographers, and other professionals from this artistic field. The Student Cultural Centre of Novi Sad is the executive producer of the festival.
The European Capital of Culture opens new possibilities for cultural cooperation on Novi Sad culture scene, therefore representatives of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation constantly work on building new cultural bridges between stakeholders in culture and audience in Novi Sad, as well as on encouraging internationalisation of the cultural scene, especially through festivals that offer chances to young artists.
