INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY

ITI AND INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY

One of the main tasks of the International Dance Committee within the frame of ITI is to create conditions for dialogue and cooperation within the world dance community, and promote dance art and reinforce its cultural and political position on an international level. With these intentions in mind, the International Dance Committee established International Dance Day in 1982, celebrated each April 29 th , to commemorate the birthday of Jean-Georges No­verre (1727-1810), the founder of contemporary ballet.

Each year, a message written by a distinguished person from the world of dance is dispatched worldwide. Renowned names such as Robert Joffrey, Chetna Jalan, Merce Cunningham, Hans van Ma­nen, Murray Louis, Maya Pliseckaya, Maurice Béjart, William For­sythe, etc. can be found among the authors of this message to date.

The fundamental idea of International Dance Day and its message is to unite all dance on that day; to celebrate this art form; to enjoy its universality, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic boundaries and to bring people together in peace and friendship through dance as a universal language.

Since 1995, the International Dance Committee has organised the celebration of International Dance Day together with the World Dance Association.

INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY IN CROATIA

On several occasions, Croatia tried to join in the international celebration of dance but only since 1999, through the informal dance group LLINKT's launching of this action, has International Dance Day been continuously celebrated in our country, becoming an increasingly acknowledged and popular event.

Established in June 2000, the Dance Committee of the Croatian Centre of ITI took over the organisation of the celebration and the distribution of the dance message throughout Croatia. Both the international and national messages are read on that occasion. To date, the message has been written by distinguished names from the Croatian dance scene such as Milko Šparemblek, Milana Broš, Sonja Kastl and Mirna Žagar.

2003 INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE

What is dance? If you answer that, you are not trustworthy. But let me try, anyway: Dance is thinking with your body.

Is it necessary to think with your body? Not for survival, perhaps, but for living.

There are so many thoughts that only the body can think. Other things, like peace, might be more important than dance. But then we will need dance to celebrate peace. And to exorcise the demons of war, like Nijinsky did. Emma Goldman, the anarchist, maybe said it best: A revolution that does not allow me to dance, is not worth fighting for.

The god Shiva created the universe with his dance. But dance is the opposite to all divine pretensions. Dance is an everlasting attempt, like writing in water.

Dance is not life, but it keeps alive all the little things that the big thing is made of.

Mats Ek

2003 CROATIAN MESSAGE

When we prepare for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Contemporary Dance Week festival as well as many other smaller or greater collective or individual jubilees, it seems quite easy to give an answer to the question on what is dance... yet the first attempts to answer this become increasingly vague...

Why do we give such importance to dance – yesterday, today... even in the moments when it seems that there are things of much greater importance... Looking back at with how much enthusiasm and ardour we devoted to each performance, each step... how great was the anticipation of future accomplishments, how much hope that each gesture would bring a shift towards the different, the new, the better... And despite the flow of time, the new faces, magnificent and enduring, successful and less successful works... those inscribed in history as well as those we have forgotten... and we still encounter the same problems and the same challenges in these parts as twenty... forty... almost hundred years ago... nothing has really changed... time seems to stop here... generations come and go... and the problems are not just ours, here and now...

Can we do anything to bequeath a different, better vision of the world around us for the future, a world in which dance can live and be life... perhaps if we manage to explain to those with the power of decision-making in their hands why dance is so important...

What is dance... is there any answer that exists and that would not be encyclopaedic?

Dance, dance, dance... is it a body that thinks or a body that gives in to the lenience of moments and the pleasures of time... is it that anxiety of the feeling of jumping out of one's skin... or is it some sort of divine state through which I transcend beyond the everyday... it is certainly an attempt at structuring thoughts... an attempt of amalgamating time and body in space, of creating a rhythm that is always new, different, more unique... or perhaps an echo of anarchy and rebellion against the established rules and norms... parallelism and duplication... the universality of communication that requires no special explanation... Dance, dance, dance... what is its purpose... is it some kind of obsession, religion... why such importance to this particular kind of expression... what does dance bring to us at the moment when the world is turned towards war, when reason takes on a dunce's cap...

This is certainly the moment when each gesture, even the smallest one, echoes all the more powerfully; for dance is also a shudder and a cry as well as the innocent laughter of children ... in every case it is something different to everyone in this world, and yet, movement remains the universal language of communication... now and forever... dance is dance is dance...

Mirna Žagar, dance producer,Director of ContemporaryDance Week Festival

INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE 2004

Dance is the original most ancient form of human expression. Through the body and physical language, dance has a powerful connection with the emotional and spiritual worlds.

In traditional Aboriginal culture, dance is the core, like a kind of sacred medicine. Dance is grounded, connected to the spirit of Mother Earth. Unless you surrender to the dance you can't hunt quietly. It is an integral part of human existence.

When I create a new dance work I ask the dancers to swallow and digest the traditional seed, to sense the innate code within so that we can transform the traditional essence to the contemporary world.

Dance is the universal language. It represents human identity and a celebration of the human spirit. Dance is the artistic heart of kinship. It is a sacred universal remedy.

Stephen Page (Australia),choreographer, Artistic Directorof Bangarra Dance Theatre