Pokretnica Contemporary Dance and Performance Festival will take place this year in Novi Sad for the 10th time, at the Student Cultural Center Novi Sad, the SKUP association (Union of Collective Artistic Practice), the French Institute in Novi Sad, and the Hungarian Cultural Center "Petefi Sandor".

The festival's performance programme features works examining in different ways the relationships between the body, social structures, and material or media environments that shape our contemporary experience. Certain works reflect on the historical and artistic heritage, such as the legacy of the new Yugoslav film or Dadaist practices, and reexamine the issues of political subjectivity, artistic freedom, and the possibility of collective imagination in the contemporary moment. Other works focus on the body as a meeting place of different materialities and social dynamics: relationships between the body, objects, and chance in the choreographic process, as well as stage speculations about ecological and social changes and how communities adapt to the conditions of global transformation. A special place in the program is occupied by practices that insist on the immediacy of the stage encounter, improvisation and mutual exchange between the performers and the audience, as well as works that arise from long-term artistic collaborations and friendships.

These thematic lines of the festival develop not only through the performance program, but also through educational and research formats that accompany the performances: workshops by guest artists, presentation of the work of independent cultural spaces, as well as conversations and social dance meetings. In this way, the festival functions as a space for joint work and learning, where knowledge about contemporary dance is transferred through practice, the exchange of experiences, and direct encounters between artists and audiences, which we consider one of the main conditions for the further survival, sustainable action, and work of the local dance scene.

By connecting performing, educational, and research programmes, this year's edition of the festival seeks to create a space for reflection on how the performing arts can contribute to articulating new forms of joint action, imagination, and care in contemporary society.

The events are supported by the Student Cultural Center Novi Sad, SKUP (Union of Collective Artistic Practice), the Hungarian Cultural Center "Petefi Sandor", and the French Institute in Novi Sad, by providing space for the program. 

For the financial support, Pokretnica is especially grateful to the projects Fusion - contemporary forms of art and sociability, and Life Long Burning project (cofounded by EU) through and with Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, which support the implementation of several programs. 

We also owe special thanks to Boris Butorac, Žolt Polgar and Aleksandar Ramadanović.

*The Fusion project was developed in cooperation with the French Institute and the regional program Teatroscope, and was financed by the French Embassy in Serbia. 

The focus of the PSR will be on connection and artistic exchange between artists working in the field of contemporary dance and contemporary circus, inviting wider audiences, as well as artists with learning impairment – members of the Per.Art organization. 

From 25–31 August.
 

On Friendship

Jelena Alempijević, a local dancer and choreographer and a member of Pokretnica collective will premiere her work On Friendship – a contemporary dance performance intended for audiences from the age of 10 onward. It explores the notions of community and interconnectedness by examining the dynamics of friendship within both individual relationships and broader societal and ecological contexts. The work invites reflection on values such as openness, empathy, and mutual support, offering a kinesthetic, visual, acoustic, and affective experience – a space for envisioning a society in which these principles are not merely affirmed, but actively embodied.

Yahoo! Dance!

Invited artist Pauline Payen will present her show Yahoo! Dance!, a darkly humourous dance-theater production inspired by Yahoo! News headlines, blending contemporary dance, voice work, and computer-generated sounds and visuals. It explores the surreal world of eccentric dances, fake robots, and bizarre conversations, flirting with seriousness and slapstick in the modern context of information overload. Following the performance, the author will offer a workshop that explores the methodology used in the piece Yahoo! Dance!, a comic and rhythmical exploration of the impact of news feeds on our bodies and psyche, grounded in Jeanine Durning’s "non-stopping" score – a playful yet critical inquiry, using movement and voice to reclaim agency in a sea of clickbait, stolen attention, and noise. Pauline will also give a lecture Woman?Clown? The lecture stems from conversations between Pauline Payen and other women-clowns and talks about their relationship with their practice, their relationship with their gender, and the relationship between their practice and their gender.

You're my sister, Soeur 

Another French artist, Marine Mane, will give a workshop You're my sister, Soeur focused on caring for others, touch, and the relationship between care and other people's bodies, posing questions such as: what does it feel like to touch someone? To be touched? How do you care for someone? For yourself? What does our body feel like when we're completely unconcerned, in total opposition to conflict?

 
Skinflick

Athens-based dance company arisandmartha will perform their piece Skinflick, which reflects the consumerist, pornographic culture of our time, exploring the complex and triply reciprocal relationship between object, observer, and screen. 

What does it mean to inhabit one’s own body while simultaneously observing it from afar?

The Den Concert

The Croatian collective Shooma will present The Den Concert – an interactive concert performance for children and their adults, motivating the audience to listen, move together, dance, and simply enjoy themselves. This is a format that is difficult to explain, but that rolls very smoothly through the body. The Den Concert invites you to laugh, play, and enjoy moving around. By entering The Den, we return to our body, our home, and feel good there.
 

Workshops with Anna Belorukova, Dragana Alfirević & Dejan Srhoj and Jelena Vujović

Anna Belorukova, a Russian dancer, improviser, and dance teacher currently based in Novi Sad will give a workshop that will introduce dance and circus artists to her practice of improvisation as the exploration of the capacity to remain in doubt without discomfort and the wish for a logical explanation. She will offer the perspective of transformative experiences – emigration, motherhood, and other big life changes. The participants will explore kinesthetic empathy and the memory of a collective body that lives through those changes.

Dragana Alfirević and Dejan Srhoj from Slovenia will propose an open workshop, in the frame of their work on the dance performance Imagine, with Pokretnica collective from Novi Sad. The workshop will be based on the dialogue between how we see ourselves and how we encounter the current societal reality, as well as on the encounter of the body and critical thinking. These topics will be explored through the work on choreographic scores and the development of a common dance language relating to the space, the relation between words and movement, and different performance strategies, such as repetition, exhaustion, etc.

A local circus artist, Jelena Vujović will propose a balancing workshop for dancers, circus artists, and everyone interested in deepening the relation between their body and balancing. Using the language of acrodance and arm-balancing, the participants will explore the state of (dis)balance.

PSR/Pokretnica festival is supported by LLB program through NDA Slovenia, and is partially merging with the Fusion project, developed in cooperation with the French Institute in Serbia and the regional program Teatroskop, with the support of the Embassy of France in Serbia. PSR is organized by Praktikabl - Platform for Contemporary Art and Culture, hosted by Fabrika Student Cultural Center of Novi Sad, and curated by the Pokretnica collective. 

The focus of the PSR will be on connection and artistic exchange between artists working in the field of contemporary dance and contemporary circus, inviting wider audiences, as well as artists with learning impairment – members of the Per.Art organization. 

From 25–31 August.
 

On Friendship

Jelena Alempijević, a local dancer and choreographer and a member of Pokretnica collective will premiere her work On Friendship – a contemporary dance performance intended for audiences from the age of 10 onward. It explores the notions of community and interconnectedness by examining the dynamics of friendship within both individual relationships and broader societal and ecological contexts. The work invites reflection on values such as openness, empathy, and mutual support, offering a kinesthetic, visual, acoustic, and affective experience – a space for envisioning a society in which these principles are not merely affirmed, but actively embodied.

Yahoo! Dance!

Invited artist Pauline Payen will present her show Yahoo! Dance!, a darkly humourous dance-theater production inspired by Yahoo! News headlines, blending contemporary dance, voice work, and computer-generated sounds and visuals. It explores the surreal world of eccentric dances, fake robots, and bizarre conversations, flirting with seriousness and slapstick in the modern context of information overload. Following the performance, the author will offer a workshop that explores the methodology used in the piece Yahoo! Dance!, a comic and rhythmical exploration of the impact of news feeds on our bodies and psyche, grounded in Jeanine Durning’s "non-stopping" score – a playful yet critical inquiry, using movement and voice to reclaim agency in a sea of clickbait, stolen attention, and noise. Pauline will also give a lecture Woman?Clown? The lecture stems from conversations between Pauline Payen and other women-clowns and talks about their relationship with their practice, their relationship with their gender, and the relationship between their practice and their gender.

You're my sister, Soeur 

Another French artist, Marine Mane, will give a workshop You're my sister, Soeur focused on caring for others, touch, and the relationship between care and other people's bodies, posing questions such as: what does it feel like to touch someone? To be touched? How do you care for someone? For yourself? What does our body feel like when we're completely unconcerned, in total opposition to conflict?

 
Skinflick

Athens-based dance company arisandmartha will perform their piece Skinflick, which reflects the consumerist, pornographic culture of our time, exploring the complex and triply reciprocal relationship between object, observer, and screen. 

What does it mean to inhabit one’s own body while simultaneously observing it from afar?

The Den Concert

The Croatian collective Shooma will present The Den Concert – an interactive concert performance for children and their adults, motivating the audience to listen, move together, dance, and simply enjoy themselves. This is a format that is difficult to explain, but that rolls very smoothly through the body. The Den Concert invites you to laugh, play, and enjoy moving around. By entering The Den, we return to our body, our home, and feel good there.
 

Workshops with Anna Belorukova, Dragana Alfirević & Dejan Srhoj and Jelena Vujović

Anna Belorukova, a Russian dancer, improviser, and dance teacher currently based in Novi Sad will give a workshop that will introduce dance and circus artists to her practice of improvisation as the exploration of the capacity to remain in doubt without discomfort and the wish for a logical explanation. She will offer the perspective of transformative experiences – emigration, motherhood, and other big life changes. The participants will explore kinesthetic empathy and the memory of a collective body that lives through those changes.

Dragana Alfirević and Dejan Srhoj from Slovenia will propose an open workshop, in the frame of their work on the dance performance Imagine, with Pokretnica collective from Novi Sad. The workshop will be based on the dialogue between how we see ourselves and how we encounter the current societal reality, as well as on the encounter of the body and critical thinking. These topics will be explored through the work on choreographic scores and the development of a common dance language relating to the space, the relation between words and movement, and different performance strategies, such as repetition, exhaustion, etc.

A local circus artist, Jelena Vujović will propose a balancing workshop for dancers, circus artists, and everyone interested in deepening the relation between their body and balancing. Using the language of acrodance and arm-balancing, the participants will explore the state of (dis)balance.

PSR/Pokretnica festival is supported by LLB program through NDA Slovenia, and is partially merging with the Fusion project, developed in cooperation with the French Institute in Serbia and the regional program Teatroskop, with the support of the Embassy of France in Serbia. PSR is organized by Praktikabl - Platform for Contemporary Art and Culture, hosted by Fabrika Student Cultural Center of Novi Sad, and curated by the Pokretnica collective.