Velebitska 3
23000 Zadar
Croatia
- Arts
The Zadar Dance Ensemble was founded at the very beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, in the autumn of 1991. It is the oldest contemporary dance ensemble in Dalmatia. It was founded by Sanja Petrovski and Nives Šimatović Predovan, who was posthumously awarded the Coat of Arms of the City of Zadar. Putting on plays and performances in the most varied and most unusual places in the city is the peculiarity of this Ensemble. The Ensemble connects amateurs with professional dance artists, organises educational programmes for dancers of all ages. We have had over 90 dance productions with students of dance studios of the Ensemble, and we have produced about 50 professional dance shows. Since 2009, we have been organising international contemporary dance festival Monoplay, whose focus on the solo form makes it the only dance festival of its kind in Croatia. We are also organisers of the encounter of the Zadar dance scene to mark the Day of the City of Zadar entitled Dance Miniature Evening. For years we have been the organisers and active participants of celebrations marking the World Dance Day. Together with artistic organisation 21:21 from Zagreb we also founded STREAM Zadar, the educational platform which has become a place for encounters and exchange of ideas of dance artists from Croatia and abroad. We are active members of Nomad Dance Academy Croatia, which brings together dance organisations and independent artists working in the field of contemporary dance in Croatia. The Zadar Dance Ensemble aims to professionalise and decentralise the dance scene and develop the artistic, performative and educational potentials of contemporary dance in the broader social context in Croatia. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Zadar Dance Ensemble received a Special Award of Professional Contemporary Dance Organisations of the Republic of Croatia for season 2015/2016, for its extraordinary artistic contribution and systematic work on the decentralisation and professionalisation of Croatian dance. Our sources of fundings are local and national goverment, average annual incomes are cca 80.000,00 eur.
The mission of the Zadar Dance Ensemble is to realize, improve and protect the common interests of the members of the Association, professional development of the members of the Association, development of dance art with an emphasis on the application of elements of Croatian national heritage and insisting on the dance education of the members, as well as encouraging artistic creativity and developing the cultural offer of the local environment in which we operate and production, national and international cooperation with other subjects of contemporary art in order to distribute artistic creations.
The backbone of our work is the creation of full-length performances, of which there have been over fifty since its inception, we are the founders of the Monoplay solo dance festival, the only one in Croatia, which has been taking place for fifteen years, we educate children and young people in the field of contemporary dance and culture, we organize the Dance Season in which we bring contemporary dance performances to our city, we participate in all events in our city.
As the only contemporary dance ensemble in Dalmatia and one of the few in the entire country, we are actively working on the decentralization of dance art and the professionalization of dance artists. We participate in all major and minor events and cultural manifestations in our city, but also beyond, every year we note an increase in guest performances in other cities of our all-night performances.
We want to join the ALF Network because we think we have a lot to offer in terms of long-term and professional experience, we want to partner with foundations that are outside our environment to share knowledge and improve our work.