‘Cold-War’ era cultural policies on dance and performance on either side of the Iron Curtain
In this encounter, Greek dance theorist and curator Steriani Tsintziloni and Slovenian dance historian Rok Vevar discuss ‘Cold-War’ era cultural policies on dance and performance on either side of the Iron Curtain. Mapping the circulation of – ballet, modern and postmodern – works in the Balkans in the framework of the ideological competition of the ‘Cold War’, they challenge canonical modernist conceptions of dance as a-political. In parallel, they speculate on the – aesthetic, artistic, institutional, financial and mobility-related – traces that ‘Cold War’ cultural policy has left in the contemporary dance landscapes of the two countries, asking how local dance scenes may have appropriated and reworked the exported choreographies of cultural imperialism. Moderation: Anna Leon
a former dancer, is a dance scholar, lecturer, and curator. She lectures on dance theory and history and was the dance curator for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival (2016–2019). Steriani was awarded a Visiting Artist Fellowship at the Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies (2011). Her monograph Under the shadow of Parthenon. Dance in the Athens Festival of the Cold War (1955–1966) was published (in Greek) in 2022.
is a dance historian, curator, and activist, living and working in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2012 he established the Temporary Slovenian Dance Archives in his own apartment, moving it to MSUM (Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova) in Ljubljana in April 2018. Since 2012, he has co-curated the CoFestival, an international festival of contemporary dance (Nomad Dance Academy Slovenija, Kino Šiška) in Ljubljana. In 2020, his new monograph Ksenija, Xenia: Londonska plesna leta Ksenije Hribar 1960–1978 (Ksenija, Xenia: The London Dance Years of Ksenija Hribar 1960–1978) was published. In 2019 he was awarded the Ksenija Hribar Award for his work and in 2020 the Vladimir Kralj Recognition Award for his achievements in the field of dance history and archivism in Slovenia.
In English