East is Best digital network was established in 2020 in Ljubljana to develop network connections, endorse artist's visibility and expose new international projects.
Comprehensive event programme of the international East is Best project was scheduled in the 2022 spring-summer season. Several dance and performing arts festivals in Central and East European countries were hosted a series of selected performances thus implemented one of the fundamental goals of the East is Best project – to promote and develop cooperation and mutual exchange of outstanding performative art projects from the region.
Within the East is Best project 8 festivals in 8 CEE countries featured 24 events presenting 14 different performances; 11 partners of the project were touring 63 artists in total thus reaching several thousand unique visitors. Accompanying programme featured several workshops with the renowned artists. We also extended our newly developed experimental digital network, aimed at established active communication between our partners and audiences and promoted CEE artists globally. The project thus enabled new shared experiences, discovery and promotion of fresh and innovative regional talents.
East is Best digital network was established in 2020 in Ljubljana after the 1st Dance>Money (un)conference produced by Slovene association Pekinpah as a part of a partnership network Platform Center for Creativity. Public discussions at the named conference, where many artists and producers from CEE region were present, revealed the need for creation of the more formalised digital network, whose importance was subsequently recognised by the Perform Europe project. Perform Europe supported East is Best project for 18 months; after that initial period East is Best project remained fully operative, further expanding its mission and goals. With the inclusion of additional partners from the region, digitalization and artistic development the East is Best project thus strived to build an even bigger and more functional community in the region.
The East is Best project developed network connections, endorsed artist's visibility and expose new international projects. The nature of the partnership is rooted in balance and equity between the partners as they symmetrically share their know-how, experiences, and resources, enhanced live communication between regional producers, artists, and audiences. The platform tackled the issues of sustainability by implementing inclusive principles of social justice and commitments to human and societal wellbeing while promoted artistic practices that reflect contemporary conditions of the world.
Official partners of the project in 2022: Exodos Ljubljana (Slovenia - lead partner), Pekinpah – Spider Festival (Slovenia), AU Association “Contemporary Dance Platform” Zelyonka festival (Ukraine), Kulturanova (Serbia), Hrvatski institut za pokret i ples - Dance Week Festival (Croatia) and Workshop Foundation (Hungary). Additional associated festivals are: Dance fest Skopje, (North Macedonia), ZVRK Festival Sarajevo (Bosna i Hercegovina), Antistatic Festival (Bulgaria) and Laiks Dejot festival (Bulgaria). Partners involved in the project are committed to promotion of fresh and innovative regional talents that tackle the established western art canon.
Essential artistic endeavor of the East is Best project consisted of touring presentations of various performative artistic projects from the region. Within the project 14 performances were selected and scheduled for tour in physical and virtual venues in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Budapest and Riga. Unfortunately, due to known and tragic reasons, the festival in Kiev was cancelled while Ukrainian performances will appear – due to mobilisation of the male artists – in digital version only. The war in Ukraine has once more revealed the urge to stress humanism as well as cultural and artistic achievements in the region – we believe the projects such as East is Best are a vital necessity for obtaining such goals.
The programme scheduled for the spring-summer season of 2022 started at Dance fest Skopje and finish at ZVRK festival in Sarajevo. Selected performances, simultaneously also presented and archived on our digital platforms, were accompanied by invited artist's workshops that aimed to further development and empowered local dance communities and created new collaborative opportunities. A guest critic/journalist also joined each tour, being appointed to study, reflected and promoted local dance scenes in various countries.
_________________
Perform Europe is an EU-funded project aimed to rethink how performing arts works are presented across borders in a more inclusive, sustainable and balanced way by testing new touring and distribution practices and providing policy recommendations for a future EU support scheme. This 18-month journey included a research phase, launched a digital platform, tested a support scheme, and designed policy recommendations.
Perform Europe is funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and co-managed by a Consortium of 5 organisations: IETM – International network for contemporary performing arts, the European Festivals Association (EFA), Circostrada, EDN – European Dancehouse Network, and IDEA Consult.
