Text by: Šibenik Dance Festival
The festival will, among others, host the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc troupe from Rijeka, together with a Hungarian dance company called Inversedance. Thanks to this festival, dance will come inside the newly-opened House of Arts Arsen.
Under the motto Dance Shifts Boundaries, the tenth Šibenik Dance Festival is going to be held in July of 2021 from the 19th till the 23rd. Despite the current pandemic that hindered the festival's preparations, Šibenik's stages will see some first-rate dance companies from Croatia and abroad.
The audience will experience an absorbing official festival program at St. Michael's and Barone fortresses, while contemporary dance will for the first time fill the House of Arts Arsen thanks to the Šibenik Dance Festival.
The restoration of Šibenik's fortresses brought a cultural renaissance of sorts to the town. We are happy to partake in it bringing forth a rich international dance program for a wide array of spectators to some of the most beautiful European stages, said Zorana Mihelčić, the art director of the Šibenik Dance Festival.
Gorana Barišić Bačelić, the director of Fortress of Culture Šibenik, congratulated the festival on this jubilee, and also highlighted how this is a festival that is continually evolving, the fact the audience recognizes. She is proud that the newly-opened House of Arts Arsen could join the most beautiful stages within the festival. In the House of Arts Arsen, apart from the dance performances, an interesting discussion will be held on the topic of the contemporary dance scene in the Adriatic area, initiated by the extraordinary professor Maja Đurinović from The Academy of Arts and Culture Osijek, together with Iva Nerina Sibila, dance artist and critic.
There is no history without culture, and when you look into the past, the original cultural event was bound to dance and song. Those structures are tied to all living beings. This thing you're doing is a great thing not only for the town of Šibenik, but also for our county, and the whole of Dalmatia. I would like to invite our fellow citizens to meet other cultures during the festival, and also to get acquainted with different cultural approaches to something primal as dance, sad Marko Jelić, PhD, the Šibenik-Knin county governor.
Open invitations to the festival were also prompted by Mirjana Žurić, head of the Administrative Committee for Social Services, and Dino Karađole, the director of the Šibenik Tourist Board. They also promised continuous support for the festival by the Šibenik city government and the Šibenik Tourist Board. That way this festival would continue to evolve according to its vision in the decades to come.
The festival will be opened with Burning Water, a ballet by the world-renowned choreographer Andonis Foniadakis performed by the Croatian National Theater Ivan pl. Zajc troupe from Rijeka. Among the most interesting foreign guests, there is the Hungarian dance company Inversedance that will perform a piece by the choreographer Zoltan Fodor You and the World, created as an homage to the poet Lőrinc Szabó.
At the main town square, each evening will host different dance performances by amateur dance groups. The purpose of that part of the program which is free for visitors is to make the citizens of Šibenik acquainted with the numerous facets of dance art.
