The National Dance Center at its 10th anniversary

A look at the series of events marking 10 years of existence for the National Dance Center (CNDB)

Luana Pleşea, 16.08.2015, 14:00

An amazing professional solidarity and lobby consisting of street protests, press reports, letters abroad in 2004 sparked off the issuing of a government resolution on the establishment of the National Dance Center in Bucharest, also known as the CNDB.

With a 10-year long activity, the CNDB is the only public cultural institution, subordinated to the Ministry of Culture, whose aim is to support, develop and promote contemporary dance in Romania. Its motto is: ‘people that move the world.

But what does a decade of the CNDBs activity mean? Here is the CNDBs manager, choreographer Vava Stefanescu with more:

“We should not forget there have been several names in contemporary dance, choreographers, dancers, cultural managers, who have assumed the construction of this institution. The first Id like to mention is Mihai Mihalcea, who was the first director of this center and who imposed a certain type of contemporary creation in this sector of Romanian culture. This new genre stands good chances of becoming popular from now on, as its foundations have already been laid.

The CNDB began its activity in 2006 with a view to introducing into the Romanian cultural landscape, ‘an art and an institution, ‘which cant be pegged into a specific category shunning inertia and stubbornly experimenting, striving to educate and take chances. Because this is what any institution, willing to create a lively artistic domain, should do. Here is Vava Stefanescu again.

“We are a state-funded institution fostering the contemporary discourse. That is what we promote and do and we feel entitled to have access to all the means so that this contemporary creation may develop. We believe that all that means contemporary creation, including contemporary dance, is worth investing in. I avail myself of this right, as I am at the helm of this institution, the only one subordinated to the Ministry of Culture, dealing in contemporary dance, which has a major potential, because it looks into the future and it educates the public. I think that contemporary dance is entitled to funding.

The National Dance Center has been created for artists, who, in turn, offer a product to the audience, so, the institutions ten years existence has benefited both the artists and the audience. Vava Stefanescu:

“For the past 10 years, the CNDB has produced shows, educated people, has carried out various research projects and debates. There are four categories, which have seen most of the investment and funds of several kinds have been made available for artists to implement their projects. It is the only institution of its kind with no artists on its payroll. It both hosts and organizes events, not just shows, which more often than not fail to find a place of their own in todays society. In addition, for 7 years, the Centre financed a series of choreographic projects. The fact that this financing was successful, sometimes resulting even in two successful projects every year, made the contemporary dance grow stronger, with many artists choosing to go solo, working with their own resources. We are no longer where we were back in 2004. Artists can now carry out their projects and increase their visibility.

To mark 10 years of existence and activity, the National Dance Centre has decided to award 6 prizes for activity in the field of contemporary dance. The prizes rewarded efforts to promote contemporary dance in difficult cultural contexts, substantial projects, artistic attitudes, efforts to render this field more professional or simply the determination to endure and persevere while maintaining contemporary dance among the most iconic and avant-garde means of artistic expression. The prizes were all symbolic, being awarded in the form of a brick, standing for the foundation that led to the emergence of Romanian contemporary dance as a professional field. Ioan Tugearu, Mihaela Dancs, Cosmin Manolescu, Silvia Ghiaţă, Alexandra Pirici, Manuel Pelmus and Mihai Mihalcea were some of the recipients of the award. Here is Vava Stefanescu:

“I want to point out that Ioan Tugearu was key to founding the Centre. Silvia Ghita has for years promoted Romanian dance in her show “The World of Dance, featuring not only Romanian artists, but foreign artists who performed in Romania as well. Her one-hour show, broadcast every week, is now legend, and already has a legacy. Those people who care about the legacy of dance are extremely important. It was those people who inspired us to create the awards.

What does the future have in store for the Centre? Choreographer and manager Vava Stefanescu believes contemporary dance is a long-term investment. The higher the investment, the better the results. That is why she has labelled her management strategy “The Marshall plan for contemporary dance. The strategy includes five large-scale projects, involving investment in several directions. The first project refers to dance shows, drawing on the financial resources of the Centre, but also of other theatres of producers. The second focuses on the distribution of shows. The Centre aims at supporting performing arts institutions that want to stage or produce a contemporary dance show, by covering up to 50% of the productions costs or its presentation costs. The third project in the strategy focuses on education, and will be implemented in choreography high schools, with the possibility to be expanded to kindergardens, schools and high schools with a non-vocational profile. The centre also has a promising research project, which in 2016 will result in a portal of Romanian contemporary dance. Adding up to the aforementioned four projects will be the pop-up category, allowing ideas that are developed in the process to be expressed on stage.