Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival

Contact

Front@ mednarodnega plesa - festival

Various venues, SI-9000 Murska Sobota

https://www.flota.si/fronta/2023/index.html

flota@flota.si

Organised byFlota Institute

Frequencyannual

Festival dates28.8.2024 - 31.8.2024

Monster Tamer, joint production of the Dance Explorations Beyond Front@ network, 2009

Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival takes place annually each end of August in Murska Sobota, a town in the eastern region of Slovenia known as Prekmurje. Presenting high quality Slovene and international dance performances, the festival aims to contribute to the decentralisation of contemporary dance scene in Slovenia.

Held since 2006, Front@ is organised by the Flota Institute. Besides staging dance performances, the festival also features workshops, courses, improvised dance meetings and so on.

In 2020 the Front@ Festival consists of two parts: the Western Front@ takes place in Nova Gorica at the beginning of July, and the Eastern Front@ at the end of August, as usually, in Murska Sobota.

The fifth edition of the festival was co-produced by Dance Theatre Ljubljana, MIKK Youth Information Cultural Club, Murska Sobota, Murska Sobota Gallery and the Cultural Societies Association Murska Sobota. The national support is matched with the Municipality of Murska Sobota grant, as well as international funding (European Cultural Foundation, European Commission's Culture Programme). With co-organising partners in Croatia, Austria, and Hungary the Front@ Festival participated in the project Beyond Front@ to enhance international attendance at the festival and exchange among contemporary dance and other artists from the participating countries and beyond.

Programme

Thus far, Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival has featured Slovene groups and artists, such as En-Knap Dance Group, Fourklor, Rosana Hribar and Gregor Luštek, etc. and international groups, such as Chris Haring and The Liquid Loft (Austria), Company Pal Frenak (Hungary, France), D.ID/Liz King (Austria), the dance collective Les SlovaKs (Slovakia), Histeria Nova (Croatia), Liberdance (Croatia), Compagnie Coline & Philippe Jamet (France), Debris Company (France), the Zagreb Dance Ensemble, Company Sebastien Ramirez (FR), La Intrusa Danza (ES), Radioballet (HU), Cie Propos (FR), etc. The dancers of the SEAD academy in Salzburg presented the "same, differnece, again" by choreographer Robert Clark who also held dance classes in Murska Sobota.

Workshops and accompanying events

In addition, the festival organises dance workshops and classes (in 2009, a practical workshop for stage technicians was also organised), as well as presentations of dance films, and seminars and discussions related to issues in contemporary dance, as well as conversations with artists appearing at the festival.

The festival also hosts improvisation evenings, entitled Improvisation Attack, in the frame of the project Dance Communication Lab (DCL), featuring invited dancers, musicians, and other guests from different countries. The festival also features music concerts; thus far it has hosted Yapa World Jazz Quartet (France), SLO A3 (Slovenia), Kleemar & Därectalchex, etc.

Impro_Attack by Matjaz Faric on YouTube

International cooperation and networking: Beyond Front@

Since 2008 festival activities were boosted by funding from the European Commission's Culture 2007–2013 programme. With co-organising partners in Croatia, Austria, and Hungary, the Front@ Festival participated in the project Beyond Front@ to enhance international attendance at the festival and exchange among contemporary dance and other artists from the participating countries and beyond.

Beyond Front@ has developed into a European dance network that consists of a partnership of Flota Institute (Slovenia), D.ID Dance Identity (Austria), Greenwich Dance (UK), Hrvatski institut za pokret i ples (HIPP, Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance), Pro Progressione (Hungary) and OffenesHausOberwart (OHO, Austria).

Dance Communication Lab VI by Flota on Vimeo

See also

• Flota Institute

External links

• Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival web page

Gallery

Improvisation Attack, in the frame of the project Dance Communication Lab (DCL), featuring invited dancers, musicians, and other guests from different countries, Flota Institute, 2009

Monster Tamer, joint production of the Dance Explorations Beyond Front@ network, 2009

Monster Tamer, joint production of the Dance Explorations Beyond Front@ network, 2009

Humorous performance of bedtime antics Expedition Paddock by Tango Sumo (F), performed at Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival, 2013

The Memory of Water written by British playwright Shelagh Stephenson, choreographed by Maša Kolar (HR), performed at Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival, 2013

The Memory of Water written by British playwright Shelagh Stephenson, choreographed by Maša Kolar (HR), performed at Front@ Contemporary Dance Festival, 2013