Czech dance at TANZMESSE

This year at the international dance fair Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf in Germany, Czech contemporary dance was showcased in two places: The first was the booth of the Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI), which at the fair is profiling not just the companies, choreographers, and institutions of the contemporary Czech independent dance scene but also new publications and a Web portal devoted to Czech dance. On Thursday, 30 August, between 2pm and 3pm, Czech Happy Hour took place, an event which the ATI helped to prepare in cooperation with the TANEC PRAHA Festival, another Czech representative at the Düsseldorf fair.
‘In recent years Czech dance has reached world standards, so we decided to include participation in this European dance events among this year’s priorities of the Arts and Theatre Institute’, says Martina Černá from the Department of International Cooperation and PR, and Jana Navrátová from the ATI‘s Dance Section adds ‘Our aim is to promote Czech independent dance and institutions working in this field in the Czech Republic. To this end we are introducing a new Czech-English Web portal (www.czechdance.info), which will be launched in conjunction with “Czech Happy Hour”.’
In addition to the new Web portal, Czech Happy Hour also presented the activities of the Arts and Theatre Institute that are directed towards the promotion of Czech arts abroad, and some new publications devoted to dance and the Czech performing arts. Czech choreographer and dancer Lenka Bartůňková performed her powerful solo work Lágrima at the fair. Czech Happy Hour concluded at the booth of TANEC PRAHA, which introduced visitors to its domestic activities and international projects.
Publications on Czech dance presented at the fair included the latest English-language information brochure the Czech Dance Guide containing profiles of Czech dance companies, figures, theatres, schools, and other contemporary and classical dance entities, and the promotional DVD/CD Czech Dance in Action 2012, which the ATI regularly publishes once every two years (the first one was released in 2006).
Tanzmesse, international dance fair is the most important dance event in Europe, where dance professionals, promoters, and artistic directors from around the world come together to exchange experiences from the international contemporary dance scene, make new contacts, and find partners in other countries for developing new projects. The fair offers a rich programme of almost fifty dance productions and performances, expert lectures, discussions, and its ´Open Studios´, where visitors are given a direct look inside the workshops of different dance artists. This year the fair was held in Düsseldorf on 29^th August–1^st September 2012. For more on the TANZMESSE fair go to: http://www.tanzmesse-nrw.com/ More information about the ATI can be obtained from www.idu.cz