KoresponDance

KoresponDance is a 4 days international contemporary dance festival including new circus and physical theatre. It uses the genius loci of the partly UNESCO baroque castle of Zdar nad Sazavou, the Czech republic, and outdoor places of the city. It invites professionals artists from 3 continents to perform or to work with the local community. It produces site specific pieces, supports encounters for performers, moderates professional meetings, involves audience and works with different publics.

KoresponDance is the first outdoor festival of dance in the Czech Republic. Launching in 2009, the festival first took place in Prague, before expanding to Brno and, in 2012, to Jablonec nad Nisou. Since 2013, the Kinsky estate and castle at Žďár nad Sázavou has hosted the festival. With this relocation, KoresponDance became not only the sole festival of contemporary dance in the Vysočina region, but also the largest site-specific festival in the Czech Republic.

KoresponDance connects the genus loci of a historic place with contemporary arts practice. Each year a number of performances are prepared especially for the festival, resulting in a program that regularly includes world premieres.

In the first seven years of the festival, artists from three continents and 18 countries have taken part. They include Dominique Boivin, Paco Decina, Béatrice Massin, Jordi Galí, Joseph Nadj, Barely Methodical Troupe, Foco alAire producciones and others.

Jean Vilar, one of the founders of the Festival d’Avignon, built that now cult event on the basis of a certain vision: that a truly good performance speaks to absolutely everyone. Each year at KoresponDance, it’s possible see exactly how that happens.

“The KoresponDance Festival, which takes place partially in Prague, but primarily in Žďár nad Sázavou, connects trends in movement and thought emerging in numerous countries and across three continents. The festival supports community projects and engages local audiences; its poetics express a friendly and open approach to interdisciplinary and transcontinental collaboration. It speaks equally to professional dancers from around the world, devotees of contemporary dance and accidental passersby. The the prestige of the participants converges with an almost home-like atmosphere.”

Veronika Hrabalová for tanecnizona.cz, full article here.