From Yugoslav Ballet to Post-Yugoslav Contemporary Dance: Permutations in Collaborative Practices between Macedonian and Slovenian Dance Scenes

Our aim in this text is twofold: first, to offer a preliminary overview of cooperative activities
between Slovenian and Macedonian ballet and dance artists, national institutions and
non-governmental organisations in the last 25 years, that is, in the period of independence
of both states, with a short excursus into the time preceding that period; and second,
to offer a kind of a prima vista analysis of the main achievements as well as obstacles
in those collaborative practices. In the period of its existence the Yugoslav Federation
provided not only material support to professional theatre institutions, but also stimulated
cultural collaboration among federal republics. Especially non-verbal forms of artistic
expression, such as ballet and dance, were adequate communicators in a multinational
and multilingual state as was the Socialist Yugoslavia. The official cultural policies of the
newly established states declaratively (i.e. in ratified bilateral agreements) advocated the
preservation of cultural connections that existed from the era of the former Yugoslavia.
However, the level of intercultural exchange presupposed in these bilateral agreements is
rather modest and unambitious, especially in the field of dance. The processes of dissolution
of the former Yugoslavia and the establishing of the independent states of Macedonia
and Slovenia produced significant changes in the field of dance and opera theatre. The
main characteristics of these changes were, on the one hand, a rapid diminishing of the
collaboration between national ballet and opera institutions, and on the other hand, a
gradual increasing of cooperation between non-governmental organisations active in the
creation, promotion and exchange of contemporary dance productions.