Autumn Edition of Bratislava in Movement Sold Out
Contemporary Dance from Spain Filled Theaters
Interest in contemporary dance in Bratislava continues to grow each year. The 28th edition of the international festival Bratislava in Movement captivated audiences, achieving an impressive 97% attendance rate across 14 performances in the main program. Viewers experienced the energy of nine dance ensembles from Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The diverse accompanying program also featured a meeting of the international Aerowaves network, which selected the TOP20 promising European choreographers for 2025. This year, the festival extended beyond Bratislava to other Slovak cities, including Žilina, Trnava, and Liptovský Mikuláš.
The festival took place at multiple venues across Bratislava, from traditional spaces such as the Slovak National Theatre, A4 – Space for Contemporary Culture, and the newly opened Divadlo Aréna, to more unconventional locations like the Gymnasium at Nová Cvernovka and the courtyard of the Primate’s Palace.
The festival’s prologue was a June performance by the German ensemble Yotam Peled & Free Radicals with Where the Boys Are. The festival officially opened in early September with Yuri Korec’s production The Pulse of Prešporok on the courtyard of the Primate’s Palace. The main program predominantly took place between October 5 and 28, 2024, featuring artists not only from Slovakia (threeiscompany & Jaro Viňarský – IHOPEIWILL, Yuri Korec & Co. – The Story) but also from the Czech Republic (Sabina Bočková & Jazmína Piktorová – Microspheres), France (Les Idoles – Reface), Germany (Fran Diaz – Born by the Sea), and especially Spain.
The cornerstone of the 28th edition’s dramaturgy was the presentation of contemporary Spanish dance: the magical choreography by La Veronal (Sonoma), a solo performance by the extraordinary Daniel Abreu (El Hijo), and a dynamic, uninhibited closing performance featuring artists and audiences dancing together in Para Cuatro Jinetes by the ensemble Mucha Muchacha.
The main and accompanying programs of Bratislava in Movement 2024 were attended by over 2,500 spectators across Bratislava, Trnava, Žilina, and Liptovský Mikuláš.
“The 28th edition of the Bratislava in Movement festival was exceptional not only due to the audience’s interest but also because it hosted the very first meeting of the international Aerowaves platform in Slovakia. From 34 European countries, 52 contemporary dance professionals gathered in Bratislava to select the TOP20 young choreographic talents for 2025, who will then have opportunities to showcase their work on European stages,” said Miroslava Kovářová, Artistic Director of the festival and a member of the Aerowaves network.
The prestigious TOP20 selection included the performance IHOPEIWILL, for which Soňa Ferienčíková, along with the ensemble threeiscompany and Jaro Viňarský, also won the DOSKY Award this week for Outstanding Achievement in Dance Theater.
We, as festival organizers, noted growing interest in contemporary dance performances, with all autumn performances in the main program sold out.
“We are thrilled to have provided intense experiences not only for our regular festival-goers but also for young people and children, for whom we prepared special performances. We were delighted that Yotam Peled’s work resonated at the Teen Theatre Fest in Trnava, where it won the Young Critics’ Award. We also cherished the beautiful moments at six interactive performances for children aged four and above, Microspheres by Sabina Bočková and Jazmína Piktorová,” said the festival’s Executive Director, Katarína Figula.
For the 29th edition of the festival Bratislava in Movement, we will focus on presenting contemporary dance from Canada and the USA.
We would like to thank our audiences for the fantastic atmosphere, as well as to our partners and media partners. The festival was supported by public funds from the Slovak Arts Council. Its strategic partners were the City of Bratislava and the Tatra Bank Foundation.
