ENPARTS European Network of Performing Arts

Agreement no. CLT2007/1.1/IT-19 Strand: 1.1 Duration: 10/01/2008 9/01/ 2013 Coordinator: FONDAZIONE LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA Co-organisers: Dance Umbrella (London -UK); Dansens Hus (Stockholm - SE); Musicadhoy (Madrid- ES); Musik der Jahrhunderte (Stuttgart - DE); Berliner Festspiele - Spielzeit Europa (Berlin - DE); Bitef Teatar (Belgrade - RS) Project coordinator: Paolo Bartolani http://www.labiennale.org/it/enparts/home.html

ENPARTS: a network of festivals to promote creativity and intercultural skills Paolo Bartolani Six internationally renowned European festivals and institutions, coordinated by the Venice Biennale, are the promoters of a common programme for innovation and experimentation in the performing arts. The network commissions three new works each year in the field of music, dance and theatre. These works are presented on the European theatre circuit and are documented audio-visually, in publications, and on websites. The European festivals in turn play a key role in preparing the community for reconciliation of their multiple identities and the dialogue between cultures. They profoundly influence European cultural life, contributing to the evolution of forms of artistic expression and to making known the most important international creators and performers.

The ENPARTS network has also programmed three campuses between 2008 and 2012, providing selected young European artists with the technical spaces and resources to create new inter-disciplinary projects. The ENPARTS network has the merit of spreading great professional savoir faire and transmitting models for innovation and good practice by trying to combine the ambitious and at times singular ideas of artists with the available technical and financial resources. At the same time it increases the ability of sector professionals to effectively and appropriately manage intercultural relations and especially to gradually acquire the sensibility, knowledge and skills necessary for effectively interacting with people and different, increasingly complex cultural contexts. The dance, music and theatre sectors of the Biennale and their three festivals are joined by: SpielzeitEuropa, a festival attentive to innovative languages of theatre and dance based in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele; Bitef (the Belgrade International Theatre Festival), founded in 1967, which for more than 40 years has played a leading role in the European theatre and that of the Balkans; Dance Umbrella, the historic London festival that celebrates and highlights contemporary dance, expanding its confines of innovation and inspiring an artistic excellence that over the years has favoured the growth of public awareness about the art of dance; Dansens Hus ensures an important space for the promotion of contemporary Swedish dance in the European panorama and is particularly attentive to training young talents at an international level; Musicadhoy was set up 12 years ago with the main aim of raising awareness of contemporary music in Spain. It has created a new young audience with a background in classical, jazz, experimental and electronic music; Musik der Jahrhunderte of Stuttgart, promoter of the Eclat festival at the Theaterhaus Pragsattel in Stuttgart, is a centre of innovation in Europe and a creative source for new music.