The International Dance Theatres Festival in Lublin has been organised continuously for 25 years. Among the festivals dealing with the art of dance in Poland, it is a rare vitality, which is for us, the organisers, a reason for pride and joy. This continuity adds up to a rich and multi-threaded history that can be looked at on a local, national and international scale. What strategy to choose to capture and show this enormity of experience in a way that would reflect their uniqueness? The collective perspective seems to be the most appropriate, as from the very beginning it has determined the identity of the festival.
Establishing the IDTF in 1997, Hanna Strzemiecka created space for the co-presentness of various voices from the very beginning. Not only on the artistic level, but also on conceptual and organisational ones. The founder’s approach is continued by the current team of organisers of the festival, thanks to which each voice is part of a larger discourse conducted collectively by Ryszard Kalinowski, Anna Kalita, Konrad Kurowski, Beata Mysiak and Anna Żak. Over the years, this continuous polyphony has resulted in the possibility of meeting in Lublin such spectacularly different artists as: Ann Van den Broek, Yasmeen Godder, Jacek Łumiński, Yann Marusich, Ohad Naharin, Klaus Obermaier or Iwona Olszowska.
Over the past 25 years, the world of dance has changed many times, and its boundaries are constantly being expanded. However, one thing has remained unchanged when it comes to the IDTF: inclusivity and egalitarianism have always been the foundation for the programming of this festival, and the “dance theatre”, constantly present in its name, has never limited our vision. The fact that TanzTheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch appears in this year’s programme is for us, organisers, the culmination of certain dreams, but it does not mark their end. On the contrary – it opens up space for new visions, and the 25th anniversary of the festival seems to be only another stage towards a better, dancing future.
Lublin Dance Theatre