The Silesian Dance Theatre organises an annual International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival to strengthen the contemporary dance community in Poland and stress the intrinsic democratic values of dance.
This year, performances by international dance companies from Spain, Sudan, Portugal, Taiwan, Russia, Australia, USA, Belgium, Austria, Poland and Lithuania will participate.
Malta’s Contact Dance Company is proud to be among such top quality performers and on 7 July 2008 they will be performing two works from their repertoire at the Silesian Dance theatre.
The programmes and performances of the festival are designed with the intention of encouraging Polish dancers to build their own forms of expression by respecting and culling movement from personal influences: national traditions, mentality, geopolitical setting, historical and contemporary issues, etc. The Bytom festival structure is meant to give and strengthen personal facilities creating possibilities for the development of independent choreographers and companies; to build communication between members of local and international communities through the arts; to expose the values of the arts that are advantageous to the future development of economy and democracy in the country. The Bytom festival gathers the national community and invites international colleagues to come and interact to share ideas, cultures and experiences. This has become the national meeting place that represents the culmination of the past season’s educational and creative efforts as well as a glimpse at the many possibilities of a future. During the festival there are several workshops in dance, seminars of dance and historians and critics and dance writing workshops, international arts seminars, conception and production of theatre realisation workshops, community outreach programmes and creative projects.
Contact Dance Company would like to thank the Tourism and Culture Ministry, Air Malta, Westland Travel and The Council of Culture and the Arts for their support.