(Post)Socialist Dance

Annelies Van Assche obtained a joint doctoral degree in Art Studies and Social Sciences in 2018 for studying the working conditions of European contemporary dance artists. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies of Ghent University, Belgium and lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp’s dance department. Her research focuses on the relation between labor and aesthetics in contemporary dance. She is author of Labor and Aesthetics in European Contemporary Dance. Dancing Precarity (2020) and a member of research group S:PAM, CoDa – European Research Network for Dance Studies and the Young Academy of Flanders.Dunja Njaradi is an associate professor at the Department of Ethnomusicology (Faculty of Music, Belgrade). She has published a monograph Backstage Economies: Labour and Masculinities in Contemporary European Dance (2014) as well as many book chapters, edited collections and monographs in her native Serbian. Her area of expertise includes dance theory, anthropology of dance and ritual performances. She is a member of CoDa – European Research Network for Dance Studies.Igor Koruga is an independent artist in contemporary dance and choreography working as author, choreographer for stage movement in theatre performances and film, pedagogue and dance dramaturge, and researcher in performing arts theory (published in journals such as Maska, Walking Theory, and Movements). He performed in various venues in Europe (Dansens Hus, Stockholm; Tanzquartier and Leopold Museum, Vienna; HAU and Uferstudios, Berlin; Kammerspiele, Munich, Bitef Theatre, Belgrade; etc.). Member of the team for archiving performing arts practices of the independent cultural and artistic scene in the Balkan region. Winner of several national awards and international scholarships in dance.Milica Ivic holds a PhD in Theory of Arts and Media at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia. She is an independent researcher working in the field of contemporary dance in Serbia, interested in questions of archiving and institutionalization of contemporary dance. Also working as a dance dramaturge. She is a member of a research team for archiving contemporary dance and establishing the first online digital database of contemporary dance practices in former Yugoslavia, in collaboration with Nomad Dance Academy and Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana.

• List of IllustrationsList of ContributorsPrefaceAcknowledgementsINTRODUCTORY ESSAYS(Post)Socialism? Postsocialist Studies and the Three-Worlds TheoryDunja Njaradi, Igor KorugaDance? Dance Studies and (Post)Socialist DanceAnnelies Van Assche, Milica IvicPART 1 – DANCE HISTORY AND MEMORYONE, TWO, THREE…COMRADE, COME, DANCE WITH MEIgor KorugaChoreography, Revolution, War: Kozaracko kolo between Anthropology and Dance StudiesDunja NjaradiThe Complex Reputation of a Yugoslav Folklore Ballet: A Consideration of The Legend of Ohrid’s National CharacterStefanie Van de VyvereThe World of Art in the Russian World: Post-Soviet Rewritings of the Russian BalletHanna JärvinenDancing in Life: Inner Mongolia’s Ulan Muchir Grassland Art Troupes as Socialist Performance PracticeEmily WilcoxPART 2 – DANCE PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATIONConversations with Kinga: A Tribute to the Body and CraftsmanshipAnnelies Van AsscheFrom Revolutionary to Reactionary: Contemporary Dance in Serbia Between Institutionalization and Anti-Institutionalization.Milica IvicDancing in Ruins: Lorna and Gabriela Burdsall in Cuba and the DiasporaElizabeth B SchwallFestival-making and choreography: tales of affordance and crises in the work of Dušan MuricAlexandra BaybuttIndex

A critical and timely intervention into the politics of dance historiography … Its case studies bring to light neglected archives, forgotten figures, and complex political legacies, offering compelling narratives that situate dance within broader debates about memory, nationalism, and ideology … For critical dance scholars and historians, the volume presents a rich and multilayered set of theoretical provocations.