2024 – a year in review
20 December 2024Before jumping into 2025, we want to celebrate what we achieved together in 2024. Thank you to all the artists, partners, Springback writers, programmers and local audiences who made it possible. Thanks also to the EU for its continued support.
Spring Forward Festival
3 days
3 cities
23 performances
1 moderated talk with artists
99 artists
13 writers
10 curators
10 local artists
11 co-funders
228 professionals from 47 countries
1750 spectators
5 host organisations
Spring Forward 2024 took place in the three German cities of Darmstadt, Wiesbaden and Mainz between 21–23 March. With our German partner Hessisches Staatsballett, Aerowaves brought together the #Twenty24 selection of artists from around Europe to a professional global audience.
Listen to Spring Forecast podcast series
Watch the pictures
Read the Springback Academy reviews
Dance across Europe
María del Mar Suárez/La Chachi and Lola Dolores performing ‘Taranto aleatorio’ at Spring Forward 2024, Mainz. © Sinah Osner
More than 250 performances
10000 spectators reached
From Reykjavík to Limassol, from well-known international festivals and dance houses to rural curatorial projects, performance opportunities are offered by the platform’s partners and the Spring Forward Festival’s guests. Aerowaves’ emerging choreographers present their works across Europe and beyond in different cultural and social contexts, thus reaching a wide variety of audiences.
Startup Forum
Startup Forum participants, March 2024 © Anna Kushnirenko
7 projects
7 curators
17 interviews
9 Springback writers
Startup Forum is a programme for emerging dance presenters. A group of 10 participants gather at the Spring Forward Festival addressing current programming issues. Awards are offered to three of them each year to plan and present projects involving Aerowaves artists. Seven of these curatorial projects (from previous years and the current one) took place in 2024.
Springback
Springback Academy writers and mentors, March 2024 © Sinah Osner
10 writers + 3 international guests + 5 mentors
Springback Academy
51 articles and reviews by 28 writers
Springback Magazine
23 participants
1 Supplement by 13 writers
Springback Assembly in Budapest
9 writers
Startup Forum interviews
Springback Academy is a critical-writing programme that runs alongside Spring Forward festival, the online Magazine nurtures Springback writers and gives coverage to the European dance scene, and the annual Assembly gathers writers to offer opportunities for writers to gather and share skills in what can be a solitary occupation.
Artists Encounter
Artists Encounter in Dublin, Dance Ireland, November 2024 © Anna Kushnirenko
3 Encounters:
London + Darmstadt, Wiesdabaden, Mainz + Dublin
8 Aerowaves artists
36 emerging choreographers
107 dance students
3 mentors
4 locations
Artists Encounter is a programme intended for artists and dance students alike, offering professional development, programming workshops and networking opportunities.
Are you a professional dance school interested in offering your students an international perspective and a window on the professional world? Learn more about this project and get in touch with us.
Moving Borders - EU cooperation project
1 kick off meeting
4 partners
3 locations
4 online encounters
3 associated artists
3 researchers
36 artists
Moving Borders explores how the female dance diaspora from Ukraine is informing the development of inclusive and cohesive dance practices across Europe. Moving Borders is a cooperation project co-funded by the European Union.
Annual Selection Meeting
Annual Selection Meeting participants, Bratislava, October 2024 © Daša Šimeková
53 partners and attendees
3 days
659 eligible video applications
Aerowaves partners and dance professionals gathered in Bratislava from 21-23 October 2024 to select the next #Twenty25 Artists. Supported by the Slovak Arts Council, City of Bratislava and by Nadácia mesta Bratislavy, our partner Mira Kovarová and the team at Bratislava in Movement Association hosted our Annual Selection Meeting at Primate’s Palace.
On Record
Welcome to On Record, an international dance archive
Did you miss the Baltic Dance Platform in Riga? Here you can browse the reflections, podcasts and interviews produced by the Aerowaves/Springback team during the Baltic Dance Platform, which took place from 9-11 February 2024 in Riga.
On Record is a growing collection of “albums” that records themes, impressions, voices, stories and reflections from regional dance festivals and platforms.
Are you a festival or a dance venue who wants to document your event? Get in touch with us…
Aerowaves' Podcasts
Dany Mitzman and Silvia Gribaudi at Dance Ireland, November 2024 © Anna Kushnirenko
1 Recorded moderated talk
3 Episodes about the Spring Forward Festival 2024
1 Episode about Dublin’s Artists Encounter
In May 2023 we launched our Podcast channel, in which we feature artists, their work, and what inspires them. We also discuss wider topics around art and life while demystifying the choreographic world. So far we have published 25 episodes!
Green Corner
Spring Forward guests and volunteers © Sinah Osner, Darmstadt, March 2024.
In 2023 together with 15 other cultural networks, we started our eco-certification journey under the guidance of SHIFT Culture. In 2024 we received the ECO-CERTIFICATE after a successful audit.
Green actions in 2024: Spring Forward is now vegetarian, participants are asked to bring their own water bottles, public/shared transport and walking are a must. In this edition guests even had to bring their own lanyards:)