From June 2021 – May 2022 we are celebrating 25 years of dance across europe. Our anniversary activity which starts in Ljubljana with the Summer ReCollection festival will bring insights into the network’s history, celebrate our legacy and current artists, and develop new initiatives to explore the future.
We are proud to celebrate 25 years of Aerowaves; a pioneering network of dance professionals born in 1996 to discover the most promising new work by emerging European dance artists.
What started as a small group of dance colleagues brought together by John Ashford –then Theatre Director at The Place in London– Aerowaves has become a network of partners in 33 countries enabling choreographers to build successful international careers over the years. We are very proud of this legacy of nurturing talent.
Throughout the years Aerowaves has developed as a platform: attracting more artists, founding the Spring Forward festival in 2011, receiving funding from the Creative Europe Platform scheme since 2014, broadcasting the festival online, launching Springback Magazine (a platform for quality dance writing across Europe) and researching new ways of filming dance through VR with its latest project Springback Ringside.
We’re celebrating the journey begun in 1996 but also the next 25 years of dance ahead of us. 25 years of Aerowaves’ activities will kick off in Ljubljana (Slovenia) with the Summer ReCollection festival and will be brought to an end at the Spring Forward festival in Eleusis (Greece).
On Midsummer 2021 the celebrations of Aerowaves’ 25 years kicked off with Summer ReCollection, a flash festival in Ljubljana from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 June 2021. Ljubljana is a very significant place for Aerowaves since we celebrated the first Spring Forward festival here ten years ago. The centre of the event was with our partners EN-KNAP Productions at Španski Borci Cultural Centre with five other venues, indoors and out.
Find out moreAerowaves at 25 is a series of commissioned pieces that reflect on Aerowaves at 25 years old and consider where the organisation might go next.
Rather than revisit the past, we're marking the moment with a specially printed publication featuring new texts by contemporary Springback writers, intercut with snapshots from history.
25 texts, giving 25 views of Aerowaves, at 25.
Enjoy.
Hosted by 2023 ELEUSIS European Capital of Culture and our partner DAN.C.CE UNITIVA, Spring Forward took place in Elefsina (Greece) from Thursday 28 April to Sunday 1 May 2022.
We presented no less than 25 performances in 5 venues during 4 days and culminated Aerowaves 25 years celebration. Alongside the European based companies, as part of the Aerowaves Exchange initiative Spring Forward’s programme included Asian artists and organisations. Former Aerowaves artist Jesús Rubio Gamo presented ‘Gran Bolero’ to celebrate 25 years of Aerowaves. And we also premiered ‘Aerowaves at 25’, a documentary directed by Enya Belak. We welcomed 333 dance professionals from 48 countries and 3000 local spectators from Elefsina enjoyed the festival’s performances.
Throughout the documentary, we learn about the founders of the platform and the activities Aerowaves devised to connect dance enthusiasts around the globe. Besides diving into the past, Belak also explores the present and wonders about the network's next steps into the future.
Amongst others, the film features founding director John Ashford, Administrative director Anna Arthur; board member Betsy Gregory; Aerowaves artists Patricia Arpeggi, Viktor Černický or Christos Papadopoulos; dance writers Sanjoy Roy and Donald Hutera; and Aerowaves partners like Frosso Trousa and Yvona Kreuzmannová.
