International Dance Alliances
International Dance Alliances – Transnational Cooperation in Dance
The primary aim of the International Dance Alliances project is to create opportunities and conditions for establishing contacts and building deeper, long-term relationships between institutions, artists, creators, and professionals working in the field of choreography from Europe and around the world. This collective reflection is intended to initiate change in response to current challenges facing the cultural and artistic sectors.
This will be achieved through a series of online and in-person laboratories, presentations of Polish performances on international stages, as well as artistic residency programmes. All of these initiatives focus on creating connections between contemporary dance and choreography and the most pressing social issues of our time.
International Dance Alliances will bring together professionals from a range of fields, including artists, producers, managers, curators, and critics.
The project will also focus on presenting Polish choreographic works on international stages in Europe and around the world, while supporting the presence of Polish artists in centres of choreographic exchange, dialogue, and inspiration by providing opportunities to participate in international residencies.
In 2026, the International Dance Alliances project will involve several dozen Polish artists, as well as experts, producers, and managers.
Practice of Change – Laboratory Sessions
The Practice of Change laboratory sessions focus on care as a systemic foundation for the ways in which we create, collaborate, and sustain artistic ecosystems. Moving beyond the perception of care as a “soft skill”, participants will explore how its absence is often structural, reinforcing exclusion and burnout.
The programme approaches care as infrastructure: a set of practices, procedures, and values that shape institutions, relationships, and working conditions. Care is understood here as a practical necessity that ensures the survival and continuity of artistic activity, supported by concrete tools that foster wellbeing, safety, trust, and accountability at every stage of the process and across all roles involved. Participants will imagine alternative versions of the future and new models of artistic collaboration.
The programme is open to representatives of partner institutions and organisations from across Europe. This year’s LAB programme will take place both online and in-person, with meetings hosted by partner institutions in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, as well as a meeting bringing together all partners during the Polish Dance Platform 2026 in Wrocław. The sessions will be moderated by Julia Asperska and Konrad Kurowski, together with invited experts.
The operational and content partner for the Practice of Change programme is Performat Foundation.
International Dance Alliances Programme
- 6–7 August 2026 – Agnieszka Brzezińska’s who cares at the ConTempo Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania, and Practice of Change, LAB 2: a festival session with invited experts.
- 24–26 August 2026 – premiere of Phoenix. Sun by Kasia Wolińska at Tanz im August Festival in Berlin, Germany.
- 17 September 2026 – Practice of Change, LAB 3: a partners’ meeting during the Polish Dance Platform 2026 in Wrocław.
- 11–23 October 2026 – residency of Joanna Leśnierowska and her team, working on the Yanka Rudzka Project at Hellerau – European Center for the Arts in Dresden, Germany.
- 11–23 October 2026 – residency of Magdalena Górnikiewicz at the European Center for the Arts in Dresden, Germany.
- 23–25 October 2026 – performances of U-rodziny by Hanna Bylka-Kanecka, Phoenix.Sun by Katarzyna Wolińska (Czech premiere), and To Bitch or not To Bitch by HERTZ HAUS at the Norma Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, as well as Practice of Change, LAB 4: a festival session with invited experts.
- 5–9 October and 19–23 October 2026 – residency of Kinga Jaczewska, working on her new performance Figures at Dansateliers in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a work-in-progress presentation.
- 6 November 2026 – Practice of Change, LAB 5: online lab for all partners.
- 17 November 2026 – Amoroso by Janusz Orlik and Teatr Klucz at the 5th edition of the DansFunk Festival at Skånes Dansteater in Sweden, as well as Practice of Change, LAB 6: a festival session with invited experts.
Agnieszka Brzezińska’s "who cares" in Kaunas
One of the first choreographic performances presented as part of International Dance Alliances was who cares, performed by Katarzyna Leszek and choreographed by Agnieszka Brzezińska. The performance took place on 6 August 2026 at the ConTempo Festival in Kaunas.
The performance explores the image of the individual, their search for identity within society, the influence of their surroundings on their perception of themselves, and changes in behaviour over time in the fast-paced, virtual world of social media. who cares presents a self-created version of the individual and their way of expressing emotions and feelings, confronted with pervasive social judgement, the constant pursuit of acceptance, and the desire to be seen.
“I try to look appropriate, but what does appropriate mean?”
“I treat Instagram as my business card – is that right? I don’t know.”
who cares is a turbulent confrontation with the psychological and physical boundaries of the human being.
Premiere of Kasia Wolińska’s "Phoenix. Sun" in Berlin
On 24 August 2026, audiences will have the opportunity to see Phoenix. Sun by Kasia Wolińska, which will premiere at the Tanz im August Festival in Berlin.
Phoenix. Sun is a solo choreographic performance created in collaboration with composer and sound artist Heinali, video artist Denis Kozerawski, and dramaturg Jette Büchsenschütz. The project emerged from a need to kindle a fire – choreography becomes a meditation on a world engulfed in flames and an invitation to imagine it anew.
The performance draws inspiration from the pyrotechnic works of Polish artist Władysław Hasior, who sought to soothe the spirits of burning birds falling from a war-torn sky. The performance also enters into dialogue with the compositional and religious visions of the German mystic Hildegard of Bingen, who, inspired by the Spirit, invoked viriditas – the fire of redemption that kindles new life.
Project Organisers and Partners
- Artistic and content supervision: Renata Piotrowska-Auffret (IAM)
- Collaboration: Ewa Opawska (IAM)
- Artistic, content, and organisational supervision of the Practice of Change programme: Karolina Wycisk, Ula Zerek, Ania Straczyńska-Green (Performat Foundation)
- LAB moderators: Julia Asperska, Konrad Kurowski
- Experts invited to the LABs: Filip Pawlak, Igor Shugaleev, Natalia Wilk
- Artists: Agnieszka Brzezińska, Hanna Bylka-Kanecka, Janusz Orlik, Joanna Leśnierowska, Kasia Wolińska, Katarzyna Leszek, Kinga Jaczewska, Magdalena Górnikiewicz; HERTZ HAUS collective: Magdalena Kowala, Natalia Murawska, Joanna Woźna, Anna Zglenicka; Teatr Klucz: Mariusz Józefiak, Jarosław Kubiak, Antek Kurjata, Daniel Laskowski, Lidia Piskorska, Piotr Roszak, Karol Solski, Magdalena Szalbierz, Arkadiusz Żmijewski
- Organiser: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
- Project partners: Bunker (Slovenia), ConTempo Festival, Kaunas Artists' House (Lithuania), DanceConnected (Czech Republic), Dansateliers (the Netherlands), Festival of Ecological Theatre for Children and Youth (Serbia), Hellerau – European Center for the Arts (Germany), Urban Culture Institute (Poland), Kiosk Festival (Slovakia), Krakow Choreographic Centre and Krakow Dance Theatre (Poland), Latitudes Contemporaines Festival (France), La briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne (France), Lithuanian Dance Information Center (Lithuania), Norma Festival, Réplika Teatro (Spain), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden), Studio Hrdinů (Czech Republic), and Valmiera Theatre Festival (Latvia).
