To persevere in dance

Why does the audience return to Dance and Non-Verbal Theatre Festival San Vincenti year in year out?

Why is dance more than a tourist event?

Why does dance give each and every viewer the freedom of body which otherwise lies „packed“ in the bottom drawer of their childhood memories?

My theory is: audience simply loves to dance, immoderately and past all textbook examples of primness. They like to move independently or in a large group through the big stage of late-medieval and Renaissance buildings of San Vincenti. It adores going around Grimani Castle and leaning against its slanting walls. It loves to plunge into the rituality of performance. It loves to listen to the calls of the little owls that unfailingly accompany Croatian and international performers. It loves encounters with dancing bodies which, this year, bring the lightness of a table tennis ball, as well as the weight, but also warmth, of mutual support.

Dancers bring support to the whole community.

Thanks to their bodies, we no longer see our own bodies as a distant „image“ on countless screens of the present day , but as a living, energetic, individual presence. As our support to be open and playful.

Or, as Confucius said: „Never give a sword to a man who can't dance“. That is where the chivalry of San Vincenti festival lies – military fortress becomes a stage, the stage becomes a tournament in skipping conventions.

Dance in Istria becomes our common persevering in dancing.

Nataša Govedić, theatrologist

We are looking forward to seeing you again in San Vincenti!