Author: Zuzanna Berendt.
Between February and November 2025, I took part in the Critic’s Residency programme as a participant selected by the Kraków Dance Theatre. During this time, I attended three festivals, and my travels resulted in critical texts devoted to the performances I saw there. In addition, after attending the performance Dirty Dancing and after visiting 14. Sissi Dance Autumn Week, I dedicated part of a radio programme on Trójka (Polish Radio) to the productions presented during those festivals.
My scholarship-related travels were preceded by my participation in a several-day residency for critics, which took place in November 2023 in Budapest. I consider this residency to have been a very important experience for me as a dance critic. For the first time, I had the opportunity to spend time with other peers focusing on how we write and how we can enrich our practice. Meeting with the mentors was also extremely important to me. Pia Brezavšček, who was one of them, later enabled me to publish two texts in the magazine “Maska”, of which she is an editor in chief.
Critics Residency at the Sissi Automn Dance Week in Budapest, Hungary, 2023.
Cities and festivals visited:
· Cracow, Poland (twice) – Rollercoaster Festival
· Ljubljana, Slovenia – Drugajanje Festival
· Budapest, Hungary – 14. Sissi Autumn Dance Week
Performances and events seen and reviewed:
· The Four Seasons, Central Europe Dance Theatre x Maciej Kuźmiński – February 2025, in the framework of Rollercoaster festival in Cracow, Poland.
· Dirty Dancing, M Studio (Romania) x Eryk Makohon – May 2025, in the framework of Rollercoaster festival in Cracow, Poland.
· Girls, Kolektiv Igralke x Tjaša Črnigoj, November 2025, in the framework of Drugajanje Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
· Nowhere Like Here, chor. Francesco Scavetta, November 2025, in the framework of Drugajanje Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
· DancEUA – Choreo Sync – presentations concluding residency programme; November 2025, in the framework of 14. Sissi Autumn Dance in Budapest, Hungary.
· Dance Communication Lab – presentation concluding workshop; November 2025, in the framework of 14. Sissi Autumn Dance Week in Budapest, Hungary.
Feedback:
What worked?
· scholarship amount – I was able to travel without any problems for the amount I was given,
· getting to know other scholarship recipients,
· hospitality of partners and festivals – everywhere I went I was given all the needed information and additional guidance. At the same time, the reason why I decided not to go to Vitlycke was the unclear rules for participating in events and, above all, difficulties with accommodation (the options offered involved long walks outside the city),
· the experience of watching foreign performing arts – in Poland, I don’t have the opportunity to do so very often,
· contact with the scholarship coordination team – my tasks and deadlines were clear to me, and I received help in contacting the places I was traveling to.
What could be improved?
· During the festivals I visited, I missed activities designed for scholarship holders – talks, workshops, discussions (the formats that were great during my residency in Budapest in 2023).
· During my last trip, I had already seen all of Beyond Fronta’s productions, so I went to the Sissi Festival to fully utilize my scholarship. Such situations are probably unavoidable because they involve coordinating the touring of performances, but I felt that there were no substantive reasons for this trip.
Zuzanna Berendt’s critical reviews created within the Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery project:
