Bread & Dance Prague
Founded in 2023 by leading Czech contemporary dance and physical theatre companies, Bread & Dance Prague brings together their artistic and production capacities while strengthening international collaboration. Alongside performances, the festival hosts professional meetings, artist and organisation presentations, discussions and workshops, addressing questions that concern the contemporary dance field as a whole: how to establish more sustainable working conditions, develop international connections and shape the future of dance.
As part of the international Guest Presentations programme, bringing together producers, artistic directors, festival representatives and theatre programmers, Kovač presented the development of En–Knap, which has helped shape Slovenia’s contemporary dance landscape for more than three decades. Since En–Knap took over the management of Španski borci Centre for Culture in 2009, Moste has become one of Ljubljana’s key meeting points for contemporary dance. Now, that story is expanding beyond the theatre walls.
The Moste Dance District
The Moste Dance District is not being built from scratch. It grows out of an already vibrant cultural environment: up to 600 events annually, including around 200 dance performances, approximately 40,000 visitors and more than 30 programme partners. Through projects such as Moste Open, Hidden Dance Walk and Bal Moderne, En–Knap also regularly brings dance into streets, squares and other public spaces. Dance is thus not only something that happens on stage, but increasingly part of everyday life in the neighbourhood.
The next chapter begins with TELO Moste, a new space dedicated to contemporary dance, currently being developed in the immediate vicinity of Španski borci and scheduled for completion in April 2027. With almost 1,000 square metres of usable floor space, the building will house three dance studios, a flexible space for public events and residential accommodation for visiting artists. Together with Španski borci, TELO will form an interconnected infrastructure for artistic creation, research, education and international collaboration.
From a place to present performances to a place where performances take shape. This is one of the key developments at the heart of the new dance district. The expanded infrastructure will give artists the space and time for longer creative processes, residencies, interdisciplinary research and collaborations that extend beyond a single premiere. En–Knap aims to develop Moste into a regional meeting point for contemporary dance, open to exchanges with other artistic disciplines, technology, architecture, research into the body and public space.
The presentation in Prague was therefore also an invitation to international partners: to develop co-productions, residencies, knowledge exchange and new artistic formats together. Dance Quartier Moste is built on the idea that dance needs more than a stage to thrive. It needs space, time, people and an environment in which it can become part of everyday life.