Aerowaves History

In the beginning
Aerowaves is a European dance network for research and cross-border presentation started in 1996 in response to the emergence of a generation of contemporary choreographers and companies. Around fifteen dance specialists including presenters, writers and artists, gathered in London to look at the work on video of 70 young European dance companies - ten were selected to present their work.

Those ten dance companies performed once each over five weekends in January and February 1997 for expenses only in London at The Place Theatre in the triple bills of the season Resolution!, meeting each other and local artists, many then going home with that useful tool, an English language review. These emerging artists benefited from the experience of performing their work in a new cultural context, usefully clarifying their difference. Audiences responded with enthusiasm to the very varied pieces, each of its own high standard, and the weekend series rapidly gained a following within the season.


Today
Aerowaves is represented by 40 Partners and Associate Presenters in 34 different European countries, who all meet together in October to select the works for the following year from around 500 open applications. Meetings have been hosted in London, Helsinki, Ghent, Luxembourg, Aarhus, Tallinn, Amsterdam, Prague, Cork, Montemor-o-Novo, Malmö, Zürich, Madrid, Vilnius and Moscow. The participants’ ages range from those in their early twenties entering the profession to senior figures who lead it; some are founding Partners of Aerowaves and some are recently recruited. All are experts in their field of identifying emerging dance talent, both in their own country and internationally. Aerowaves is in receipt of its first direct grant towards the network's core costs from the Culture fund of the European Union for one year 2010/11.

Performance
Until 2008, the performance outcomes of the Aerowaves network activity were limited to the ten dance companies invited to The Place in London. However, in 2009 at least three companies were presented in 22 European cities: London, Moscow, Oslo, Tallinn, Vilnius, Copenhagen, Dublin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Prague, Poznan, Warsaw, Zurich, Lausanne, Bassano del Grappa, Rome, Porto, Limassol, Osijek and Zagreb. This represents over 80 performances, and more were added in 2010 with the inclusion of Helsinki and other Finnish cities. In 2011, the first Aerowaves Spring Forward in Ljubljana will add a further 22 performances. There will be – as there always have been – further informal invitations as news of the selected works spreads through the advocacy of the network. We expect a similar number of opportunities in 2012. Aerowaves is committed to the belief that young dance makers develop through these cross-border encounters with different audiences and artists, and the public clearly welcomes first-hand experience of art from other cities before its individuality is diluted by the demands of international touring.

The expansion of Aerowaves performances is a development which provides a European network without precedent in dance.