International Dance Day 
29th April 2003

• 2003  International Dance Day Message  (click here to download the 4-page, bilingual English/French brochure in PDF Format)
• The 2003 International Message is also available in the following languages: ARABIC ( with bio) , BASQUE , CROATIAN,   CZECH, GERMAN, GREEK, SLOVAK, SPANISH , SWEDISH (original version)
• Background - International Dance Day - 29th April
• Authors of the International Dance Day Message 1982 -2003
• International Dance Links 
• International Dance Committee of the ITI

By Mats EK

What is dance? If you answer that, you are not trustworthy. But let me try, anyway: dance is thinking with your body.

Is it necessary to think with your body? Not for survival, perhaps, but for living. There are so many thoughts that only the body can think. Other things, like peace, might be more important than dance. But then we will need dance to celebrate peace. And to exorcise the demons of war, like Nijinsky did. Emma Goldman, the anarchist, maybe said it best : a revolution that does not allow me to dance, is not worth fighting for. 

The god Shiva created the universe with his dance. But dance is the opposite of all divine pretentions. Dance is an everlasting attempt, like writing in water. Dance is not life, but it keeps alive all the little things that the big thing is made of. 

You are invited to use the International Dance Day  texts and to circulate them. When you do so, please include the following mention, and, if you display the material on Internet, we ask you to add a link to the ITI Internet site :  http://iti.unesco.org

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In 1982 the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute, UNESCO, created International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April. 

The date commemorates the birthday  of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727 - 1810), the creator of modern ballet. 

Every year a message from a well-known dance personality is circulated throughout the world. The intention of International Dance Day and the Message is to bring all Dance together on this occasion, to celebrate this art form and revel in its universality, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together in peace and friendship with a common language - DANCE. 

The International  Dance Committee of  ITI is collaborating  with  World Dance Alliance for the celebration of International Dance Day. 

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Mats Ek, born in Sweden in 1945, has for thirty years been a highly esteemed choreographer throughout the world. He studied dance and theatre and directed theatre at the Marionette Theatre, the Stockholm City Theatre and the Royal Dramatic Theatre. In 1973 Mats Ek joined the Cullberg Ballet as a dancer. Three years later he began choreogrphing for the company with immediate success. Saint George and the Dragon, Soweto and The House of Bernarda belongs to his earliest ballets. From 1981 until 1993 Mats Ek was the artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet, succeeding his mother Birgit Cullberg. 

Mats Ek's extensive production of ballets includes more than twenty works for the Cullberg Ballet, among them the sensational rewrites of the great classics like Giselle (1982), Swan Lake (1987) and Carmen (1992). After leaving the Cullberg Ballet, Mats Ek became guest choreographer with major international dance companies. He created Sleeping Beauty for the Hamburg Ballet (1996), A Sort Of for the Nederlands Dans Theater (1997), and Appartment for the Paris Opera (2000). Several of Mats Ek's ballets have been adapted for television, two of them received Emmy awards. 

Mats Ek is also acclaimed for his choreographic theater works, Don Giovanni (1999) and Andromaque (2001) at the Royal dramatic Theatre being two of them. With his latest choreography FLUKE, premiered in November 2002 at Dansens Hus in Stockholm, Mats Ek has once again created a work for the Cullberg Ballet, this time in cooperation with the music ensemble  Flesh Quartet. 

1. 1982: Henrik NEUBAUER 
2. 1983: anonymous 
3. 1984: Yuri GRIGOROVITCH 
4. 1985: Robert JOFFREY 
5. 1986: Chetna JALAN 
6. 1987: Dance Committee Board 
7. 1988: Robin HOWARD 
8. 1989: Doris LAINE 
9. 1990: Merce CUNNINGHAM 
10. 1991: Hans VAN MANEN 
11. 1992: Germaine ACOGNY 
12. 1993: Maguy MARIN 
13. 1994: Dai AILIAN 
14. 1995: Murray LOUIS 
15. 1996: Maïa PLISSETSKAÏA 
16. 1997: Maurice BEJART 
17. 1998: Kazuo OHNO 
18. 1999: Mahmoud REDA
19. 2000: Alicia ALONSO, Jirí KYLIÁN, Cyrielle LESUEUR
20. 2001: William FORSYTHE
21. 2002: Katherine DUNHAM
22. 2003: Mats EK

Some International Dance Links : 

Events under the auspices of the ITI International Dance Committee :
1. Varna International Ballet Competition (Bulgaria) email : varna_ibc@bulgarianspace.com website : http://www.bulgarianspace.com/music/varna_ibc 
2. USA International Ballet Competition, Jackson, Mississippi.(USA)  http://www.usaibc.com 
3. Helsinki International Ballet Competition (Finland).  anneli.kurki@teatteri.org    Website :  http://www.teatteri.org/balkilp.htm
4. New York International Ballet Competition (USA) nyibc@nyibc.org   website http://www.nyibc.org

1. Switzerland : http://www.tanznetz.ch/welttanz 
2. World Dance Alliance : http://www.idanews.com 

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