One Dance European City (ODEC)

One Dance European City (ODEC) is an international project that focuses on an original cross-border exploration of the Nova Gorica and Gorizia conurbation through the language of dance and performing arts. Eleven short pieces by some of the most important contemporary choreographers will form the stages of the route winding between both city centres and present a dynamic and fluid experience of the city for the residents and visitors alike. ODEC uses dance and performing arts to underscore the ability to change the perception of the space or the context that it populates with the living bodies of performers, which it (again) makes conscious of their distant or recent historical identity. Using analysis, creative research and artistic creation of the trans-border urban landscape rich with cultural – including intangible – heritage represented by the many cultural identities, the project encourages viewing this heritage from a completely new perspective. The innovative use of the dance language and performing arts changes the canonical relationship of the spectator–performer gaze into a triangle of the performer–spectator–urban landscape and thus, with the objective of a common future, becomes a journey of rediscovery and reshaping of the historical, artistic and social heritage of Nova Gorica and Gorizia between the past, present and the vision of the future.

ODEC contributes to the strategy of the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia 2025 by encouraging the construction of an open, collaborative and borderless city, in agreement with the goals of GO! Europe and GO! Share. The project is created and coordinated by Artisti Associati and SNT Nova Gorica who collaborate with the only national centre for choreography in Italy, the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza – Aterballetto, which has experience in this field. The project will take place in Gorizia and Nova Gorica from 9 October to 25 October 2025 as a part of the dance festival Visavì Gorizia.

More on the ODEC website.