Archiving the contemporary art of dance in Serbia: Issues with institutionalization, or on betraying the ‘Independence’ of the local dance scene

After models that have been used so far on the local dance scene, there is a hybrid area of research that stood out in the vast field of research – the question of the institutional status/position of contemporary dance as an art practice, or in an even broader sense – a world of art, whose core value and political position in relation to the local scene was explicitly described as independent from institutions of art and culture. Our research into this issue was based mainly in interviewing eight independent choreographers who have worked with local institutions of dance and drama, primarily through artistic collaborations with directors of institutional drama theatres; we also gathered information in informal talks with other stakeholders in the performing arts. By juxtaposing a theoretical model of institutionalization of each art practice against a hybrid area of research such as this one, this text provides a very brief overview of all these issues as well as the discoveries and dilemmas that we came across during our research.