Advocating for the dance community

Artistic Director and owner of the Beatrix Cultural Center.

Beatrix proposed new values in teaching dance all over the country, playing a significant role in the development of the local dance community and advocating for local cooperation, support and exchange of knowledge.

Through its 15 years of existence, the centre has been the home and educator of more than 30 teachers in urban dance, some of whom pursued dance as a profession and are still actively engaged in the local dance community.

The centre collaborated and represented the artists through many commercial and professional dance activities.

Local partnerships include: USAID, UNICEF, UNHCR, SOS Detsko Selo, US Embassy in Nort Macedonia, Swiss Embassy in N.Macedonia, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Youth Cultural Center, Kino Kultura, the theatres in: Ohrid, Veles, Struga, Strumica, Bitola, Stip, Gostivar, Prilep, Tetovo, etc;,  National Opera and Ballet, the City of Skopje, the Ministry of Culture, and many other partners.

After Balabanova resigned from her position of running the educational centre within Beatrix, the role was taken by Iva Georgieva who now develops the platform Bounce House, altogether with few former students of Balabanova. Meanwhile, Balabanova strives to update the programs of the centre for support of the local dance community and exchange with the international dance scene.

2011 – present

Artistic Director of Beatrix Specials – open dance workshops for the local

Beatrix Specials is one of the first platforms of Beatrix that strives to bring together the local dance community within the frame of two months, where all young local choreographers have a chance to share their workshop.

The project runs for 10 years and has so far realised more than 300 workshops, engaging both local and regional teachers. More than 1000 students have taken part in it. The last few editions have opened the possibility for junior and emerging choreographers to receive recognition by sharing their work.

2014 – present

Tanz.Transformator is a one-year open and inclusive dance project of Beatrix Cultural Center in Skopje. In the course of 2023, recognised foreign and local choreographers worked with ambitious emerging and established dancers from the country on inspiring productions, which will be staged in Skopje and tour to several other cities in the region.

The aim of the project was to bring into focus the necessity for structural development of the contemporary dance community and to overcome it’s shortcomings by providing opportunities for jobs and engagement of the local dancers.

Within the project the local dancers had the chance to participate in three residencies with two international choreographers: Tobias Draeger (Germany) and Karine Ponties (Belgium) and with Ivana as a local choreographer. Later on, some of them participated into the development of a production and toured locally and internationally.

The project was supported by the Swiss Embassy in North Macedonia and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

2023

VADA is a virtual project of ECA’s Arts Envoy program, in the Cultural Programs Division of the Office of Professional and Cultural Exchanges. By bringing the best of American street dance styles along with lessons and discussions on the business of dance, from starting a dance studio to dancing professionally, this unique online ECA exchange program forged stronger U.S.-Macedonian ties and provided tools and know how to help young people build the creative industries in North Macedonia.

The program is the result of collaboration between the U.S. Embassy in Skopje and  Ivana Balabanova, as artistic director, who saw an opportunity to inspire Macedonian youth by engaging them in what they loved – American street dance and hip hop – with an emphasis on how to turn a talent for dance into a business. The Arts Envoy program provided the vehicle for this effort, using virtual platforms to cost-effectively bring multiple U.S. dance artists and instructors to North Macedonia for workshops on dance, culture, the history of hip hop, and arts entrepreneurship. From February to June 2021, under the leadership of American Dance Abroad Co-Directors Carolelinda Dickey and Andrea Snyder, the program brought to North Macedonia weekly workshops in popping, hip hop musicality and improv, house dance, waving, and dance hall, from outstanding artists such as Marie Poppins, SlimBoogie, Jesse Sykes, and Nubian Néné.

In addition to workshops on dance technique, the program was also designed to transfer knowledge and knowhow on the business and entrepreneurship of dance, with artists such as Ephrat Asherie and Princeton University professor and choreographer-in-residence Raphael Xavier.

The Virtual American Dance Academy concluded on June 29 with a virtual panel discussion of dance experts. Representing a broad spectrum of the American dance community, the experts will inspire the students with personal success stories of creating new artistic and business ventures along with examples of community engagement.

2020