In recent decades the development of dance grew enormously. Globalization and technological developments have greatly influenced the art form. Was dance ever exclusively organised around movement, meanwhile, it is a versatile artform that centers physicality at large heart. The dance community is a collection of world citizens with different cultural references. Contemporary dance has many faces, its identity is complex and influenced by inter-media and inter-cultural developments. These developments, however, only slowly penetrated to the dance for young audiences. While the youth themselves grow up in a global, fragmented world full of technical ingenuity, this part of the dance scene in Europe is predominated by particularly more traditional values. Often by the dogma that dance for a young audience may not be too complex. With the theme New Artistic Identities the new network Fresh Tracks Europe (FTE) wants to break this pattern, by creating a youth dance platform for a distinctive new generation of choreographers.

Through a series of four workshops organised by the four major partners young choreographers from the youth dance circuit are stimulated in their individual artistic development. The two year programme New Artistic Identities offers the choreographers the opportunity to meet, to present their work, to reflect on their work and to initiate new collaborations. During the workshops the choreographers will discuss each others work and develop new methods and ideas with the support of several mentors from the field. Apart from that their work is presented in various events and festivals to an international engaged audience.

Het Lab Utrecht (NL), Kopergietery (BE), Dschungel Wien (AT) and tanzhaus nrw (D) form the heart of the new network Fresh Tracks Europe. The houses have been following one another's work for quite some time and have been sharing their expertise within the youth dance field. Other partners from Europe that join are Dansstationen (Sweden), Sõltumatu Tantsu Ühenduse (Estonia), Åbendans (Denmark), and Imaginate (Scotland). Associated festival partners are Krokus Festival (Hasselt/BE), Szene Bunte Wähne (Vienna, AT) and Tweetakt (Utrecht, NL)

This work programme has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This specialist programme has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.