Oriente Occidente: between dance and cultural innovation
Among the organisations supported by EURICSE in developing their strategic plans as part of Caritro Foundation’s “Between Saying and Doing” initiative is Oriente Occidente, an organisation that has been active for over forty years in promoting contemporary dance and the performing arts. Euricse’s support focuses on the social enterprise’s positioning and organisational development, with the aim of consolidating its prospects for growth.
Founded in Rovereto in 1981, Oriente Occidente is one of the most established organisations on the Italian cultural scene, capable of combining artistic innovation, international outreach and a focus on the local community. Its activities are now organised into three main areas, Festival, Studio and People, which reflect an integrated vision of cultural production.
The Festival forms the heart of the programme and finds its main expression in the Oriente Occidente Dance Festival, an annual event that brings artists, companies and productions from all over the world to Trentino, offering a glimpse into the most innovative trends in contemporary dance, ranging from established names to new and promising talents.
Through its Studio space, Oriente Occidente supports artistic research and creation, hosting companies for artistic residencies and fostering processes of experimentation and dialogue that strengthen the link between artistic production and the local area.
Finally, the People section brings together projects dedicated to participation and cultural welfare, promoting initiatives that use art as a tool for building relationships and collective growth, with a particular focus on local communities and on engaging specific audiences. Among the most recent examples is ‘Urban Regeneration’, a wide-ranging project in which Oriente Occidente leads a network committed to the regeneration of the Urban Centre in Rovereto, and the programme dedicated to older people, which began with Un due tre stella, a project on bodily memory that also became a documentary, and continued for a further two years with a close-knit group of people aged over 65.
Credit photo – Residenza Sofia Nappi_Foto Giulia Lenzi
