Life Long Burning is a network of European institutions which are dedicated to contemporary dance and performance. The project Life Long Burning – Futures Lost and Found (LLB3) is our third 4-years-project, which got funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. 

We are 12 partners from 12 countries (danceWEB (AT), 4Culture (RO), brain store project (BG), Divert (HR), ICI-CCN (FR), MDT (SE), Moving in November (FI), Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia (SI), STUK (BE), Uferstudios (DE), Veem House (NL), Workshop Foundation (HU)) with four more associated partners (MSU (HR), Kik Melone (HR), Contemporary Dance Platform (UA), Arsenic (CH)). 

Together we aim to address and fight social exclusion, advocate for decision-making processes in dance as a role model for a democratic and fair Europe, and sustainably accompany emerging and mid-career dance artists and dance admins. The vulnerability of our societies and our planet has become a burning issue. Climate change, the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, nationalist fallback positions up to a war in Europe make it even more urgent to promote democratic European values while designing innovative models on how to live together. As an exemplary form of “relational art”, contemporary dance is concerned with creating situations and producing experiences liable to change our views and attitudes towards our collective environment, and with drafting innovative forms of community life. 

This art form stands out for a democratic and environmentally conscious “innovative fabric of communing”. Over the last five years, this artistic field was increasingly concerned with new definitions of life and matter: discourses and policies around human, non-human or inhuman relationships deeply inform its physical and somatic research; issues of societal resilience and healing enter the stages and widen the understanding of sustainability; and dramaturgies of assemblage instead of auctorial hierarchies are successfully put to test. 

Moreover, contemporary dance and performance can be seen at the forefront of including and strengthening queer, non-binary and trans communities. It is the most active artistic and cultural field when it comes to developing barrier free and inclusive practices and art forms, and probably the most experimental in terms of interspecies relationships, critical post-humanism and situated knowledge. Contemporary choreography operates transnational, transcultural, transgender, transsectorial – as such it is the spearhead of a form of European citizenship, while at the same time addressing an overdue critique of Western hegemony. The project Life Long Burning – Futures Lost and Found (LLB3) contributes in manifold and comprehensive ways to unfold the potential of and create sustainable structures for this forward-looking artistic field and its capacity of creating democratic, inclusive, environmentally friendly and resilient forms of togetherness while ensuring job growth and economic competitiveness.