European Culture Project | Lifelong Contemporary Dance Practice for dance artists age 45+

Group of dancers leaning with one holding them all up at the end. Their image reflected in water.

Creative Europe “BET” – Body Experience Time through 45+dancers project envisions itself as co-operative network of European Scandinavian and Baltic countries dance institutions in partnership with local artists, cultural institutions, schools and universities, actively engaged in transnational artistic exploration and audience development within the dance theatre sector and circulation of artistic products, expertise and ideas.

Lifelong Dance Practice: 45+ was the brainchild of Olga Zitluhina and brought into existence by Baiba as part of the Latvian cultural organisation 'Party'. The aim is to offer a way of bringing visibility to the impact that professional dance and movement artists over the age of 45 have in the creative sector and support the developing artistic existence of mature dancers and choreographers.

From 2020-2022 the project is supported with co-finance from European Commission and support from the Nordic Culture Point, Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Latvian Ministry of Culture. The project first received short-term Network funding in 2016 and long-term Network funding in 2017. You can read more about the Nordic and Nordic-Baltic cultural funding schemes on www.nordiskkulturkontakt.org. The funding received acknowledged the importance of the research and was the catalyst to invest in and support the creation of a company of who meet, share and develop their practice as movement and dance artists. They draw upon the decades of professional experience each artist has working within the dance and theatre worlds.

This website is the result of our meetings and offers a way of archiving and sharing our questions, dialogue and curiosity within each meeting.

We hope that you enjoy browsing. Our hope is that we may bring visibility and recognition to the thousands of other 45+ dance and movement artists, the unsung heroes of the creative sector, doing invaluable, and often invisible, work to create a vibrant and developing theatre practice as makers, movers, teachers, mentors, producers, directors and more.