Uruguay is a country of 3 million inhabitants half of whom live in the capital, Montevideo. It had a promising economic and cultural development for the first half of the 20th Century that stopped when the dictatorship was established. Later, the state continued with the same internal structure as in the beginning of the century, with a marked populist profile promoted by its two traditional parties (Blanco and Colorado), and without an adequate budget for the culture area that would allow for clear cultural policies to be developed and to support the production and circulation of national art.
Now, for the first time, a progressive party governs Uruguay. The MEC - Ministry of Education and Culture, the official organism that delineates the cultural policies of Uruguay, has begun to change its structures and the cultural area is taking a more active role. In 2005-2006 a National Assembly of Culture was carried out where Departmental Culture Councils (one in each department of the 19 that make up Uruguay) and a National Culture Council, organism that coordinates all the councils, were created. The new structure is in implementation at the moment and has as an objective the articulation of a national network that promotes and makes possible flow of internal communication and circulation, the accomplishment of joint projects and the decentralization of activities all over the country, at the moment centralized in the capital. The Area of Culture has reorganized its cultural centres in Montevideo, coordinated from its space Plataforma, and programs the opening of cultural centres in different cities of the interior of the country between 2007 and 2008.
The ADDU - Uruguayan Dance Association, the dance community’s union, created in 2001, recently elaborated a National Plan for the Development of Dance with support of the South American Network of Dance (from the results of a first National Convention of Dance at the end of 2004). This plan includes different aspects related to the sector (education, creation, production, legislation, etc.) and is being discussed partially in different areas within the State structure and in the independent scope.
On the other hand, the culture organizations, work together on the construction of new bases for their development, impelling the law of Patronage and Social Security for the artists, both in process at the moment. In the 2006 MEC created contests for funding for the promotion of artistic culture. Dance, for the first time, has resources for production and national circulation.
Cultural production is generated almost exclusively from the capital, where contemporary dance is also centralized. There are also some centres developing in other cities like Maldonado, located on the east coast of the country, where at the moment plans of education and circulation are being established that promise important changes in the future.
The only dance company in Uruguay is the National Ballet, a classical ballet company that depends on the official organ SODRE - Servicio Oficial de Difusión Radiotelevisión y Espectáculos, on which the only official dance school also depends, it covers formation in folklore and ballet. Formal training in contemporary dance does not exist. The government of Montevideo annually grants a reduced number of scholarships for the study of Contemporary Dance in private academies of Montevideo, the only places of education and production of contemporary dance.
From 2003 to 2005 there was a pilot for a University course of Contemporary Dance of 2 years duration that counted with the presence of specialists of the IUNA - National University Institute of Art of Buenos Aires. There is a project for a University Degree in Dance that is at present being discussed within the university and that promises to be implemented in 2008.
The deficiency of formal spaces of investigation and training has brought about a rise of independent initiatives led by groups of artists who meet to generate investigation spaces on diverse themes. For example, in 2006 the Training and Investigation group Cuerpo y Tecnología was formed, endorsed by the Institute Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes of the University of the Republic, and the support of the Project Platform of the Ministry of Education and Culture. Coordinated by Professor Diego Carrera, it works with the aim of collecting data in these matters, especially on subjects like video-dance and to generate knowledge about the matter.
Contemporary dance in Uruguay is independent. Thus it has always been since the 50’s when it began to be developed. The first group of modern dance dates from 1956, the Ballet de Cámara de Montevideo directed by Hebe Rosa, that is still active today. Since then dance has evolved towards new technical and esthetical approaches. The artists have intuitively created alternatives of self-management to develop their work. From 2002 the experience of the South American Network of Dance has been valuable, its democratization of information and its contribution as far as methodologies of collective works, stimulating new viewpoints for the development of this sector and making the articulation of local and regional cultural actors viable.
At the moment three festivals that present contemporary dance exist in Uruguay, the three have international programming. The FIVU - Festival Internacional de Videodanza del Uruguay is integrated in the Circuit Videodanza Mercosur (CVM) and is directed by Tamara Cubas, at the moment director of the space Plataforma of the Area of Culture of the MEC. The festival is produced by the group of artists Perro Rabioso and stimulates the exchange of languages and the investigation and circulation of information. It has introduced and generated an important movement around this subject in the last years and at present we can speak of a Uruguayan production of video-dance. The festival, Montevideo Sitiada, directed by the choreographer Martín Inthamoussú belongs to the network of festivals CQD - Ciudades que Danzan (Dancing Cities) and promotes dance in public spaces; the festival also develops the Enconstrucción project, a platform for Uruguayan creative young people in scenic arts. Both festivals have found sustainable structure and growth in working within a network.
In 2006 the International Festival of Contemporary Dance of the department of Culture of the local government of Montevideo was recovered, it had been cancelled for want of resources in 2001. The festival tries to be biennial, but continues having an unstable infrastructure, without a defined team for its next production.
There are no specific venues to present dance, but there are some places that include it in their programmes, presenting national and international production. In Montevideo the Solis Theatre has an increasing international programme; the Theatre Victoria and El Galpón, generally program national dance. Cultural spaces like the Cultural Centre of Spain, also are used to programming activities of formation, diffusion and presentation of national and international dance works, mainly Latin American.
Plataforma, is a dependant space of the MEC - Ministry of Education and Culture that maintains an interesting work for the development of diverse activities of interchange and reflection. Also it is an alternative place of presentation for works that can adapt to their space, a concrete room of 37x14 meters.
The video library of the collective Perro Rabioso contains an interesting international register of contemporary dance works, video-dances and performances. Another two archives for performing arts also exist that include dance registries, and a last file dedicated to ballet.
The Uruguayan artists can ask for support for their trips abroad from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Education and Culture although the funds destined to the circulation of artists are very reduced. The foreign artists who present works in Uruguay, generally count on the aid of their home countries to cover trips and fees. Among the more active agencies of international cooperation in the country, we can highlight the Goethe Institute who, although it does not have its own space for dance presentations, has been historically a great collaborator of Uruguayan contemporary dance, mainly supporting activities of international exchange.
There is a book titled Dance in Uruguay, a first attempt of a historical register of ballet, popular dance and Uruguayan contemporary dance, put together by the National Commission of UNESCO. There are no other publications printed about national contemporary dance. Some groups of artists divulge their activities by sending monthly bulletins via the internet, but a specific digital publication about national dance does not exist. The Red Sudamericana de Danza website and its monthly bulletins is used like diffusion tool for local dance.
Although the conditions of Uruguayan environment have been difficult for the development of contemporary dance in the last decades, artists have investigated and put in practice diverse forms of production for their work, allowing for sustained growth. Perhaps because of being a country populated and constructed by European immigrants, the bond with the outside and mainly with Europe and the United States is strong and Uruguayan dance also maintains this line of communications active, which allows it to update itself.
Text written by : Claudia Pisani, October 2007