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When I first heard about modul-dance and realised that 20 European dance houses would be taking part in this project I thought I’d struck the jackpot.

However, on a personal level, modul-dance remained a ghost in my eyes. Indeed, I did have my 3 partners with all of whom I had shared unquestionably fruitful experiences.

But somehow it was still a mystery to me how this huge network could have really worked between us all and how we could communicate. Meetings with my partners were on a one-to-one basis when I visited them. I choose the word “visit” as I was not seeking a residency but instead opted to visit them and engage in a number of experiments at their destinations or their festivals that were linked to my research at the time. Hellerau was the "only" partner who was able to handle the "presentation-modul", and I am delighted and thankful for that. I say "able" as I have realised that the people involved in the modul-dance project like to make reference to the "weak" or "strong" partners one comes to rely on. I discovered that Hellerau constituted a strong partner as they were able to back the artistic project with funds. Perhaps I have won the jackpot after all? (not to say that I, personally did not find my other partners strong as well).

Indeed, I am very pleased to be able to appoint Hellerau as my co-producer/partner for the future! And this is of course thanks to our experience with modul-dance. So, I won the jack-pot afterall!?? But is the modul-dance jackpot not more in the sense of widening your European connections and engaging in personal and artistic dialogue with many European partners!?? And shouldn’t that be the real jackpot that all of these modul-dance-partners are already being inter-connected enabling artists to use an entire network speeding up the dissemination of artistic work because artists do not need to approach each party individually!?

And is this the reason why the network stays a ghost to me, as I have not been able to connect to new partners! ? Or is it due to the fact that Hellerau is a German partner I knew previously, and this does not feel very European to me!? However, perhaps it is because at these modul-dance conferences I met so many people who are involved with the network who then disappear again? Or is it because I had a different concept of how dissemination should operate? Maybe, therefore, I should simply let my own image go. As images always remain a ghost.

First I thought that my personal problem was that I was not seeking a residency. Yet, I believe residencies are perchance the best way to engage in direct, personal dialogue with an institution - thus getting to know the ghost. Therefore, I decided to visit the two partners I knew were unable to present my work but were supporting the artistic research for it. And without going into detail, both visits - the festival with Goran/Kino Šiška and the modul-dance-festival in Stockholm - were highly friendly, enriching experiences. But then again, I knew Goran from before and I knew my main contributors from Dansens Hus. They seemed real to me before. But despite the advantage of such a huge network with so many houses I had formerly been unfamiliar with, they still somehow remained a ghost to me.

Even when I recently performed my latest work nimmer in Hellerau I was fortunate to meet other modul-dance artists but no modul-dance institution. But perhaps that fits in with the subject I was working on in that piece, which ist he subject of "disappearance".

However, I state in this work that "nothing can disappear. It all comes back again, doesn't it?"

I know one day I will meet these ghosts. I merely need to learn how to call them.

Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft

Picture: © Anja Beutler

The second part of CoFestival will take place between 21 and 27 September 2013. This second round of the festival organized by Kino Šiška Ljubljana will be launched by the 3D film PINA by the German cineaste Wim Wenders, a sensitive homage to the unforgettable dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. The film will be followed by the already traditional FičoDrom, intended for everybody who misses opportunities to dance.

Programme highlights include the first public presentation of Jurij Konjar’s piece Still (23 Sep at 9pm, Kino Šiška), the show Au contraire (based on Jean-Luc Godard) by the prize-winning Geneva-based artist Foofwa d’Imobilité (24 Sep at 9pm, Stara mestna Elektrarna), The Seagull directed by Tomi Janežič and produced by Novi Sad Serbian National Theatre (25 Sep and 26 Sep at 6pm, Kino Šiška). All shows will be followed by artist talks.

The Festival also promises the Vertigo dance workshop run by Eduardo Torroja, a member of the renowned Belgian group Ultima Vez, a research-art project of the Frankfurt-based dancer and choreographer Lili Mihajlović, and visiting artist Antje Pfundtner.

During the festival, the daily programme will be complemented by the festival team joined by many international artists having a go at The Art of Co-Living, a programme running in the Museum of Contemporary Arts as part of the Triennial of Contemporary Art.

For detailed information visit www.cofestival.net.

This is the second time that HELLERAU-European Center for the Arts will be putting on show the signature styles of up-and-coming European choreographers. The festival will be presenting both finished works and some which are still being created, with lectures, workshops and a wide range of films rounding off the programme.

The modul-dance projects programmed are:

Marcos Morau/La Veronal, Siena. 13/9/13 - 14/9/13

A woman looks at a Titian painting. A man stands at the door watching the woman look at the paiting. Who sees whom? What is art and how do we look at art? Siena investigates the constant human need for self-observation.

Agata Maszkiewicz, Duel. Work-in-progress showing. 13/9/13 - 14/9/13

Imagine a world in which every conflict is resolved as a duel; every argument is a matter of life and death; every presidential candidate puts their life at risk. In Duel, two dancers face one another and act out a series of confrontations.

Marie-Caroline Hominal, Froufrou. Work-in-progress showing. 19/9/13

The works of Marie-Caroline Hominal revolve around ideas of identity, transformation and anonymity. Her new project Froufrou investigates multiple identities and the question of how these identities are revealed and passed from one person to another.

Patricia Apergi/Aerites Dance Company, Planites. 20/9/13 - 21/9/13

The collective mind and body of the city provides the raw materials for the this work. Here, these elements have been re-evaluated so that the concept of wandering aimlessly in the streets (drifting) also applies to strangers, immigrants, people who travel for pleasure or because they have no other choice. This is a very physical dance, full of emotion.

The modul-dance artists Antje Pfundtner and Marie-Caroline Hominal will be also performing Tim Acy and BAT. The programme also includes two days of ShortDanceFilms sessions curated by Núria Font-NU2's.

Detailed programm at www.hellerau.org.