About US
Oriente Occidente is an open cultural institution which believes in the practice and culture of dialogue. It develops networks of relationships through the language of dance.
Dance is always about overcoming boundaries: of language, ethnicity, gender, age, culture. Oriente Occidente is a bridge between east and west, north and south, form and substance, ethics and aesthetics, past and future.
We want to build a freer, more welcoming and inclusive society through artistic practices that focus on the universal languages of bodies.
We want to be part of a world which considers culture a universal human right and education towards art and beauty an exercise in citizenship. We work with determination and courage to make this happen every day.
Oriente Occidente was founded in 1981.
Its main activity has always been Oriente Occidente Dance Festival, a well-established reality that represents one of the most important Italian contemporary dance festivals known all over Europe.
Oriente and Occidente are poles of an ideal path of exchanges and intersections not only between cultures, but between languages of the contemporary scene as well.
The spirit of the association in its more than 40 years of activity has been to bring to Rovereto the influences of the Eastern artistic tradition on Western experimentation and vice versa.
Oriente Occidente is a circular journey between theatre and dance, research and tradition, identity and innovation.
In 2003, the association added to the Festival, production, training and dissemination of dance culture, opening in Rovereto CID - Centro Internazionale della Danza, today Oriente Occidente Studio, a venue where dancers study and improve their skills thanks to workshops and masterclasses with the best masters of dance in the world, where companies find a place for artistic residencies, where dance is a tool for building sense of community. Since January 2022 Oriente Occidente is part of the prestigious international network EDN - European Dancehouse Network that connects 48 dance houses in 27 European countries.