The underpinning aim of all Springback Assemblies is to lay the ground for fruitful critical exchange between the Springback writers. Diverse in age and culture, but united through their love of writing and dance, I believe they contribute, each in their individual way, to determining the shape and state of European dance. Bringing them together presents an exceptional opportunity for the sharing and development of new ideas and practices.

Springback Assembly’s first objective was to build upon and balance the adrenaline-fired Springback Academy, set up in tandem with the three-day Spring Forward festival, during which around 20 shows are seen and reviewed by 10 new writers each year. Springback Assembly follows on from the Academy as a breathing space for reflection, the opportunity for Springback writers to meet each other (80 writers have now passed through the Academy ‘bootcamp’ for reviewers) and hone skills other than reviewing that are useful for freelancers: for example mediation, speaking in public, and interviewing.

Gradually, Springback Assembly has developed into what feels like an important thinktank where writers of different Springback generations can safely debate their diverging outlooks on dance and grapple with wider issues surrounding the watching and making of movement today. Hosted by different European festivals, each Assembly attempts to encompass local cultural and sociopolitical contexts as well as art.  The writers do away with strict deadlines in order to reflect more profoundly on topics that either they themselves decide, or that emerge throughout the course of the festival. 

After Reykavik during Ice Hot (2018), Reggio Emilia during NID (2019), Oslo during CODA festival (2021) and Brussels during the Brigittines In Movement festival (2022), Oktoberdans in Bergen was the host for this autumn’s Assembly and this special supplement provides a glimpse of that rich experience.