On Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5, 2020, the Children's Cultural Center Belgrade hosted an international professional gathering held as part of the YOUNG THEATER ON THE MOVE international cultural cooperation project. The aim of the meeting was for all partners - participants in the project to meet and discuss current issues such as managerial and artistic performance, evaluation, monitoring, visibility of the project, as well as other current topics related to the implementation of project activities. The planned gathering was the first of three expert gatherings that the partners should execute within this program of international cooperation. It was initially planned for March 2020, but due to extraordinary circumstances, the gathering was given a new date, as well as a new form. This time, the delegations of partner institutions were not the guests of the host - Children's Cultural Center Belgrade, but the two-day professional gathering was executed online, via the Zoom application, with the sincere conviction that the gatherings planned for 2021 would be held in the planned format - with live presence, personal contact and interaction. On this occasion, the participants of the meeting were gathered in 5 groups (one group per each partner) and two individual participants. The several-month postponement of the expert meeting did not stop the realization of project activities, so the time during the state of emergency was used to work on the professional brochure YOUNG THEATER ON THE MOVE. Two additional activities were held: promotion of YOUNG THEATER ON THE MOVE methodology realized by the Children's Cultural Center Belgrade within the creative workshops of the International Meeting of Children of Europe "Joy of Europe 2020", as well as promotion realized by the Pioneer Home - Center for Youth Culture from Ljubljana at the festival of free dance "Front" in Murska Sobota. Interim meeting The meeting brought professional and organizational guidelines for the implementation of other planned activities. Considering that the partners expect the realization of fifteen more professional trainings on the topic of project methodology (Joint Modules 1,2 &3 in all five countries), five promotions of project brochures, two international professional gatherings and five one-day festivals, the Interim meeting gained importance as an activity that accelerated work and the project.

STORIES:

Dragana Stanisavljević: There is nothing like a live contact with a real person

First impression about Interim Meeting: again together in the Ballet hall of Children’s Cultural Center Belgrade. After six months of e-mails, Zoom, Viber, WhatsApp and other apps, we are finally together, seeing each other in person. I was getting crazy because of various sounds of phones, computers, tablets...

The second impression: regardless of the fact that we are not all together in Belgrade (I mean the guys and girls from Ljubljana, Elk, Lille and Bucharest), the atmosphere during these two days of online meeting was phenomenal and I had the impression that we were playing some super new cyber games. As much as I thought that the online meeting and workshops would not leave any impression on me, I was wrong. Everything worked flawlessly we were probably more creative due to skepticism towards online socializing.

The third impression: I missed was hanging out with the whole team after work.

I’m still optimistic and hope to hang out live all of us together.

Tijana Stamenković Kesić: We did it (after all)!

We have managed! Despite the pandemic, we have succeeded.
Impro must go on!
We did it!

Ivana Tabori Obradović: Joy and Enthusiasm

It was such a joy to see all those wonderful people again, after long time, gathered around this great project!

Even in this strange situation (we were connected by Zoom) we worked with lot of enthusiasm and energy and I could feel that we are strongly connected around this wonderful idea! We had a chance to share our experiences and insights from M2 and M3 modules and also about working with kids in new situation.

Once again it was inspiring, although I can’t wait to see those people live and to continue with next steps in project.

Paul Murray: Masked ball

The 'masked ball' otherwise known as the YTOM interim meeting Belgrade covered a lot of faces. However, we came, we zoomed, we moved, we shared, we conquered! A wise man once said: 'where there is a will, there is a way'.. We used our connections, built over three years of partnership working to create a meaningful experience from a seemingly hopeless position...Another wise man once said 'don't stop me now, I' m having such a good time, I'm having a ball (masked).

AGENDA:
 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th 2020

9.00

Arrival, coffee time

9.30

Testing the connection and ZOOM

10.00 – 11.00

Official start, greetings, opening words

Dragan Marić – CCCB General manager

Dalibor Stojanović -  Project manager of CCCB project team

11.00 – 11.30

Brochure presentation, evaluation of work

(Urša Strehar Benčina)

11.45 – 13.45

Parallel sessions in breakout room:

Trainers: brochure exercises testing (practical work)

Managers: finances, budget, translation of the brochure…

13.45 – 14.00

One game, all together via ZOOM (prepared by Serbian team); Conclusion of the first part

14.00 - 15.30

Lunch time

15.30 - 16.30

M2 and M3 evaluation

16.30 - 17.00

PR activities (Nika Kovač)

17.00 - 18.00

Practical work: trainers + managers together in each country

 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th 2020

9.00

Arrival, coffee time

9.30

Testing the connection and ZOOM

10.00 – 10.15

Official start and warming up (ice breaker)

10.15 - 11.30

Joint Module 1 program, plans for project execution presented by each country (online/direct/small groups…)
11.30 - 12.00

Break, venue preparation for video recording

12.00 - 14.00

Parallel sessions:

Trainers: recording exercises

Managers: Collecting materials for network, web page

14.00 - 15.30

Lunch

15.30 - 16.30

Visibility of Creative Europe, Instagram selfie moments/movements (Nika Kovač)

16.30 - 18.00

Conclusion