One of the biggest systemic achievements of an initial action plan of the Contemporary Dance Association Slovenia from 1994 was the realization and establishment of the high school programme for contemporary dance within the Slovene educational system, inaugurated with the school season 1999/2000 (Umetniška gimnazija – sodobni ples na Srednji vzgojiteljski šoli, gimnaziji in umetniški gimnaziji Ljubljana – SVŠGUGL). The choreographer, dancer, and pedagogue Maja Delak, who was actively involved in the preparation of the programme, defines the meaning of the educational programme as follows: “In 1994, the idea for a secondary school education programme was formed. The first initiative came from Vilma Rupnik and Neja Kos, President of the then Association of Cultural Organizations Slovenia, when discussing a reform of course curricula and programmes. The preparation of the proposal was assumed by the Contemporary Dance Association, the work itself being coordinated by me [Maja Delak] under the guidance of Ksenija Hribar. In 1997, the programme was approved. It was first offered a year later than anticipated at the Secondary Preschool Education and Grammar School in Ljubljana twenty years ago. On 1 October 2018, the school changed its name to the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School and Arts School in Ljubljana. By acquiring a theatre or theatre and film programme, the school developed the artistic aspect and, in my opinion, the quality of the programme itself is at a high level. It is one of the rare institutions that has acquired new spaces for contemporary dance. By obtaining a baccalaureate after finishing the programme, the students have a wide variety of options for further study, as not everyone decides to pursue dance. A lot of former pupils are active in the field of dance: Ana Štefanec, Kaja Janjić, Barbara Kanc, Špela Medved, Aleš Čuček, Katja Legin, Evin Hadžialjević, Ajda Tomazin, Nastja Bremec, Ana Romih, Jan Rozman, Nik Rajšek, Beno Novak, Veronika Valdes, Anamaria Klajnšček, Jerca Rožnik Novak and many others. The dance sphere works very well as a micro-organism, it is very diverse, which I think is important for an art school” (Delak 2019, 58–59).
From Nika Arhar, Jasmina Založnik (ed.), Bodies of Dance, Aspects of Dance as Cultural, Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After (Belgrade, 2024)
