Reflections from the Side Step Festival Visiting Artist Programme
Text by Enad Marouf
My name is Enad Marouf, Syrian / German, choreographer and artist based in Berlin. When Ricardo Carmona, Director of Tanz im August, extended an invitation for me to participate in the Visiting Artist Programme at Side Step Festival in Helsinki, I felt genuinely honoured. Beyond the personal recognition it represented, the invitation opened a meaningful door – access to an international festival context where I could meet programmers, engage with fellow artists, and situate my practice within a wider European conversation about contemporary dance.
The five days were dense with experience and what follows are selected impressions from my time at the festival.
Every evening brought performances from artists across Europe – encountering such a range of choreographic voices, each rooted in distinct cultural and artistic contexts, reinforced my belief in dance as a form of urgent, cross-cultural dialogue.
Presenting a pitch of my work to an international group of dance programmers was a defining moment of the visit. Distilling my practice into a focused presentation required clarity about my artistic intentions and the direction my work is heading. The reception was encouraging – there was genuine interest from programmers, and conversations that began in the pitch room continued throughout the festival, opening the door to potential future collaborations and international presentation opportunities. These are connections I intend to cultivate carefully and sustainably in the months ahead.
Equally valuable was the tour of Helsinki's dance scene. Being guided through the city's venues, collectives and creative spaces, left me thinking critically about the conditions that shape artistic production in Berlin, and potentially in Syria and beyond.
Further on, the informal exchanges with fellow artists proved just as generative as the formal programme. Conversations over shared meals and between performances surfaced a renewed sense of community within the field. There is something irreplaceable about being in the same room as peers who are grappling with similar questions about practice, visibility and sustainability in contemporary dance, especially in this time of increasing precarious conditions that we find ourselves in amidst the cultural funding cuts across Europe.
The Visiting Artist Programme offered more than a professional platform – it was an invitation to situate my work within a living, evolving conversation about the future of the diverse European dance scene. I leave Helsinki with new relationships, renewed focus, and a clearer sense of the possibilities that lie ahead.
